This 1830s woodblock print by Edo artist Hasegawa Settan shows the vast precincts of Tokai-ji, a Zen temple in Shinagawa. Built by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-51) and donated in 1638 to Abbot Takuan Soho (1573-1645), Tokai-ji prospered as the third-largest temple in Edo, second only to Kan'ei-ji in Ueno and Zojo-ji in Shiba.
The picture shown here, which actually comprises three woodblock prints, is the left half of a six-part rendering by Settan, focusing on Tokai-ji's main hall and inner sanctum.
On the hilltop to the left, a low rectangular fence marks the burial place of Abbot Takuan. A river running from under the hill to the bottom right is largely obscured by horizontal lines drawn to represent clouds in a technique peculiar to Japanese-style painting. Midway along the stream, a bridge spans the river amid clusters of subsid iary temples on both sides. Off to the right of the bridge is the double-roofed main hall. The river is the Meguro-gawa (mentioned in this column last month) and the bridge is called Yojin-bashi.