During the summer of 2015, I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts when it hosted a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit celebrating the work of Katsushika Hokusai, who is most famous for his woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Three prints attracted my attention, all of which are from the 1780s. Each of them were of the Sensoji temple grounds and I recognized them immediately since I had visited Sensoji during both of my trips to Japan in 2011 and 2014. I thought it would be interesting to juxtapose his prints with the pictures I took to show how the temple grounds and Japan have changed over the course of 235 years.
Kaminarimon
Kaminarimon
The Gate of the Guardian Kings at Kinryûzan Temple. 1780s.
The Precincts of the Kinryûzan Temple of Kannon at Asakusa (Asakusa Kinryûzan Kanzeon keidai no zu). 1780s.
