Premodern Landscape Prints and Contemporary Tourism In Japan
Enoshima as a Tourist Destination
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I recently had the opportunity to go to Enoshima Island (江の島). It is a small island in Kanagawa Prefecture, less than an hour by train from Tokyo.
Enoshima Island is part of the city of Fujisawa and is connected to the mainland by a 600-meter bridge. It has been found to be inhabited since the Japanese Paleolithic period. Therefore, Fujisawa is not a new place to live for the local people.
[You are probably wondering: What is the “Japanese Paleolithic”? This is the period when what we know today as Japan was inhabited before the development of pottery (approximately before 10,000 BC).]
Regularly compared to Mont-Saint-Michel in France, today the town is known as a popular destination for day trips. Activities include playing on the local beaches, surfing, visiting the Enoshima Aquarium, or ascending Enoshima Island. From there, it is possible to see Mount Fuji, which is probably be enough to justify the trip for Japanese people.
In fact, it has long been known for its view of Mount Fuji. For example, it is one of Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji 『富嶽三十六景』, a series of landscape prints produced from 1830 to 1832.
The main shrine on the island, Enoshima Shrine (江島神社), is dedicated to the worship of the goddess Benzaiten (Benzaiten 辯才天), patroness of music, art, eloquence, and knowledge.
A legend compiled in the Enoshima engi 『江嶋縁起』, written by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kōkei in 1047, tells that prehistoric villagers near Enoshima were tormented by a destructive five-headed dragon that lived nearby. The goddess Benzaiten is said to have caused the island of Enoshima itself to rise from the bay. She then descended upon the island accompanied by a series of spectacular terrestrial and aerial phenomena.
The five-headed dragon, enamored of the goddess, asked her to be his mate. Known for her eloquence, she both refused and made the dragon see the error of his ways with the villagers. Ashamed, he stopped his destructive behavior and transformed into a hill known today as Dragon’s Mouth Hill (tatsu no kuchiyama 龍の口山).
Enoshima has been depicted by several other artists such as Hokusai (mentioned above), Hiroshige, and the lesser known painter Takahashi Yuichi.
What interests me is not only the cultural elements I presented above about Enoshima and its legend, but the mutual nourishment of a place and art.
Art does not come from nothing. It is, of course, an elaboration of the things we experience; things we hear about, see, or taste. There is no such thing as pure, ex nihilo, imagination.
On the contrary, places are valued on the basis of the representation we have of them. Here, the direct experience of a place cannot explain everything. Cultural elements are fused with other things (including perceptual data about the place or similar places) and the emotions we have at a particular time.
Today, Youtube videos play a similar role for tourism that landscape artists used to do, highlighting the importance and beauty of some places and ignoring others.
There can even be beauty in places we do not collectively appreciate. Beauty is not self-evident. It is likely that some historical and culturally inhabited places that we do not look at with much interest today will be some of the most treasured places in the world in the future.
Beauty is in the eye of the one who knows how to look.
For my paid subscribers, I will send some personal pictures of Enoshima in the chat.
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I loved reading what you said about this and your ideas about seeing beauty. Such a corny old phrase "Art is in the eye of the beholder", and yet it is really in the MIND of the beholder and dependent on so many other internal and external influences. In the same way that, for example right and wrong look very different depending on your culture and circumstance. I remember showing my father a photo of wide open paddocks on my friends farm. as I thought it was beautiful, open , no sign of man, no concrete or light poles...and yet he saw it as desolate, boring and empty because he was brought up on a farm but as a young man , couldn't wait to go to the city!
A very interesting article and I love the images. I hadn't heard of that last artist but will look him up now.
The eye of the beholder… love the control of the dragon and the goddess power involved as saviour of the people. Art can be seen in hidden places waiting for exposure by the eye of the beholder, you are right. It is a special sacred place and you bring it to us. Thank you. …