Benzaiten Shrine at Shinobugaoka (Shinobugaoka Benzaiten), from the "Fashionable Eight Views of the Eastern Capital (Furyu Toto hakkei)"

From a later "Eight Views" project, "Fashionable Eight Views of the Eastern Capital (Furyu Toto hakkei)," this Art Institute of Chicago oban, dated c. 1824/29, depicts Shinobugaoka Benzaiten — the small Benzaiten shrine on the wooded hill of Shinobugaoka in Ueno, the temple complex grounds of Kan'eiji. Benzaiten, the female deity of music, water, and the arts, was widely venerated in Edo, with major shrines at Inokashira, Enoshima, and Shinobugaoka. Eizan's series rewrites the Edo-hakkei franchise of his earlier career, replacing local sites with new selections under a slightly different conceit; the Shinobugaoka sheet stands alongside the "Sakai-cho theater" sheet in the same series. The print belongs to Eizan's late style: more elaborate textile patterning, denser figure groupings, and a continuing technical command of color woodblock printing.