Gohyakurakan

Gohyakurakan-ji (Temple of the Five Hundred Rakan) was a temple in the Honjo district of Edo housing an extraordinary collection of five hundred carved figures of arhats—Buddhist disciples who have attained enlightenment—arranged in a great hall. Hiroshige's print likely shows the exterior approach to the temple or a view of the hall's interior, where the densely arranged stone or wood figures create a visually overwhelming repetitive pattern that was itself a popular attraction for Edo residents. The composition may use a long corridor perspective to suggest the uncanny proliferation of the rakan, their individual expressions and poses barely distinguishable at the scale of a woodblock print. A curved stone bridge over the pond in the temple garden was another frequently depicted feature of the site. The Gohyakurakan-ji was simultaneously a devotional site and a curiosity, drawing visitors who came as much for the spectacle of the figures as for religious purposes, and Hiroshige's treatment would capture both the architectural setting and the temple's unusual character.