Shinobazu no Ike

Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park, Tokyo, is known for its summer covering of lotus blossoms and the Bentendo, a small octagonal hall dedicated to Benzaiten on a central island. The pond was depicted by Hiroshige in his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo and remains one of the city's most identifiable urban landscapes. Morimura's mokuhanga renders the architecture of the Bentendo against the dense pattern of lotus pads and emerging blooms, using flat color planes for the temple roof and red-railed bridge contrasted against the textured organic surface of the water. The composition continues his interest in sites where traditional religious architecture persists within contemporary urban surroundings. As with his other Tokyo subjects, this print situates the artist within a lineage of mokuhanga depictions of the capital that stretches from the Edo-period meisho tradition through [Shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) to contemporary practice, while sustaining his trademark geometric clarity.