Ukiyo-e of Matsuchiyama Shoden 👹🍣🎎 Wonderful Japan
https://ukiyo-e.org/image/mfa/sc208869
During our last trip to Tokyo, we discovered a temple in the Asakusa area that quickly caught our attention. Located a little outside the tourist district with its many visitors, we had to visit this charming complex, and afterwards I wanted to know a little more about it.
The Matsuchiyama Shoden is a centuries-old temple compound whose history is said to go back over 1000 years. Already in the Edo period, this temple situated on a hill was a popular destination, which was therefore also immortalised in various works of the famous woodblock art ukiyo-e.
I would like to show you some of these pictures today, as they offer a romantic look back at a time that seems to have passed so long ago.
The first print dates from 1832 to 1838 and is called "View of Matsuchiyama (Matsuchiyama no zu)" and it is from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Tôto meisho). The picture shows a view across the Sumida river and on the other side of the river we can see the temple which is comfortably nestel on the Mutsuchiyama hill.
https://ukiyo-e.org/image/mfa/sc135094
The second print is from 1862 and is called "Imado Bridge and Matsuchiyama (Imado-bashi Matsuchiyama)" and is from the series Thirty-six Views of the Eastern Capital (Tôto sanjûrokkei). It also shows the Sumida river and the hillside temple in the background but during winter, which looks also very charming.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2008660280/
Picture number three s simply called "Matsuchiyama" and was probably created in 1854. Print shows a large number of people in front of and inside a row of buildings at the bank of Sumida river with the temple in the background. It derived from the series_ Edo meisho no uchi : Famous sites of Edo_.
https://ukiyo-e.org/image/mfa/sc170458
Print four is called "Snow at Matsuchiyama (Matsuchiyama no yuki)", from the series famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Tôto meisho). It dates back to 1854 to 1860 and shows another charming wintery view of that area.
https://ukiyo-e.org/image/mfa/sc208906
The last print was created around 1832 to 1838 its name is "Splendid View from the Top of Matsuchiyama (Matsuchiyama ue mibarashi no zu)". This one too comes from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Tôto meisho), and this time it shows some people in the temple and the view the from the hill over the neigbouring areas.
I really like those prints as they powerfully captured the atmosphere of this time and preserved it into the present. The era of Edo is now long gone but there are still some areas and places in today's Tokyo where you can get a little feeling of those long-gone times. And with the knowledge and the images of those days in minds it will be even more fascinating to explore the area around the temple when we come to Tokyo again some day. I know we still have to wait for quite some time but I am already looking forward to that special day...
