Visiting a temple dedicated to Fudo

This oban triptych at the Art Institute of Chicago depicts a procession of women visiting a temple consecrated to Fudo Myoo, the wrathful Buddhist guardian deity whose immovable stance protects worshippers from misfortune. Major Fudo temples in and around Edo, particularly Naritasan Shinshoji and the Fudo halls at Meguro and Mejiro, drew steady streams of urban pilgrims, especially women seeking protection in matters of childbirth, family welfare, and household safety. Shuncho uses the religious pretext to construct one of his characteristic Tenmei-era triptychs of fashionable Edo women moving through a defined setting, where the journey to the temple becomes the frame for displaying seasonal kimono, the proportional refinement of female figures in the Kiyonaga manner, and the carefully calibrated intervals between groups that distinguish his triptych compositions. The work demonstrates how religious pilgrimage was woven into the fashionable leisure life of late-eighteenth-century Edo.