Forty-Eight Famous Views of Tokyo: Atago Hill

Q: Who created Forty-Eight Famous Views of Tokyo: Atago Hill?

Forty-Eight Famous Views of Tokyo: Atago Hill (東京名所四十八景 愛宕やま) was created by Shōsai Ikkei (昇斎一景) in c. 1871.

東京名所四十八景愛宕やま

by Shōsai Ikkei

Meiji/Taishō Prints Ukiyo-e

Landscapes

Date:: c. 1871
Medium:: Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Source:: Edo-Tokyo Museum

Description

This view of Atago Hill, from Ikkei's 'Forty-Eight Famous Views of Tokyo' series of around 1871, depicts one of central Tokyo's principal natural landmarks — a low forested hill in the Shiba district topped by Atago Shrine, dedicated to the fire-prevention deity Atago Gongen and reached by a famously steep flight of stone steps known as the 'Men's Slope' (Otoko-zaka). Atago Hill had been a meisho destination throughout the Edo period, valued for its sweeping views of the city and Tokyo Bay from the shrine precinct at its summit and for the steep stone staircase that pilgrims and visitors climbed to reach it. Ikkei renders the hill as a substantial green mass in the middle distance, with the steps and shrine architecture rising from a foreground of teahouses and visitors, and a wide blue-sky reserve above. The print belongs to the Edo-Tokyo Museum's collection of the series and documents the appearance of one of the most beloved minor landmarks of central Tokyo at the moment when the surrounding Shiba district was being gradually transformed by the new Meiji government's reorganization of the former Tokugawa shogunal precincts.