Mount Atago, Shiba

At front right stands a man wearing a headdress decorated with ferns and gold horn-like ornaments, holding a huge rice paddle and a pestle. At left the pillars and eaves of a vermilion shrine building can be seen. Behind the man spread a cedar grove, the townscape below and Edo Bay with sailboats floating on it.

The contrast of the figure drawn large and close with the distant sea made small is striking. The pale yellow of the rice paddle, the brown of the costume and the indigo of the sea tighten the picture, and kites fly in the sky.

Mount Atago was a height overlooking the town of Edo, and Atago Shrine on its summit was worshipped as a god of fire prevention. On the third day of the New Year a forced-meal ceremony was held at its head temple, Enpukuji, and it is said that a person dressed as the Messenger of Bishamon engaged in a question-and-answer routine pressing monks to eat.

This is the twenty-first print of the Spring section. Apart from the title cartouche, the words Third Day of the First Month, Messenger of Bishamon are added, making this an unusual print in which a figure from the ceremony rather than the famous view is the protagonist. The censor's seal dates it to August 1857 (Ansei 4). The composition, which places the person in the ceremony at the center rather than the viewpoint of a spectator, is considered unusual even within the series. Hiroshige had depicted the same ceremony before, so it is thought to have been a subject he was fond of.