Hitachi Province: Kashima Grand Shrine

On the water in the foreground, a boat with its sail raised moves leisurely, and beyond it a large torii stands in the water. Boats are moored beside the torii, and on the left bank a row of thatched houses continues, with people walking along the road.

Behind the houses a green mountain covered in cedar and pine swells up, thought to represent the shrine forest. At right the lake spreads into the distance, dotted with sailing ships, and far away a gray mountain range and a red-dyed sky can be seen. The reeds at the water's edge and the fine ripples on the lake convey the calm air of a waterside country.

Kashima Grand Shrine is the ichinomiya of Hitachi Province and enshrines Takemikazuchi, a god of martial valor. In the Edo period, together with Katori Shrine and Iisu Shrine it was called the "Three Shrines of the East," and many people came by boat via the Tone River and Lake Kita. The torii in the water is the first torii standing at Ofunatsu on Lake Kita, from where pilgrims who arrived by boat headed to the shrine.

In depicting the torii and landing that welcome people coming by boat, rather than the shrine buildings, one sees the form of pilgrimage to Kashima that lived with water transport. The Art Institute of Chicago does not have this design, and the image is the impression held by the Tokyo National Museum.