One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
Kinryūzan Temple, Asakusa
浅草金龍山 · Asakusa Kinryūzan
Utagawa Hiroshige · 1856
What it is
Snow falls on Asakusa: seen from within the great gate — its giant votive lantern hanging into the frame overhead — the temple approach runs white between vermilion buildings toward the main hall, worshippers dotted under umbrellas.
Why it matters
The series’ beloved winter devotion: Edo’s most popular temple on a snow morning, the crowd thinned to a few faithful, red architecture burning against the white.
What to notice
You stand inside the gate looking out — the huge lantern crops the top of the sheet from above, an interior’s view of an entire snowbound precinct.
The temple keeps every season. Snow is the year’s quietest offering.
The record
- Artist
- Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858)
- Series
- One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
- Date
- 1856
- Publisher
- Uoya Eikichi
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Art Institute of Chicago · 1927.321
- bokashi
Impression note. The falling snow is a field of reserved white flecks whose crispness varies with the printing, and the sky carries a graded wipe; fine impressions keep the temple vermilion saturated against the white. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoSudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and AtakeUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoPlum Estate, KameidoUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoAsakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi FestivalUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoMoon Pine, UenoUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.