Page 292 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

The scattered pines (barabara-matsu) I5i in the center of the gate today bears
mentioned in the title may be seen Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) the name Kaminarimon, but in Hiro-
on the distant shore to the left. The Kinryuzan Temple, Asakusa, from shige's view it is marked Shinbashi,
caption to a similar view by Hiroshige One Hundred Famous Views of Edo the home of its donors, whose in-
in Souvenirs of Edo (vol. I) explains 1856 dividual names are written in a circle
that the pine trees here were worn around the bottom of the lantern,
Color woodblock print
and twisted by the wind, forming a 3 7 above the gilt decorations with the
pleasing natural view. The same 34 x 22.5 (i3 /s x 8 /s) Buddhist manji mark.
Brooklyn Museum of Art Collection
caption notes that the place was pop-
ular among fisherman for its carp. There are people in the picture, but
• The color scheme of this bright they do not meet our gaze, moving
The place depicted here is a matter print is red on white (kôhaku), which away and clinging to the sides of the
of debate. "Barabara-matsu" sounds is reserved for propitious occasions. path. This enables a sense of reces- 291
like a proper name, and indeed such The snow immediately signals the sion without relying on the linearity
a place is recorded in various Edo season as winter and is represented of buildings, and it creates an under-
gazetteers. The problem is that the with particular skill: above, individual lying mood that is restrained, even
location is always given as the Naka snowflakes drift down through the aloof.
River, whereas in Hiroshige's day gray sky, while below, on the roof of
the Tone River normally referred to the distant temple gate and on the A similar indirection is apparent in
the snow-covered trees that obscure
what is now the Edo River, the major ground leading to it, the fallen snow two-thirds of the face of the distant
southern channel of the same Tone is suggested by texture alone, through
gate. This is not Hiroshige's invention,
River whose main course flows into a pattern of small embossed dots as one would suspect from the abso-
the Pacific at Choshi. It is possible (karazuri). lutely straight view seen today: a
that Hiroshige was using "Tone River" The scene is the entrance to Asakusa highly accurate army survey map of
in the title in a broad enough sense
to include the Nakagawa channel, Kannon, the oldest and most venerable 1883 shows that there was in fact a
curve in the approach
city. Formally
Buddhist temple
in the
to the temple.
but there is little evidence for such known as Kinryuzan Sensôji, Asakusa Hiroshige's composition, while per-
a usage in the late Edo period.
Kannon is far older than Edo itself. The haps exaggerated, faithfully reflects
It seems more likely that Barabara- temple history dates its origins to the the preference for indirection that
matsu referred to more than one year 628, when two brothers (or three, was designed into the temple layout
place; perhaps it was even used in depending on the version) discovered from the start. HDS
a generic sense to designate various a tiny gold image of Kannon in their
groups of scattered pines along the net while fishing on the Sumida River.
riverbanks in this region. The Naka- The image was enshrined here, and
gawa location does not seem to over the centuries the temple became
appear in any gazetteer later than the object of a widespread popular
Edo sôganoko shinzô taizen of 1751 nor following that remains strong today.
in any guidebook of Hiroshige's time,
though a verse by Ota Nampo (1749 - In the distance is the great Niómon,
after
Two Kings, named
or Gate of the
1823) does specify Nakagawa. In the huge guardian deities housed on
the absence of better evidence, how-
either side. To the
is a five-story
right
ever, it seems best to accept Hiro- pagoda. Framing the view is the
shige's Tone River as somewhere on famous Thunder Gate (Kaminarimon),
the lower reaches of the present of which we see the threshold stone
Edo River. HDS
below (set off by a faint blue grada-
tion), a huge lantern above, and a
slice of the gate itself to the left. Also
at the left are two stakes of a green
railing, above which is a finely carved
net — doubtless intended to keep
out pigeons. The huge lantern hanging