Shinto priest performing the seaweed-gathering ritual

This color woodblock print by Totoya Hokkei depicts a dramatic moment from the Mekari seaweed-gathering ritual, a Shinto ceremony performed along the coast of northern Kyushu. Hokkei was one of the earliest and most accomplished students of Katsushika Hokusai and became especially known for producing refined surimono prints: privately commissioned works that combined imagery and poetry and were prized for their technical sophistication and intimate cultural references.

On the first day of the first month according to the lunar calendar, shrine priests go to the shoreline to harvest wakame, a type of Japanese seaweed. The ritual can involve an offering of this wakame to kami, divine beings. This is one of many rites of the Mekari Shrine in Moji-ku, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Japan.

The ceremony takes place at night and involves priests wading into the sea at low tide, guided by torchlight, to cut seaweed from rocks before returning to shore as the tide rises. The harvested wakame is presented at the shrine altar as a prayer for prosperity and a good harvest in the coming year.

In Shinto belief, kami are spiritual presences associated with natural forces, places, and ancestral powers; they are understood as life-giving entities that shape the world and respond to human devotion. Rituals such as the seaweed-gathering ceremony express gratitude toward these divine beings and seek their blessing for the community.

Hokkei's print captures both the danger and the drama of the event: a priest clutching newly cut seaweed rushes back from the surf as waves surge around him. Through this vivid scene, the artist evokes the enduring connection between religious practice, the sea, and seasonal renewal in Edo-period Japan.