#010 Kanda Myojin shrine scenery at dawn

The 10th of ‘Utagawa Hiroshige: 100 Famous Edo Views’ is Kanda Myojin shrine scenery at dawn, the original print is here.

Kanda Myojin shrine locates on the same place now and in the past. It’s really easy to understand. I had to visit there early in the morning, but I was a lazy modern-day photographer, so I went there almost near noon of a certain weekend.

Although the precincts of the shrine are located on a slightly elevated hill, Sotokanda in Chiyoda-ku is a densely built-up area in the heart of the Tokyo city. Nowadays, it is not possible to look down on the city below, so here we are.

I wonder if this is an unforgivable corruption. But there was nothing else I could do.

The standing tree in the foreground and the porch in the background, the view from the precincts, and the slight shadow of a person… I tried my best to bring them all together. But if…

According to the wiki, Kanda Myojin is “the general guardian of 108 town councils in Kanda, Nihonbashi, Akihabara, Otemachi, Marunouchi, the old Kanda Market and Tsukiji Fish Market, etc.” Considering that each town council is probably home to a well-known top-class enterizes, it may be the richest shrine in Japan in terms of external shrine parishioners. I wonder if it is because of this or not.

The shrine pavilions and gates, which appear to have been rebuilt in recent years, are truly gorgeous.