New Year's Eve Foxfires at Ōji

The artwork

On New Year's Eve dozens of foxes gather under a great bare tree, and beside each one a little flame glows. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The dark blue of the night, the white of the foxes and the gold of the little flames.
• A magical, mysterious image, perfect in a study or a living room.
• A special gift for the year-end holidays and for anyone who loves fairy tales.

It is the last of the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, the series that Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), the best loved landscape artist of Japan, published between 1856 and 1858; Edo was the name of Tokyo until 1868. Hiroshige usually draws the world just as he sees it, but here he enters the world of spirits.

At Ōji, north of the city, stood the shrine that led the cult of Inari, the god of rice, across the whole region, and foxes were his messengers. People believed that on the last night of the year all the foxes of the nearby provinces met under this tree: there they changed their dress and then went on to the shrine to receive their orders for the new year. Along the way they lit little flames, and from those lights the farmers foretold how the harvest would be. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

In a study or a living room it brings the magic of the last night of the year. A perfect gift for Christmas and New Year.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass