Fall festival at Yasukuni shrine

Yasukuni Shrine in Kudan, founded in 1869 to enshrine the war dead, hosts an autumn rei-tai-sai festival each October beneath the maple foliage. Koizumi's print combines three subjects identified in its tags — shrine architecture, festival activity, and autumn color — into a composition typical of the Hyakkei series, where seasonal markers anchor topographic specificity. The torii, stone lanterns, or shrine pavilions would be rendered through flat color blocks with sharp keyblock outlines, while the surrounding momiji likely received [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) printing to suggest gradation from green to vermilion. As with the rest of One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo, every block was designed, carved, and printed by Koizumi himself, fulfilling the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) ideal even as the shrine subject placed the print within the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition. Yasukuni's role during the 1928-1940 series period made it a site of state ceremony as well as seasonal visitation, and Koizumi's treatment registers both the festival's social presence and the autumnal landscape that frames the shrine grounds in October.