New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ôji (Ôji Shôzoku enoki Ômisoka no kitsunebi)

Throughout Japan, small statues of foxes can be seen near large Torii and diminutive shrines. Foxes are believed to be messengers of kami and guardians of grain, as they eat the field mice that can ruin a harvest. In this print Utagawa Hiroshige successfully conveys the mysterious atmosphere of this New Year’s ritual, as a procession of foxes bearing ’foxfires’, which farmers count to predict the upcoming rice harvest, approaches under a starry sky from the dark, distant forest. 

During the nineteenth century Utagawa Hiroshige created several print series, set in and around the urban centres of Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto, which capture the seasonal events and well-known tourist destinations, known as meisho. Following the death of his great rival Katushika Hokusai (1760–1849), Hiroshige’s prints, particularly of Edo, capture the physical environment – after 250 years of relative peace and seclusion – on the cusp of the transition to the modern state of Japan.

Russell Kelty, Curator of Asian Art