Chusonji Konjikido

Chūson-ji's Konjiki-dō, the 'Golden Hall,' is a small twelfth-century mortuary chapel of the Northern Fujiwara clan at Hiraizumi in Iwate Prefecture, a National Treasure now enclosed within a protective concrete shelter. Morimura's print focuses on the hall's gilded exterior — every surface lacquered and leafed in gold, inlaid with mother-of-pearl — rendered through layered yellow and ochre planes, with the keyblock describing bracketing, eaves, and the central altar canopy. Given the building's protective enclosure, his composition presents the structure frontally and flattened, in keeping with his geometric treatment of Japanese architecture. The subject extends his documentation of significant Buddhist sites beyond the canonical Kyoto and Nara temples, recognising Hiraizumi's status as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Printed in the sōsaku-hanga method, with the artist designing, carving, and pulling the impressions himself on [washi](/glossary/washi), the work carries forward the woodblock tradition's long engagement with religious architecture.