Votive picture hall at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto

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.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Roofs

Furnishings > Ornamentation > Paintings

People > Adults > Men

Places > Asia > Japan