Tōeizan Temple Seen from Shinobazu Benten Shrine in Edo

In the 1810s, the well-established publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi issued five prints designed by Ryūryūkyō Shinsai (1764?–1820) depicting landscapes framed by borders and decorated with Dutch lettering. In the early 1830s, the publisher Ezakiya Kichibei apparently acquired the blocks to Shinsai’s five prints, republishing them alongside five new designs commissioned from Eisen, since Shinsai had already died. The letters were understood at the time to be Dutch, but they were still exotic and merely a design element. In fact, not all of them are accurately written, making the text therefore difficult to make out. This print, part of Eisen’s addition, takes the Kan’eiji temple in today’s Ueno district as its motif, which was constructed in 1625 and went on to become one of the largest temple compounds in all Japan during the later Edo period. The island in the Shinobazu Pond still exists today, and is home to the Benten Hall (Bentendō).