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Votive picture hall at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz, 1881, Photograph
Item
of 35
Votive picture hall at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto
Votive picture hall at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto
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About this image
Related
Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
15150
Title
Votive picture hall at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto
Description
A wooden structure has a sloping tiled roof the underneath of which is covered with framed pictures. These pictures represent different legends and famous figures. There are also some carved pictures and two framed swords.
On the ground are low wooden tables perhaps used for displaying goods. A taller table has bottles standing on it.
A man is sitting on one of the benches. He is wearing sandals with white tabi socks, a short working outfit, white sleeves and a hachimaki, a white headband.
In the background are other wooden buildings and many stone lanterns. Apart from the man sitting, the place looks empty.
Artist / maker
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz
Date
1881
Size
19.5 x 24 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Art and Design Library
This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.
This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers. This particular picture is one of the few photographs in Henry Dyer's album to have been left untinted.
The structure on this photograph is called an 'ema-do'. An 'ema' is a wooden plaque usually offered to a temple by an influential man occupying a powerful position in Japanese society (for example a court noble, a member of the samurai class, or a wealthy merchant). These plaques conveyed prayers or requests to the gods, or were symbols of devotion. In certain cases, they were also used to thank the divinities for wishes that had been granted. The 'ema-do' was the hall used as a repository for these gifts.
The Kitano Tenmangu Shinto shrine in which stood this structure was built in 947 in order to appease the angry spirit of scholar, poet and politician Sugawara no Michizane (845-903). Many of these votive gifts are still preserved today and are considered as national treasures of great historical importance.
Exhibitions with this item
Views and Costumes of China & Japan
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Related subjects
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Roofs
Furnishings
>
Ornamentation
>
Paintings
People
>
Adults
>
Men
Places
>
Asia
>
Japan
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