Hotohoto Festival at Izumo Grand Shrine, from the series Views of Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (1853): Art, History and Details

Hotohoto Festival at Izumo Grand Shrine, from the series Views of Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (1853) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Izumo Shrine is a Shinto shrine on Honshu Island. The Japanese believe that Shinto kami (divine spirits) leave their own shrines for a month in October or November—depending on the lunar calendar—and travel to Izumo Shrine. During this time, a festival is held in which celebrants carrying lighted torches lead the kami to the shrine.

Object facts

• Title: Hotohoto Festival at Izumo Grand Shrine, from the series Views of Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces
• Date: 1853
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Color woodblock print, ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 34.3 x 22.9 cm (13 1/2 x 9 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.311

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–95.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.