The Cave at Enoshima in Sagami Province (Soshu Enoshima iwaya no zu), from the series "Famous Places of Japan (Honcho meisho)"

The Cave at Enoshima in Sagami Province is part of Utagawa Hiroshige's Famous Places of Japan series of 1832 and is held by the Art Institute of Chicago (object 47659). Enoshima, a small tidal island off the Sagami coast linked to the mainland by a sandbar at low water, was a major pilgrimage site associated with the goddess Benzaiten, and one of its main attractions was a sea cave at the seaward end of the island. Hiroshige presents the cave as a great dark arch opening into a rocky cliff, with pilgrims and visitors crossing the foreshore toward it under a strip of sky. The dramatic contrast between the deep black of the cave mouth and the lighter tones of cliff and water gives the print a strong vertical and tonal structure. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, the design exemplifies the way Hiroshige used his Honcho meisho series to register the religious and topographical specificity of provincial sites that Edo residents traveled to as pilgrims. The print's emphasis on the natural feature itself, rather than on the shrine buildings inland, also reflects a broader interest in geological spectacle that runs through his landscape work. For collectors, the Enoshima cave is one of the more striking pieces in the Honcho meisho series and a useful complement to his other treatments of the island.