Unknown- Fox

The fox — kitsune — occupies a charged position in Japanese visual culture as a shapeshifter associated with the Inari deity and with supernatural mischief. Gekko produced prints depicting kitsune in various guises, from straightforward [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e)-style animal studies to more narrative compositions showing foxes in transformation or in procession, as in the traditional kitsunebi (foxfire) scenes set on New Year's Eve. A fox composition by Gekko could range from a naturalistic rendering of an animal in a winter landscape to a theatrical scene of supernatural transformation drawn from folklore. Meiji-era audiences would have recognized kitsune imagery as simultaneously a wildlife subject and a reference to a tradition of supernatural narrative running from medieval emaki scrolls through the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi.