Japanese Art Poster Inspired by the clean and timeless aesthetic of Japan - Hiroshige's Mount Atago in Chiba

"Mount Atago in Chiba" (original title: 芝愛宕山) is a woodblock print by the Japanese painter and illustrator Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) made in August 1857.

Mount Atago is located south of Edo Palace, just 26 m above the city bay. At its summit is Atago Shrine, a pillar of which and the underside of its roof serve to frame the left side of the print. The arriving figure is an emissary from Enpuku-ji who, on the third day of every year, performs a ceremony at Atago Shrine to invoke good fortune, health, and prosperity, as well as to ward off hunger and disease. He wears a ceremonial headdress and white wheels of life imprinted on his robe. In his right hand, he holds a large spoon of rice (shakushi), a symbol of abundance, and in his left, a club, a symbol of the violence he might use to defend Buddhist doctrine. The seaweed around his neck is distributed after the ceremony to the faithful, who use it to prepare an infusion against colds. This priest is one of the largest figures and the best physiognomic description that Hiroshige captured in the entire series. In the background are the houses of the Edo port district and the bay tinged with dawn red with several sails on the horizon. The yellow cartouche on the left side reads: hōgatsu mikka, Bishamon tsukai (the third day of the first month, an envoy from Bishamon).