Old city Kudara (Korea)

Kudara is the Japanese name for Baekje, the ancient Korean kingdom (18 BCE–660 CE) whose former capital sites lie in present-day South Korea. The title indicates a [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) view of a historic Korean townscape, rendered in Hiratsuka's signature bold black-and-white woodcut technique. Hiratsuka traveled in Korea during the colonial period and produced a body of prints documenting Korean architecture, street scenes, and rural landscapes — subjects that broadened the topographical vocabulary of [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) beyond Japan. Carved and pulled entirely by the artist according to the movement's jiga-jikoku-jizuri principle (self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed), such works typically reduce roof tiles, lattice walls, and stone foundations to flat planes of [sumi](/glossary/sumi) black against unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi). The composition belongs to the urban and architectural subjects Hiratsuka pursued throughout his career, alongside his better-known views of Japanese temples and shrines.