One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.41Hachiman Shrine at Ichigaya

Ichigaya is located on the edge of the western side of the outer moat surrounding Edo castle. In old times there was a market (“ichi”) which opened regularly on certain days every month. Therefore, this place was called Ichigaya.
Dokan Ota (1432-1486) was a warlord, a poet and, most importantly, a founder of Edo castle into which Iyeyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun in the Edo period, moved in 1590. Dokan Ota also built a shrine at Ichigaya inviting the divine spirit from the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura as the guardian god of the castle. The shrine, called Ichigaya Hachiman, was originally situated inside the Ichigaya Gate of Edo castle, but after an expansion of the castle it was removed to the hill outside, and a town developed below it. On the hillside stood Chanoki Inari Shrine, famous for the power of answering the prayers of those who were afflicted with eye trouble. Next to the shrine stood a bell tower whose bell rang the hour.
The street on the bank of the moat is lined with many shops and teahouses. Notable among them were shops which sold tea to passersby. They could be easily identified by the short curtains that usually hung from the eaves of their shops.
In order to indicate the great height at which the shrine stood, Hiroshige has drawn clouds of mist just above the town. Around the shrine, cherry trees are in full bloom and contrast with the green trees. To the left of the shrine but above the mist stands a mansion, owned by the Owari family, one of the three branches of the Tokugawa clan.