View of Autumn Maples at Ishiyama Temple in Omi Province

View of Autumn Maples at Ishiyama Temple in Omi Province, an 1843 Edo ukiyo-e landscape print by Utagawa Hiroshige in the Victoria and Albert Museum, captures one of Japan's most poetically charged sites at the height of its seasonal beauty. Ishiyama-dera, perched on the southern shore of Lake Biwa near the outflow of the Seta River, was a major Shingon temple long associated with Murasaki Shikibu, who tradition claims began The Tale of Genji while gazing at the moon from one of its halls. The temple's setting amid rocky outcrops and forested slopes made it especially renowned in autumn, when the maples turned crimson and visitors gathered to take in the lake from the famous Moon-Viewing Pavilion. Hiroshige composes the view to balance temple architecture, ledged rock, and the broad expanse of Lake Biwa beyond, with figures small enough to indicate scale and movement without dominating the scene. Warm autumnal reds and oranges play across the foliage, while the lake recedes in cool tones. Within his prolific output of named places, this design contributes to a long-running interest in the Omi region, already explored in his Eight Views of Omi Province. As both pilgrimage record and poetic image, the print connects woodblock landscape to deeper traditions of Japanese literary geography. The V&A sheet preserves a particularly clear impression that allows modern viewers to appreciate Hiroshige's careful negotiation between religious site, natural beauty, and the storied associations of place.