Utagawa Sadakage (歌川貞景) (artist )

Tamamo no Mae [玉藻の前] transforming into a fox while Abe no Yasunari [安部泰成] holds up mirror to show her true nature

Print

---

Date:ca 1830
Dimensions:7 in x 8 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Gokotei Sadakage ga
五湖亭貞景画

Links Harvard Art Museums
Metropolitan Museum of Art - surimono of Tamamo with Miura Kuranosuke
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University Description:"Also stored at the Treasure House of Uji were the remains of Tamamo-nomae, a ghostly fox or kitsune 狐, which threatened the emperor's rule. The Tamamo-no-mae zōshi 玉藻前草紙 relates that in the year 1154, a beautiful woman became the favorite of the retired emperor and was later named Tamamo-no-mae. As their wedding date approached, the retired emperor's illness grew worse and the onmyōji Abe no Yasunari 安部泰成 was sent for to divine its cause. The onmyōji revealed that the illness was due to the curse of Tamamo-no-mae. He explained that Tamamo-no-mae was a very old nine-tailed fox, which wanted to kill a thousand kings. This fox spirit was an enemy of both kingly and Buddhist authority, and had come to Japan for the purpose of destroying the rule of the emperor. Upon hearing this, the emperor ordered Abe no Yasunari to perform the Taisanfukun 泰山府君 ritual. As Abe no Yasunari took the gohei 御幣 and started to pray, Tamamo-no-mae vanished from the palace and thereupon the retired emperor recovered from his illness. The emperor then sent two generals to defeat the old fox spirit. There are many versions which recount how the corpse of the fox was handled."

Quoted from: 'The Ideology of Imaginations: The Tale of Shuten Dōji as a Kenmon Discourse' by Irene H. Lin, Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 2002, pp. 397-398.

****

The Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial files say of a similar print, once attributed to Gakutei: "The Nine-Tailed Fox, disguised as a beautiful woman, was said to bewitch emperors in China and came to Japan disguised as Tamamo no Mae, a favorite concubine of the Toba emperor (1103–1156). Detected by the court astrologer Abe no Seimei, she flew away to Nasu Field, in northeast Japan, and was shot by the archer Miura Kuranosuke, whereupon she turned into a stone."

****

"... the story of Tamamo no Mae, the epitome of metamorphosis and deception, who bewitches Retired Emperor Toba [1103-56] but whose true identity as a fox is ultimately exposed through exorcism. The femme fatale's story is a variant of fox wife tales (kitsune nyōbō)..."

Quoted from a Janet Goff book review of The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations, and Duplicities by Michael Bathgate, Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Summer, 2007), p. 244.

The Tamamo no Mae story started in the Muromachi period (1392-1573) as an otogi zōshi (お伽草子), basically a fairy tale. Note that the outer robe of Tamamo no Mae is decorated with spiderwebs and falling leaves.

****

Illustrated in a small black and white reproduction in the Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Ukiyo-e Prints (3), #2946.

****

The text reads: 難波浦子　水の面のかゝみに移る青柳の姿は池の玉藻とや見ん

****

A quick comparison between this copy in the Lyon Collection and the example linked to at Harvard should show clearly the difference between and original printing of this surimono and a copy produced decades later. The one at Harvard is the earlier example.
Related entities surimono - 摺物 (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)

---