Yasunari and Nine-Tailed Fox

Catalog note / 解説

Triptych by Hiroshige's pupil and adopted son also known as Hiroshige II The Japanese folklore where the astrologer Kamo Yasunari, son of fox woman Kuzunoha, discovers that the illness of the cloistered Emperor Toba is a bewitchment of his favorite concubine Tamamo no Mae, whom through the use of magic mirrors Yasunari shows to in reality be a Nine-Tailed Fox. Yasunari waves a sacred paper wand at her whreupon she shows her true form and escapes, but warriors pursue and slay her. The tailed beasts are demons in Japanese mythology, based on Indo-Tibetan mysticismn, with ascending levels of chakra power proportionate to their number of tails. The Nine-Tailed Fox has the greatest power and is…