Miyajima (宮島)

Miyajima is the popular name of the island of Itsukushima, situated in the Seto Inland Sea off the coast of Hatsukaichi in Hiroshima Prefecture, approximately twenty kilometers southwest of central Hiroshima. The island, whose name means island shrine and whose formal designation is Itsukushima, is celebrated as the location of Itsukushima Shrine, a Shinto complex documented from the late sixth century and rebuilt in its present form on the model of a Heian-period palace by the Taira clan under Taira no Kiyomori in 1168 during the high point of Taira clan ascendancy. The shrine is constructed on stilts directly over a tidal flat on the northern coast of the island, with the buildings linked by long covered corridors that appear to float above the water at high tide and stand on bare sand at low tide, a remarkable architectural integration of building and tidal environment. The great vermilion otorii gate stands in the sea offshore from the main shrine in the principal axis of approach from the water, the present version dating to 1875 and constructed of camphor wood with a wing-shaped corbel structure that allows the gate to stand by gravity alone, with the most recent major restoration completed in 2022 after several years of scaffolding. The island is also celebrated for the Misen mountain forest, with the 535-meter Mount Misen at its center, the wild sika deer that move freely through the shrine precincts and the surrounding paths, and the surrounding sacred geography of pine, maple, and cherry. The shrine and the island were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 and are part of the Setonaikai National Park established in 1934 as the first national park in Japan. Miyajima, like Matsushima and Amanohashidate, is included in the traditional Nihon Sankei, the three most scenic views of Japan. For Japanese printmaking Miyajima appears in the Edo-period meisho-e tradition. Utagawa Hiroshige treated the shrine in his Famous Views of the Sixty-Odd Provinces, in which a sheet of Aki Province depicts Itsukushima with its torii rising from the water, and Hokusai treated the island in passages of his printed-book travel sets. Hasegawa Sadanobu of the Osaka kamigata school produced Kansai and Setouchi sheets that include Miyajima subjects. The shin-hanga revival brought a sustained engagement, with Kawase Hasui producing celebrated views of the torii and the shrine under snow, rain, and twilight conditions, including evening Miyajima sheets in which the dark silhouette of the gate is set against a softly modulated sky and water, and Yoshida Hiroshi, Tsuchiya Koitsu, Asano Takeji, and Tokuriki Tomikichiro contributing further compositions of the torii and the shrine corridors. Yoshida Hiroshi's Miyajima sheets include variant impressions under dawn, day, and evening conditions in his characteristic atmospheric practice. The visual character of Miyajima in prints is built on the vermilion otorii against the surrounding sea, with the alternating tides revealing or concealing the gate's base in differing compositions, the silhouette of the shrine corridors and the Noh stage above water at high tide, the wooded slopes of Mount Misen behind, the small craft on the water, the dark figures of deer or shrine attendants, and the seasonal phenomena of cherry blossom and autumn maple. Contemporary visitors reach the island via the JR Sanyo Line to Miyajimaguchi Station and the short ten-minute ferry crossing, with the shrine and the surrounding mountain trails including the Misen summit ascent open year-round, and the new Miyajima rope-way providing access to the upper slopes of Mount Misen.

Hanga catalogues 18 prints depicting Miyajima (宮島), by 7 different artists.

Gihachiro Okuyama, Kawase Hasui, and Okumura Koichi are among the 7 artists who depicted Miyajima in our collection.