Forty-Eight Famous Views of Tokyo : Year-end Market at Kanda Myojin Shrine

Adopted as one of the “48 Famous Views of Tokyo” this piece by Ikkei Shosai, who painted many scenes of the manners and scenery of the day and was active at the beginning of the Meiji era, shows the special event of the Toshi no Ichi (the Lunar New Year Fair) held in December. Figures welcoming the new era of Meiji such as the gentleman wearing a cap with the short hair and the “Edokko” Tokyoites with the Japanese topknot, scramble over each other to get hold of products and charms associated with new year’s such as a giant kite, shimenawa (a straw rope to delineate the precincts of Shinto areas from the outside world), a traditional water cask to draw the first water of the year, shamoji rice spatula, shrimp, and coral fern. Toshi no Ichi, which began at the start of the Edo Period at Sensoji Temple, would come to be held in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Tokyo in the middle of the Edo Period beginning with Fukagawa Hachimangu shrine, where the grounds would bustle with many visitors. The subsequent development of commercial businesses would result in the disappearance of many of the traditional stalls of the Toshi no Ichi fairs, but Sensoji Hagoitaichi Festival and Yagenbori Toshi no Ichi in Nihonbashi are beloved by many today.