This 1830s woodblock print by Edo Period artist Hasegawa Settan depicts the grand view of a temple on a wooded hill with a low-lying town in the foreground and peaceful Edo Bay in the distance. The picture is actually the right half of a sweeping landscape depicting Hommon-ji, an enormously popular Buddhist temple in the southwestern suburb of Edo, now part of Tokyo's Ota Ward.
We see pilgrims proceeding to the hilltop temple, walking across a bridge over a river and ascending six flights of stone steps. Arriving at the large roofed gate, they probably take a detour to the right to admire the five-story pagoda and to look afar beyond Edo Bay to see the contours of the Boso Peninsula under the clear sky.
In the picture's unseen left half, the stately main hall provides the focal point, backed by a palatial living quarters for monks. Off to its left, a quiet subsidiary temple, Hongyo-ji, nestles in woods, marking the site of the demise of Nichiren (1222-82), founder of the Nichiren Sect of Buddhism to which this temple belongs.
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