Bingo Province: Kannon Temple at Abuto

In the center of the picture a large gray rocky mountain rises, with a Kannon hall built jutting from its summit. Under the rock a large cave opens, and several pointed reddish-brown rocks stick out of the sea in front. Two small boats float in the sea at left, and a temple roof peeks out at back right.

Sky and sea are quietly unified in pale blue, with the distant mountain range on the horizon expressed in a deep indigo gradation. The mass of the rocky mountain is drawn in shades of gray, with reddish-brown rocks and the vermilion of the hall as accent colors, conveying the clear air of the seashore. The vermilion railing of the hall stands out small and bright amid the gray rock.

The Abuto Kannon is the Kannon hall of Bandai-ji, standing on a cape at the southern tip of the Numakuma Peninsula. As a hall for praying for safe voyages it was worshiped by sailors on the Seto Inland Sea, and it is said that in the Edo period Mizuno Katsutane, lord of Fukuyama, had its stone walls and corridors built.

This print follows the one of Bitchu in the series. The impressions in the Tokyo National Museum and the National Diet Library are of a block with a full moon printed in the sky, making it a night scene. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also holds an impression.