Yamato jinbutsu gafu (People of Yamato Picture Album) — Offerings at a Shrine of Daikoku

Offerings at a Shrine of Daikoku is a plate from the second series of Yamaguchi Soken's Yamato jinbutsu gafu (倭人物画譜 後編, 1804), held by the British Museum. The composition depicts worshippers presenting offerings at a small shrine dedicated to Daikokuten, one of the seven gods of good fortune (shichifukujin) and the divine patron of wealth, household provisions, and the kitchen hearth. Daikoku shrines were widespread throughout Edo-period Kyoto and Osaka, frequented for New Year and seasonal offerings as well as for personal petitions in matters of household prosperity, and they form a natural subject for Soken's survey of contemporary Japanese life. The plate reflects the Maruyama-Shijō habit of treating religious and ceremonial subjects as observed contemporary practice rather than as iconographic abstractions: the worshippers are drawn as individuals with particular postures, dress, and relationships to one another and to the small architectural setting of the shrine. The woodblock printing follows Soken's ink line carefully, preserving the descriptive quality of the original drawing. As one of the religious-life plates in the Yamato jinbutsu gafu, the image documents how late Kansei Kyoto picture albums incorporated everyday devotional practice into their broader catalogues of figure subjects.