Shiba (芝)
3 prints by 2 artists
About Shiba
Shiba is a district in central Tokyo, in present-day Minato Ward, organized around the Zojo-ji temple complex and the surrounding park. The area takes its name from the broader Shiba district of Edo, which extended south from the central castle ward toward the bay along the historic Tokaido approach to the city center, with the Shiba ward serving across the Edo period as a transitional area between the central daimyo residential districts and the southern outer suburbs. The principal historical institution of the district is Zojo-ji, the chief temple of the Jodo Pure Land Buddhist sect in eastern Japan, which was relocated to its present site in 1598 at the order of the first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and which served across the Edo period as one of the two principal funerary temples of the Tokugawa shogunal family (alongside Kan'ei-ji at Ueno), with six shogunal mausolea constructed in its precincts for shoguns Hidetada, Ienobu, Ietsugu, Ieshige, Iehida, and Iemochi. The temple and the surrounding district were severely damaged in the air raids of 1945, and the present Sanmon gate, dating from 1622 and one of the few major Edo-period wooden gates to survive in central Tokyo, is among the few major Edo-period structures preserved in the area; the main hall and most subsidiary structures were destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in the postwar period. The Shiba district is also the location of Tokyo Tower, the 333-meter steel-lattice broadcasting tower designed by Naito Tachu and completed in 1958, which has become one of the most recognizable features of the central Tokyo skyline. For Japanese printmaking Shiba and Zojo-ji appear across the meisho-e tradition. Utagawa Hiroshige treated the district in his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei, 1856-1858), including the celebrated sheet Zojo-ji Pagoda and Akabane in which the temple pagoda is seen across the surrounding river and the snow-covered Akabane bridge, and Hiroshige treated the temple again in other Edo views and in his Famous Places in the Eastern Capital series. Hokusai included Shiba in his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji with the distant mountain seen from the district in compositions including the well-known Sazaido of the Five Hundred Rakan Temple at Honjo. The Meiji-period kaika-e treated the surrounding district under the modernizing conditions of the late nineteenth century. The shin-hanga revival returned to the temple repeatedly, with Kawase Hasui producing celebrated snow, twilight, and rain views of the Zojo-ji Sanmon gate and the surrounding park, which became some of his most reproduced compositions, including Snow at Zojo-ji (1925) in which a single figure with an umbrella walks before the great gate under heavy falling snow, Spring Evening at Zojo-ji (1925) and similar twilight views, and later compositions through the 1930s and into the postwar period in which the Tokyo Tower appears in the background. Yoshida Hiroshi, Tsuchiya Koitsu, and other shin-hanga artists contributed further Shiba compositions. The visual character of Shiba in prints is built on the great red Sanmon gate of Zojo-ji against trees and sky, the pagodas of the surrounding compound, and after 1958 the silhouette of Tokyo Tower above the temple roofs, the seasonal phenomena of cherry blossom along the Sotobori, autumn maple, and snow, and frequently the foreground figures of a single pedestrian under an umbrella that Hasui made into a signature compositional element. Contemporary visitors approach the district via the Toei Mita Line to Onarimon Station, the Toei Oedo Line to Daimon Station, or the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, with the Zojo-ji Sanmon, the surrounding Shiba Park (Tokyo's oldest public park, founded 1873), and Tokyo Tower forming the principal contemporary landmarks.
Prints Depicting Shiba (3)
Artists Who Depicted Shiba (2)
Frequently Asked Questions
Shiba is a district in central Tokyo, in present-day Minato Ward, organized around the Zojo-ji temple complex and the surrounding park. The area takes its name from the broader Shiba district of Edo, which extended south from the central castle ward toward the bay along the historic Tokaido approach to the city center, with the Shiba ward serving across the Edo period as a transitional area between the central daimyo residential districts and the southern outer suburbs. The principal historical institution of the district is Zojo-ji, the chief temple of the Jodo Pure Land Buddhist sect in eastern Japan, which was relocated to its present site in 1598 at the order of the first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and which served across the Edo period as one of the two principal funerary temples of the Tokugawa shogunal family (alongside Kan'ei-ji at Ueno), with six shogunal mausolea constructed in its precincts for shoguns Hidetada, Ienobu, Ietsugu, Ieshige, Iehida, and Iemochi. The temple and the surrounding district were severely damaged in the air raids of 1945, and the present Sanmon gate, dating from 1622 and one of the few major Edo-period wooden gates to survive in central Tokyo, is among the few major Edo-period structures preserved in the area; the main hall and most subsidiary structures were destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in the postwar period. The Shiba district is also the location of Tokyo Tower, the 333-meter steel-lattice broadcasting tower designed by Naito Tachu and completed in 1958, which has become one of the most recognizable features of the central Tokyo skyline. For Japanese printmaking Shiba and Zojo-ji appear across the meisho-e tradition. Utagawa Hiroshige treated the district in his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei, 1856-1858), including the celebrated sheet Zojo-ji Pagoda and Akabane in which the temple pagoda is seen across the surrounding river and the snow-covered Akabane bridge, and Hiroshige treated the temple again in other Edo views and in his Famous Places in the Eastern Capital series. Hokusai included Shiba in his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji with the distant mountain seen from the district in compositions including the well-known Sazaido of the Five Hundred Rakan Temple at Honjo. The Meiji-period kaika-e treated the surrounding district under the modernizing conditions of the late nineteenth century. The shin-hanga revival returned to the temple repeatedly, with Kawase Hasui producing celebrated snow, twilight, and rain views of the Zojo-ji Sanmon gate and the surrounding park, which became some of his most reproduced compositions, including Snow at Zojo-ji (1925) in which a single figure with an umbrella walks before the great gate under heavy falling snow, Spring Evening at Zojo-ji (1925) and similar twilight views, and later compositions through the 1930s and into the postwar period in which the Tokyo Tower appears in the background. Yoshida Hiroshi, Tsuchiya Koitsu, and other shin-hanga artists contributed further Shiba compositions. The visual character of Shiba in prints is built on the great red Sanmon gate of Zojo-ji against trees and sky, the pagodas of the surrounding compound, and after 1958 the silhouette of Tokyo Tower above the temple roofs, the seasonal phenomena of cherry blossom along the Sotobori, autumn maple, and snow, and frequently the foreground figures of a single pedestrian under an umbrella that Hasui made into a signature compositional element. Contemporary visitors approach the district via the Toei Mita Line to Onarimon Station, the Toei Oedo Line to Daimon Station, or the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, with the Zojo-ji Sanmon, the surrounding Shiba Park (Tokyo's oldest public park, founded 1873), and Tokyo Tower forming the principal contemporary landmarks.
Hanga catalogues 3 prints depicting Shiba (芝), by 2 different artists.
Kawase Hasui and Shiro Kasamatsu are among the 2 artists who depicted Shiba in our collection.
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