New Year's Eve Fox Fires under the Enoki Tree near Ōji (Ōji shōzoku wenoki ōtsugomorihi no kitsunebi) from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei) 「王子装束ゑの木大晦日の狐火」　『名所江戸百景』

Object Details

• Artist

  Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797-1858)

• Publisher

  Uoya Eikichi 魚屋栄吉 (active 1856-1860)

• Label

  This print comes from Hiroshige's famous series, Meisho Edo Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Edo), published between 1856 and 1858. The scene describes the phenomenon of the gathering of all the foxes of the Kanto Plain, where the city of Edo was located, on New Year's Eve at a particular tree of Oji Inari Shrine, a Shinto shrine sacred to the Inari cult. The white fox was believed to be the messenger of the deity Inari, who was revered as the deity of cereals, especially of rice, Japan's staple grain. Edo period (1868-1912) essays and gazetteers reported that when all the foxes gathered each year, they would change their dress for their visit at the shrine, where they would receive orders from the deity for the coming year. The foxfires emanating during their travel enabled farmers to predict the year's crops, either by their shadows or by their numbers.

• Provenance

  To 1970

  Estate of the Honorable William R. Castle, to 1970 [1]

  From 1970

  Freer Gallery of Art, given by Alan F., David C., and Donald F. Winslow, heirs to the Estate of the Honorable William R. Castle, in 1970 [2]

  Notes:

  [1] According to Curatorial Note 3, Ann Yonemura, December 6, 1994, in the object record.

  [2] Transferred from the Freer Study Collection to the Freer Permanent Collection on December 23, 1994 (see Curatorial Note 3, Elizabeth F. Duley, December 30, 1994, in the object record).

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Whistler & Japan (May 14, 1995 to January 1, 1996)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Estate of William Richards Castle (1849-1935)

  Alan, Donald and David Winslow

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Alan, Donald, and David Winslow from the estate of William R. Castle

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1850s, 1680s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Winslow, Alan, Donald and David, Castle, William Richards

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  New year, Art, Animals, Oban, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ukiyo-e

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints