Shrine Gate Pass at Rokusozan in Kazusa Province (Kazusa Rokusozan Torii-tōge), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fuji sanjūrokkei)

Shrine Gate Pass at Rokusōzan in Kazusa Province (Kazusa Rokusōzan Torii-tōge), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fuji sanjūrokkei), dated 1852 and held by the Harvard Art Museums, is an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print by Utagawa Hiroshige that situates the sacred peak within the topography of the Bōsō Peninsula. Rokusōzan was a mountain in Kazusa Province, and the torii-tōge, the 'shrine gate pass', was a high point along the route to its summit where pilgrims paused at a torii overlooking distant landscapes. In this Utagawa Hiroshige landscape print Hiroshige uses the torii as a strong vertical element in the foreground, framing a sweeping view in which Mount Fuji appears across the bay. The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, conceived in dialogue with Hokusai's earlier and more famous treatment of the same subject, allowed Hiroshige to demonstrate his own approach to the mountain through localised viewpoints distributed across the Kantō region. The Edo ukiyo-e tradition of meisho-e is here extended to a programme of inter-provincial sightlines, each one defined by the relationship between a local site and the distant peak. The Harvard Art Museums impression preserves the careful registration, balanced colour overlays and atmospheric bokashi typical of Hiroshige's mature landscape print designs. The sheet exemplifies the structural intelligence of the series and the ability of a single Utagawa Hiroshige composition to integrate religious geography, regional pride and national symbolism.