Utagawa Hiroshige: Kameido Umeyashiki(Plum farden), the 30th views in “One hundred Famous Places in Edo”. The original picture is here.
Ukiyo-e are prints, so some of print versions may have lighter color.It is known that Van Gogh was so shocked by this painting that he copied it in oil. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is said to have this print in its collection along with Van Gogh’s works.
Anyway, this picture would be spoiled unless it was in the season of plum blossoms, so I went out to Kameido Tenjin in mid-February, which was a while ago, and took this picture, but it was difficult!
Yes, you are right about the scolding. No more, I’m sorry. I hope you will forgive me if I say that the atmosphere is not a little similar.
The unique beauty of the plum tree, which is not found in any other tree, was beautifully described by the Chinese Song Dynasty poet Lin Ebbets as “the shadow of the plum tree slanting horizontally, the water clear and shallow”.
I thought I would be able to find “slanting” branches as in Hiroshige’s painting, but I was naïve.I came here at a time when the plum trees were not yet in full bloom, so there were only a limited number of trees where I could take pictures of the flowers, and even if I managed to get the shape right, the background was not good. I compromised a lot and walked around taking many shots, hoping to get something slightly similar.
In the first place, Kameido Tenjin was not really good enough. Hiroshige’s plum garden was located a few minutes’ walk from Tenjin, but it was burnt down in later years and there is no trace of it now. Only a few remnants of this small shrine remain near the site, in a densely populated residential area of Koto Ward.
I took this picture for the thumbnail delightfully because it was my first visit to Kameido Tenjin and I came here in good season with plum blossoms.
It is about a 15 minute walk from either Kinshicho or Kameido station. There are many long-established sweets shops and food shops around, and Kameido was purely enjoyable as a downtown stroll. I heard that the shrine is also famous for its wisteria flowers, so I would definitely like to visit again.
![広重名所江戸百景 望月義也コレクション [ 望月義也 ]](https://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/book/cabinet/0032/9784772610032.jpg?_ex=128x128)
