Maple Leaves at the Tekona Shrine, Mama - Utagawa Hiroshige

A classic woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige from his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo series, featuring a framed view of the Tekona Shrine in autumn.

This woodblock print is a plate from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, produced by Utagawa Hiroshige between 1856 and 1858. The composition employs a framing device common in Hiroshige's later work, where a foreground element, in this case, a branch of maple leaves, creates a screen through which the viewer observes the scene beyond. This technique directs the eye towards the distant mountains and the quiet village of Mama, situated in the Shimosa Province.

The print depicts the area surrounding the Tekona Shrine, a site associated with local folklore and poetry. The colour palette is restrained, utilising subtle gradients in the sky and the deep blues of the water to suggest the atmosphere of an autumn day. The inclusion of the torii gate and the small figures walking along the path provides a sense of scale and human presence within the natural environment. Hiroshige's mastery of the woodblock medium is evident in the precise registration of the colours and the delicate rendering of the maple foliage.

Unlike the earlier Tokaido series, which focused on the travel experience between Kyoto and Edo, this series captures the specific character of the city and its surroundings during the final years of the Edo period. The work demonstrates the artist's ability to combine traditional Japanese aesthetic principles with a sophisticated approach to spatial depth. The print remains a primary example of the ukiyo-e tradition, documenting the geography and cultural life of nineteenth-century Japan before the rapid modernisation of the Meiji era.