One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.79Shinmei Shrine and Zojoji Temple at Shiba

Hiroshige depicts Zojoji Temple, the Tokugawa family temple, on the left (see No. 53) and Shinmei Shrine on the right. The road in the foreground merges with the Tokaido Highway, but the actual intersection of the roads is just out of view.
A group of cheerful farmers from the countryside is returning from a visit to the temple, and perhaps they will go sightseeing in Edo city. Another group of Buddhist priests is going out of the temple on a round of alms-begging in Edo city. In the temple ground stood 83 seminaries, and over 3,000 priests were studying Buddhism there. They made it a rule to go out after study for alms-begging in groups of more than 10. Because they went out of the temple just as the bell struck “nanatsu” (4 o’clock in the afternoon), they were nicknamed “nanatsu bozu” (4 o’clock priests).
The three-tiered roofs of the temple seen on the left of the print are those of the Daimon (grand outer gate), Sanmon (temple gate) and Hondo (main temple).
Shinmei Shrine enshrined the same god as the Ise Grand Shrine, the most important shrine in Japan, and had a similarly styled structure. The typical structure is “chigi”, meaning ornamental crossbeams on its gable. The shrine here was noted for its unusually long festival, which lasted 11 days, in comparison to the ordinary festival of 2 days.
During the festival in November, fresh ginger was sold on the grounds. Ginger was believed to get rid of impurities in the body. In addition, Chinese medicine, said to be good for maintaining health, and also ointment effective for removing spots on the face were sold on the grounds.