Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858) Signature: Hiroshige ga 広重画 Series: 東都名所 — Tōto meisho, "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital" Title: Nagatababa Sannōgū 永田馬場山王宮 Date: c. 1832–42 (Tenpō 3–13) Publisher: Sanoya Kihei (Kikakudō) — red publisher seal, lower right Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga), nishiki-e Format: Horizontal ōban (yoko-e), approx. 24 × 36 cm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Paper & condition A fair impression, with minor trimming and wear to the margins, minor soiling at the upper centre, and mild toning across the sheet. Fair condition overall and sold as antique. Please check the images! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE PRINT The great stone torii of the Sannō Shrine cuts straight through the sheet, and Hiroshige builds everything else around it — pilgrims in twos and threes, a vendor working a stall under a wide umbrella, the long white walls of the daimyo mansions on the left, and the shrine buildings half hidden in pines behind. It is the everyday traffic of a shrine approach rather than a ceremonial view, which is what Hiroshige was best at. Sannō (today's Hie Jinja) was the tutelary shrine of the Tokugawa, and its festival was one of the three great festivals of Edo — the only one whose procession was allowed inside the castle grounds. The Nagata riding grounds that give the print its name became Nagatachō, now the seat of the Japanese parliament. Tōto Meisho was Hiroshige's first sustained set of Edo views, issued by Sanoya Kihei from the early 1830s, and it laid the groundwork for the Edo landscapes he is remembered for.