GENERAL INFORMATION

Hours: 10:00-17:00 (Last entry: 16:30)

Closed: Monday

Admission:　General admission: 1,000 yen, High school/university students: 500 yen, Junior high school students and younger: Free

*Admission is half price for people with disability certificates, etc. One accompany person is admitted free of charge.

*Groups of 20 or over will receive a discount of 200 yen per person.

Venue: Umi-Mori Art Museum (10701 Kamegaoka, Ohno, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima)

With the support of: Hiroshima Board of Education and Hatsukaichi City Board of Education

Yoshino and Itsukushima

Pair of six-fold screens　Edo period, 17th century　Umi-Mori Art Museum

Itsukushima

Pair of six-fold screens　Edo period, 18th century　Umi-Mori Art Museum

Utagawa Hiroshige

Famous Views in Over Sixty Provinces: Festival at Itsukushima in Aki Province

Dated Kaei 6 (1853)　Umi-Mori Art Museum

Chapter1　The Floating Utopia  –Depictions of Itsukushima in Folding Screen Paintings–

  At the start of the Edo period, in the 17th century, there was boom in the production of paintings showing people enjoying themselves in famous spots across Japan. The folding screen paintings here take Itsukushima as their subject. They throng with folk relaxing on the island. Some dine on elevated platforms outside Itsukushima Shrine, for example, while others shop at busy stores or argue furiously. In this way, the paintings portray people having carefree fun at real places like Itsukushima Shrine’s torii gate and halls, the Senjokaku Pavilion and the Five-storied Pagoda. In doing so, they reveal how the free-wheeling spirit and customs of the Warring States period still existed at the start of the Edo period. Rather than precisely recording the state of Itsukushima at that time, these depictions meld fact and fiction to portray the island as it was seen by contemporary folk, as an enchanting, sacred utopia.

Chapter2　Let’s Visit Itsukushima  –Tourism and Media–

  Travel in Japan was once a pastime limited to people of high rank, including nobles, warriors and priests, but regular folk also began to tour the country entering the Edo period. This tourism led to the production of many maps and guidebooks for these new travelers. Just like we do today, the Edo folk loved to browse these guidebooks and plan their trips. However, many people could not make these excursions, so instead they would collect information and gaze at paintings of places they longed to visit. The idea of Ama-no-hashidate, Itsukushima and Matsushima as the three most scenic places in Japan is also thought to have emerged during this tourist boom.

Chapter3　Capturing Itsukushima  –The Aims of Realistic Depictions–

  Depictions of Itsukushima became more historically accurate and faithful to reality from the mid-Edo period. Artists moved away from imaginary depictions based on set formats, like those seen in the aforementioned folding screen paintings. Instead, they began to consult reliable guides or even travel to Itsukushima to make sketches. Oka Minzan was a painter serving under the Hiroshima clan. His Itsukushima Zukan, painted under order from the clan chief, is a representative example of this new type of painting. However, the portrayal of otherworldly clouds trailing over Mount Misen in the Itsukushima Folding Screen (No. 26) renders Itsukushima with a solemnity fitting for a spiritual land rising up from the sea, with the island’s sacred nature still captured using new modes of expression.