Japanese Woodblock Print, original 8/1858, this Showa era from recarved woodblocks

SIZE IN INCHES: yatsugiri-ban approx. 4 x 5.8 inches

COMMENTS: Number 65 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

KAMEIDO TENJIN WAS DEDICATED IN THE EARLY 1660s as one part of the campaign to open the east bank of the Sumida for urban settlement in the wake of the devastating fire of 1657. The shrine was located in the northeast corner of the planned area in order to protect the new development from evil spirits. The dedication to Tenjin, the deified Sugawara Michizane, patron saint of learning and calligraphy, is said to have been inspired by the personal veneration of the shogun Ietsuna, and the shrine always enjoyed strong bakufu support.

The view here is pure scenery with not a shrine building in sight. The arched bridge was one of two such famous taikobashi ("drum bridge", after its rounded shape) in Edo, this one in wood, the other in stone.

The Kameido drum bridge is actually a pair of bridges on the approach to the shrine, first the "male bridge" then the slightly smaller "female bridge". Hiroshige has depicted the "male bridge" from the east. He has exaggerated the height of the bridge above the pond, but not its steepness, which one can sense from the figures clinging to the railing as they descend on the right.

Fine, no flaws