Tatsu Ueno Sannō

Part of Yajima Gōgaku's series pairing the twelve zodiac animals with famous Edo sites, this sheet links the dragon (tatsu) with the Sannō shrine atop Ueno hill, a Tendai-affiliated tutelary shrine of the great Tokugawa funeral temple complex of Kan'ei-ji. Dragons in Buddhist iconography served as guardians of the Dharma and protectors of mountain sanctuaries, and the Ueno Sannō association called both meanings into play for the Edo viewer. Gōgaku's literati treatment, with its restrained colour and calligraphic line, situates the religious-seasonal subject in the bunjinga register rather than the commercial print mainstream. The small sheet, roughly 21 by 19 centimetres, was issued between 1818 and 1830 as part of the New Year zodiac-calendar tradition.