New Year’s Eve Fox Fires at the Changing Tree (Ōji shozoku enoki omisoka no kitsunebi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Unlike most prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, this work is based on folklore. Japanese tradition holds that on New Year’s Eve, foxes gather at a specific tree near the Oji Inari Shrine in preparation for a visit to the site. On the way there, the foxes produce distinctive flames from their mouths that the local farmers can use to predict the crops of the coming year. The artist incorporated many different shades of gray to set off the barely visible fires coming from some 60 foxes approaching the shrine. Their flickering light is echoed by stars visible through the bare branches of the Changing Tree, which survives to this day.

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