Famous Places Depicted by Sake Cups: Kinryuzan Temple

Famous Places Depicted by Sake Cups: Kinryuzan Temple, by Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829), is recorded by the Edo-Tokyo Museum via [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org (reference 0189210063). The conceit of the series, in which famous Edo locations are evoked through the imagery on lacquered sake cups, is characteristic of Eishi's wit and of the broader fashion for [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) and mitate-e in the 1790s. Kinryuzan, the popular name for Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, was one of the city's most heavily visited religious sites, and Eishi treats it not through a topographical view but through the cup that a bijin holds, the surface of which carries a glimpse of the temple's tower or torii gate. The cup thereby becomes a portable substitute for the actual destination, a witty inversion that depends on the viewer's ability to read both the social scene and the visual quotation. The figures are typical of Eishi's Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga): tall, slim bodies; small heads; oval faces; and patterned kimono treated as flat decorative panels. The palette is restrained, with carefully separated woodblock impressions producing soft transitions between fabric and background. The Edo-Tokyo Museum's record preserves the sheet within an important corpus of Edo period meisho-e and supports comparison with similar designs by contemporaries such as Utamaro and Toyokuni. As an example of his Kano-trained ukiyo-e sensibility applied to a popular Edo subject, the print demonstrates how Eishi could be witty without surrendering the courtly composure that defined his line and palette.