Comment - "Mount Atago in Shiba" (芝愛宕山 Shiba Atagoyama) shows the Atago Shrine at Edo Bay. The scene depicts an emissary from Enpuku-ji temple who on every third day of the year performs a ceremony at Atago Shrine for good fortune, health and success and to avert hunger and disease; he wears an elaborate costume representing the messenger of Bishamonten, one of the Japan's famous Seven Lucky Gods.

He carries an enormous rice paddle for the "Heaping Rice Ceremony," and wears a helmet made from an overturned basket, ferns and strips of dried kelp, with a citrus fruit in the center of the horns. He is actually the proprietor of the Atagoya teahouse atop the hill. The large rice paddle in his hand symbolizes abundance, the seaweed around his neck was distributed after the ceremony among the faithful who used it to brew an infusion against colds. The rooftops of the city stretch out below, with sails on the water and two Edo kites ("Edo-tako", "江戸凧") flying over head to celebrate the New Year.

The unusual location of the title in one cartouche with the signature means that it can be read as "Painted by Hiroshige, the messenger of Bishamon on the 3rd day of the First Month". This has led some scholars to believe that the figure carrying the huge rice-paddle and pestle up the steps of the Atago-jinja shrine for the upcoming Bishamon-matsuri Festival is actually a self-portrait of HIROSHIGE.

The first edition was printed about 1857/1858. The series title of the original was "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo". During Meiji era the series title sometimes was changed to "Famous Places in Tokyo".

Another version - depicting about the same scene in "landscape" (horizontal) version, is to be found as "Bishamonten Messenger Visiting Mount Atago in Shiba on the Third Day of the New Year" (1853) (芝愛宕山吉例正月三日毘沙門天之使) from the series: "Famous Places in Edo" ("Edo meisho", (江戸名所). Please refer to main page).


Reprint - These 1918 prints are from a beautiful posthumous release of HIROSHIGE's prints by the original series publisher Uo-ya Eikichi. In 1918 Uo-ya Eikichi re-released a complete set of HIROSHIGE's "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" in a small edition, with prints of the highest quality rivaling those of the lifetime edition. Using only the most skilled printers and carefully matching the paper and inks to the Edo era printing, Uo-ya Eikichi used many original blocks, supplementing them when necessary by replacements. This masterwork series includes some of Hiroshige's most famous and memorable subjects.


Series - The print is the Number 21 of the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" (名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei). Two other woodblocks from the same series, containing kites are "Kasumigaseki" and "Hibiya and Soto-Sakurada from Yamashita-cho". For information about other Series of Hiroshige, refer to HIROSHIGE's "Tokaido"  and other Series.


Artist - see Biography


Signature -  Hiroshige ga (広重画) (lower left, lower part of yellow cassette)


Publisher - (Original publisher) Uoya Eikichi (魚屋 栄吉) <Sakana Sakae, 魚栄>; lower left selvage


Image Size - 21.9 x 33.6cm    (8 5/8" x 13 1/4") + margins


Condition - single sheet; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Vertical ôban; Tate-e (portrait)