Izu Province: Hot Springs of the Shuzen Temple (Izu, Shuzenji tojiba), from the series "Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue)"

Shuzenji, on the central Izu Peninsula, was the site of an old Zen temple founded by tradition by the priest Kukai in the ninth century and surrounded by hot springs that drew visitors for both pilgrimage and bathing. The combination of mountain setting, river, and steaming bath houses made Shuzenji one of the most distinctive subjects available for a print covering Izu Province. In this 1853 landscape print from Utagawa Hiroshige's series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue), the artist uses a vertical composition to bring together the wooded valley, the river, the bathing structures, and small figures of bathers and travelers under the steeply tilted geography of the peninsula. Published by Koshimuraya Heisuke, the Rokujuyoshu meisho zue gathered notable landmarks from each historical province into a deluxe set drawing on guidebooks and topographical paintings rather than firsthand travel. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, the Shuzenji sheet exemplifies the late style in which Hiroshige favors tall framing, controlled blue and green palettes, and small figures used to dramatize the surrounding terrain. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves the careful bokashi gradations and clean registration characteristic of good early issues. The print contributes to the museum's substantial holdings of the series and to a broader picture of how Edo publishers documented the country's regional landscapes through Hiroshige's eye.