Kameido

Kameido, a neighborhood in eastern Tokyo centered on the Kameido Tenjin Shrine, is the subject of this oban woodblock print. The area has been famous since the Edo period for its wisteria trellises, which bloom spectacularly in late April and May, drawing crowds to the shrine's garden where purple flower clusters hang over an arched drum bridge spanning a pond. Nouet likely depicts this celebrated landscape feature, which Hiroshige immortalized in his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo over half a century earlier. As a French artist working in the same topographical tradition, Nouet engages directly with the history of Edo and Tokyo landscape printmaking while bringing his own compositional instincts to bear. The neighborhood's identity is inseparable from its shrine and gardens, and Nouet's print participates in a visual conversation stretching back to the 1850s.