Meisho, or ‘famous places’, were the sort of landmarks people wouldn’t want to miss when travelling to any area of Japan.
They encompassed a vast variety of places and establishments – sacred areas, literary landmarks (utamakura), historical sites and famous businesses, inns, and restaurants.
These famous places were commonly marked and listed on maps of larger areas, sometimes the focus of heavily pictorial maps. By the end of the Tokugawa era, they also became the subject of landscape prints, and of specific illustrated guidebooks called meisho zue.
![Nikkō oyama no ezu](https://www.digitalexhibitions.manchester.ac.uk/files/large/d76a1d0adcea2583f99575d002d5b847400268b5.jpg)
This map represents the Nikkō mountain area. This was a popular sacred site, associated both with mountain reverence in the native religion of Shintō and with Buddhism. Nikkō was also the site where the patriarch of the Tokugawa family, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-161), was buried. His grave became a popular pilgrimage site.
The map puts emphasis on all the main attractions of the area including natural elements of the landscape, such as mountains, rivers, lakes, waterfalls and forests. Also included are sacred locations, particularly the shrine associated with Ieyasu’s burial site, Toshogu, which is enlarged and given a central position.
Ref. Japanese 109
![Ōmi hakkei no zu - Ōmi no kuni mukadeyama nerai](https://www.digitalexhibitions.manchester.ac.uk/files/large/c07b067528b147f10d4edc37b6d6e0ca8257a243.jpg)
This item is made oftwo different prints. On the left is a set of eight views of Ōmi province. ‘Eight views’ were a very popular theme in Japanese art, inspired by Chinese art. This form of educated, literary readings of the landscape were specifically used for so-called utamakura (places made famous by poetry) associated to a particular season and natural motif.
The print on the right illustrates a local legend of Ōmi, featured in popular literature: the story of Fujiwara no Hidesato, a hero who killed a giant centipede at the request of the dragon-serpent Ryūgū-jō (who ruled over Ōmi). As a reward, he was entertained at the dragon’s palace and received an inexhaustible bag of rice, which gained him the nickname Tawara Tōda (Lord Bag of Rice).
Ref. Japanese 110