Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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The Golden-Haired Nine-Tailed Foxfront

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The Golden-Haired Nine-Tailed Fox

  • Description

    Tamamo no Mae was the beautiful mistress of an ailing emperor. When she was transformed into a ninetailed fox, a strange aura of light radiated around her. She fled the emperor’s palace to Nasu Moor and was killed by an archer, again transforming – this time into a poisonous stone. The demon in her was finally exorcised by the Buddhist priest Gennō.

    Hiroshige has based the design of this print on a kabuki performance. This story became popular in kabuki and bunraku (puppet) theatres in Edo in the nineteenth century. Tamamo no Mae is also depicted on the netsuke EA2001.101.

  • Details

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    Associated place
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of creation)
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    c. 1850
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797 - 1858) (designer)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print
    Dimensions
    mount 55.7 x 40.7 cm (height x width)
    sheet 39.5 x 27 cm (height x width)
    print 37.8 x 25.9 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Mrs Allan and Mr and Mrs H. N. Spalding, 1952.
    Accession no.
    EAX.4245

  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 23 April-22 September 2013, Manjū: Netsuke from the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Joyce Seaman, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2013), illus. p. 199 fig. 57

Glossary (3)

bunraku, netsuke, nishiki-e

  • bunraku

    Bunraku is traditional Japanese puppet theatre.

  • netsuke

    The netsuke is a form of toggle that was used to secure personal items suspended on cords from the kimono sash. These items included purses, medicine cases or tobacco paraphernalia.

  • nishiki-e

    Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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