Nikolai Cathedral

The Nikolai Cathedral, formally the Holy Resurrection Cathedral of Tokyo, was completed in 1891 in the Kanda district as the seat of the Japanese Orthodox Church. Designed by Mikhail Shchurupov and completed under the supervision of Josiah Conder, the Byzantine-style structure with its central dome and bell tower offered Hiratsuka the kind of monumental architectural subject he returned to throughout his career. As a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) print, the work would have been entirely self-designed, self-carved, and self-printed by Hiratsuka, in keeping with the movement's foundational principle of the artist's complete authorship from drawing through [baren](/glossary/baren) impression. Hiratsuka favored bold black-and-white compositions in which carved areas of solid [sumi](/glossary/sumi) read against the unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) to produce strong contrasts, and the cathedral's masonry, arched windows, and ribbed dome supplied the kind of architectural rhythm well suited to his graphic vocabulary.