Featured Wooden relief carving of Itsukushima shinto shrine - Japan

Picked this up today - it's about 21" x 15". I've figured out it depicts torii(gate) and entrance to the shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima, Japan. The torii is submerged at high tide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsukushima_Shrine

It is signed/marked on the back. The carving seems too nice for this to have been meant to use as a tray or something functional(or maybe I'm wrong).

Anyhow - here's some pics. Any ideas as to how old this is? Artwork? Craft? ...or ...seems a bit nice to be a tourist souvenir but I'm often wrong about that

EDIT - just discovered this type of carving is traditional to the area near the shrine -Miyajima - and is referred to as Miyajimabori.

 

very nice !!!

 

Yes .. it's lovely !! .. Joy.

 

Lovely times two!

 

Hi, just adding to the thread as I picked one of these last week and came on the site during my research. My version is a round tray that has a hook so was used as a wall plaque. It is unsigned and black laquered on the outside. In my view and from the versions I have seen it is likley to be somewhat of a tourist piece especially the later versions. Some versions are very detailed and others very basic. Mine is unsigned and doesn't have the deer for example Value opinions/estimates seem to range from <20$ to 200 pounds or so depending on the quality of the carvings. So , somewhat of a traditional image used over many,many years it seems and therefore difficult to date precisely.

 

forgot to say that most folks say its normal function is as a tea tray, despite the nice carving.