Utagawa Hiroshige, ukiyo-e artist (56)

Just one image today, in honor of December 31: Hiroshige's 1857 woodblock print New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ōji.

Though in fact, since Japan didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar, and dispense with the traditional lunar calendar, until 1872, Hiroshige's New Year's Eve would not have been December 31 but rather sometime in late January or early February. Nonetheless, it's a cool print. (And perhaps nowadays when the foxes gather, they do so on December 31?)

Foxes are key figures in Japanese folklore. Here is a description from The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections:

In Japanese folklore the fox is considered to be a most mischievous animal. The wily fox is thought to have the ability to change form, usually into that of a beautiful woman, playing tricks and pranks on unlucky people. Foxes are also believed to be able to breathe fire and to make fire by rubbing their tails together. Legends abound in Japan of men, oftentimes priests, who wander through mist-filled moors late at night and see a distant flicker of flame, and think it is a lone hut that will provide a welcome refuge from the cold and dark. In truth, the flame is that produced by the fox to lure the hapless wayfarer to mischief or worse.

Here's a closer-up view of the foxes in this print. They are pretty mystical.

But in the case of New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ōji, the foxes mean no harm. Here is what the Metropolitan Museum of Art has to say about the work: 

Foxes gather at the large, old enoki (hackberry) tree on New Year's Eve to prepare to pay homage at the Ōji Inari shrine, the headquarters of the Inari cult in eastern Japan (Kantō). The cult centers on the god of the rice field, for whom the fox serves as messenger. On the way to Ōji, the foxes have set a number of kitsunebi (foxfires), which farmers count to predict the upcoming rice harvest. Hiroshige's print successfully conveys the mysterious atmosphere of the rite as the procession of foxes bearing fires approaches from the distant, dark forest under a starry sky.

Happy new year! I hope 2023 brings you a bounteous rice harvest—or whatever good fortune befits your strivings and desires.