About This Print

Number 21 of twenty-eight prints from the series Views of the Famous Sights of Japan (Nihon meisho zue) issued by the publisher Matsuki Heikichi in 1896 and 1897.  (For additional information on this series see the article Views of the Famous Sights of Japan.)

Source: Kiyochika Artist of Meiji Japan, Henry D. Smith II, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1988, p. 107
Lake Chuzenji is a view of the famous mountain lake that lies at the southern foot of Mr. Nantai.  It is named after Chuzenji Temple founded by Shodo in 784, which must be the red building visible to the far right.  (The temple was later destroyed in a mudslide of 1902 and rebuilt in a different location.)  In recomposing his original June 6, 1880 sketch (left), Kiyochika added the frame of a veranda to lend interest to a rather ordinary view.  He also converted the two blank figures into a man and child fishing – something that historically became possible in the previously barren lake only after the introduction of trout in the early Meiji period.