「東京開化名所記」 「王子稲荷社」「狐忠信 芝翫」

This is a second impression or variant state of the design shared with kawanabe-kyosai--10, from the 'Tōkyō Kaika Meishō Ki' series. The print maintains the pairing of Oji Inari Shrine with the kabuki subject of Kitsune Tadanobu performed by the actor Shikan. Oji Inari, located in the northern reaches of Edo, was among the most important Inari worship sites in the Kantō region, drawing pilgrims year-round and hosting the famous foxfire (kitsunebi) gathering on New Year's Eve that entered Edo visual culture through numerous meishō-e depictions. The theatrical subject — the fox who assumed human form to follow a drum made from his parents' hides — united supernatural pathos with kabuki spectacle in ways audiences of Kyosai's era would have recognized immediately. Variation between impressions may be visible in ink density, color blocking, or paper quality, reflecting the variable production conditions of popular woodblock printing in the early Meiji period.