Fushimi Inari shrine (Kyoto)

Fushimi Inari Taisha, the head shrine of the Inari cult in southern Kyoto, is most often depicted through its tunnels of vermillion torii gates ascending Mount Inari, and Ito's print likely concentrates on this signature motif — a receding corridor of gates whose repeated forms compress the picture plane into rhythmic verticals. The vermillion (shu-iro) of the torii would have demanded careful registration across multiple cherrywood blocks, with the saturated red typically modulated by bokashi gradation where each gate meets the next to suggest depth in the dim woodland interior. Stone fox (kitsune) statues, paper offerings tied to wooden posts, or stone lanterns at the path's edge often serve as quieter focal points within such compositions. The print belongs to Ito's sustained documentation of Kyoto's sacred sites, a body of work that runs in parallel to Tokuriki Tomikichiro and the wider shin-hanga interest in meisho-e (famous-place pictures), produced for postwar collectors who valued the ancient capital's unhurried sense of time.