1937年7月中日戰爭爆發後，日軍旋即於同年9月進駐山西省大同市，對位於該市近郊的雲崗石窟發佈保護命令，展開石窟的保存與調查活動。起初有限的交通手段，由於石窟作為觀光地而有所整備。自鶴田吾郎、長谷川春子等人開始，日本美術家頻頻造訪，以畫筆或相機留下紀錄，回國發表。如此同時突顯了日軍於當地進行史跡保護的成效。雲崗石窟自1910年代中期起，透過審美書院發行《東洋美術大觀》等以專家為對象的美術全集，或高價的專門書，而被介紹，另一方面於關東大地震後，平凡社低價版的《世界美術全集》刊載相關圖版，使其作為世界性美術遺產的認識普及於一般大眾。長谷川三郎也是於旅行中國途次造訪石窟的一人。當時他作為抽象美術評論家，以不分古今東西的寬廣視野評論美術，在1938年9月，不以畫筆，而是持起相機，迎向此世界性的古典遺產。從長谷川三郎回國後隨即發表的攝影、遊記，與之後的「鄉土誌」攝影連作，可見他在流動的時局中，摸索欲確認作為畫家、美術家的自我定位。

The Japanese army issued a preservation order of the Yungang Grottoes near Datong in September 1937 within a few months after the Second Sino-Japanese War began in July. Subsequently, conservation of and researches on the monument started under the aegis of the Japanese. In the first months, transportation to the site was limited but gradually improved as the Grottoes became a tourist destination. Japanese artists came to the Grottoes one after another since the early stage of the occupation and depicted the site with brush, camera, and pen to publish their works after returning home; meanwhile, those works accentuated the role of the on-site Japanese army in charge of the preservation of the Grottoes. Since the mid-1910s, the Yungang Grottoes was frequently reproduced in luxurious art books such as ＂Toyo bijutsu taikan＂ (Corpus of Oriental Art) for experts by the Shinbi Shoin publishing house. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, the Grottoes became more widely known as a world's classic monument through popular mass-produced publications such as ＂Sekai bijutsu zenshu＂ (World Art Collection) by the Heibonsha publishing house. Hasegawa Saburo was one of those visitors to the Grottoes on his journey to North China and Manchukuo. As a major advocate of abstract art with a wide appreciation of art of all ages and cultures, Hasegawa saw this classic site with not a brush but a camera in hand in September 1938. Photographs and texts that were published immediately after he returned home and a series of photographs called ＂Kyodoshi＂ (local history) that he took since 1939 shed light on Hasegawa Saburo's serious attempts to seek for his identity as a painter and as an artist under the unstable political situation of the late 1930s in Japan.