Kanda Myojin Shrine (Kanda Myojin), from the series "Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)"
- Date:
- c. 1835/38
Kanda Myojin Shrine is a landscape print by Utagawa Hiroshige from his series Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho), produced around 1830 and now in the Art Institute of Chicago. Kanda Myojin was one of Edo's most important Shinto shrines, founded in the eighth century, relocated to its hilltop site in the early Edo period, and patronised by the shogunate as a tutelary shrine for the eastern capital. Hiroshige takes the elevated approach to the shrine as his subject, framing the torii gate, the worshippers ascending the stone steps, and the rooflines of the city falling away below toward Edo Bay. The viewpoint exploits the topography to give a sense of pilgrimage and arrival, while small figures in everyday dress, vendors, samurai, women with children, populate the foreground and provide the scale through which the architecture is understood. As an early entry in Hiroshige's career as a designer of Edo ukiyo-e landscape print series, the Toto meisho consolidated his reputation for transforming guidebook meisho subjects into atmospheric pictures with a strong sense of place. Kanda Myojin also hosted one of the great triennial festivals of Edo, the Kanda matsuri, whose elaborate floats and processions paraded through the shogun's castle precincts, and Hiroshige's audience would have brought that festival memory to a print of the shrine even when the day depicted is an ordinary one. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves the colour balance and crisp keyblock printing that distinguish good early Hiroshige issues, and the design rewards attention as a study of how a shrine functioned as a civic and devotional anchor in Edo's daily life.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Kanda Myojin Shrine (Kanda Myojin), from the series "Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)" was created by Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) in c. 1835/38.
Yes — Kanda Myojin Shrine (Kanda Myojin), from the series "Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)" is part of the Famous Views of the Eastern Capital series by Utagawa Hiroshige.
Kanda Myojin Shrine (Kanda Myojin), from the series "Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)" depicts landscapes and famous places (meisho-e).
