#016 Sendagi Dangozaka Flower House

Sendagi Dangozaka Flower House is the sixteenth views in Utagawa Hiroshige’s “100 Famous Views of Edo”. The original picture is here.

I should explain that, fortunately, both Sendagi and Dangozaka are still in existence in modern Tokyo, but there is completely no sign of the most important Flower Hose(Hanayashiki). With the help of some documents, we know from which part of Dangozaka the author’s painting is looking in which direction, but in the present day, the view is like this.

I am really sorry.

The mansion district at the top of the hill has been overshadowed by the mid-rise buildings of Bunkyo Ward, a mixture of business and residential areas. The number of temples that used to be spread out along the slope is now too few to count. For example, on the left side of the photo above is the precincts of Sezonin Temple, which has been here since that time. The current gate is a little further back from Dangozaka street and looks like this.

The water feature in front of the original print is thought to be a pond in the garden of one of the temples at the time, but unfortunately we could not even see a trace of it.

The name “Dangozaka” is said to have come from the Dango sweets shops that lined along the slop (Saka in Japanese) , but today I can’t see any Dango shops at first glance. Instead, the sign of a nice-looking candy shop stood out, so I took a picture of it.