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Temple of Ben-Teng in the Harbor of Simoda

Temple of Ben-Teng in the Harbor of Simoda by HEINE, Wilhelm (1827-1885)

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Seller: Donald Heald Rare Books
Title
Temple of Ben-Teng in the Harbor of Simoda
Author
HEINE, Wilhelm (1827-1885)
Seller
Donald Heald Rare Books (United States)
Description
New York: G.P. Putnam & Company, 1856. Tinted lithograph mounted on support sheet with printed letters as issued with small stab holes where previously bound. A fine plate from Graphic Scenes of the Japan Expedition of a Benten temple in Shimoda, Japan harbour showing one of the treaty ports opened to American vessels in 1854 through the combined lens of topography, harbour life, and local religious practice. Shimoda, or "Simoda" in the period spelling used here, had particular importance for Perry's expedition. Under the Treaty of Kanagawa, signed on 31 March 1854, it was one of the two ports opened to American vessels for supplies and refuelling. Heine records the harbour as a coastal landscape of daily movement, local religious architecture, and practical maritime activity. In the foreground, Japanese boatmen haul a long narrow boat through the surf, while a second boat lies angled on the beach at right. Beyond them, the temple rises from a small rocky promontory, half hidden among trees and reached by a stepped landing and gate, with low mountains and a heavy cloud filled sky in the distance. The titles "Ben-Teng" is a 19th-century transliteration of Benten, or Benzaiten, a deity closely associated with water, good fortune, music, and eloquence. Benten halls and shrines are often found beside rivers, ponds, springs, and the sea, which makes the placement of this harbour temple especially fitting within the image. The composition uses this setting to strong effect: the shrine rises above the labour of the beach, while the dramatic sky and surrounding mountains give the small coastal sanctuary a commanding presence within Shimoda's new post-treaty landscape. Wilhelm Heine was the official artist on Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-54. On returning to the United States he produced several series of prints commemorating the trip. A group of six elephant-folio prints appeared in 1855, and the following year a second volume was issued, in a smaller format, with different images and with explanatory text. Both projects employed the New York lithographic firm of Sarony, among the best lithographers in the United States at that time. Bennett, p.53; McGrath American Color Plate Books 123.

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