One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.65Kameido Tenjin Shrine grounds

In ancient times, the area depicted in this print was an island which, due to its shape resembling a tortoise (“kame”), was called Kame-shima (“island”). It was situated in a delta, and in later years soil deposits built up and caused it to link up with the mainland. Due to this phenomenon, the name was changed to Kame-mura (“village”). Even later, the village changed its name again, to Kameido, because it was the site of an old well (“ido”).
Although many “tenjin” shrines were found all over Japan, the original one was in Dazaifu, Kyushu island. The god enshrined there, as in all tenjin shrines, was Michizane Sugawara (845-903), a leading scholar, poet and calligrapher who was venerated as the patron saint of scholarship by people learning any subject. The shrine priest in Dazaifu carved an image of Michizane out of a Japanese apricot tree which stood on the grounds, and he brought this image to be enshrined at the Tenjin Shrine that was built in Kameido in 1663. In addition to the gorgeous structures of the Tenjin Shrine, there was an arched bridge over a pond shaped like the Chinese character “kokoro”, meaning mind. Wisteria were planted around the pond and the flowers bloomed in early April.
At the shrine was observed a very unique custom on January 25th each year. The shrine sold to visitors a little wooden bird called an uso (meaning also “falsehood”), which was exchanged by the shrine official for that held by another. The visitor believed not only that he exchanged “falsehood” for “truth” but also that the exchange would bring him good luck.
As a result, the shrine was thronged by many visitors in January and also in April when the wisteria flowers bloomed.
French impressionist painter Claude Monet, whose style of painting was influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, built an arched bridge over the water lily pond in his water garden in imitation of the bridge in this print.