Fox woman Kuzunoha, Shinoda no kuzunohana (Fox woman Kuzunohana, Kudzu Vine) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Linked to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))

This sheet from Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen, Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry), pairs the fox woman Kuzunoha (Kuzunohana) with the kudzu vine, in a Utagawa Kunisada design documented through the British Museum holdings as cataloged on ukiyo-e.org. Kuzunoha is one of the most affecting figures in Japanese folklore and kabuki: a white fox saved by Abe no Yasuna in the Shinoda forest, she takes human form, marries her rescuer, gives birth to the future onmyoji Abe no Seimei, and is finally compelled to leave the human world when her true nature is discovered. The kudzu vine, kuzu, is both phonetically and botanically embedded in her name, anchoring the iconography to the Shinoda forest and to one of the great mother-and-child farewell scenes in the kabuki canon. The mitate framework of the series treats the classical Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry as a numerical and cultural template, allowing Edo ukiyo-e designers to slot contemporary kabuki actors and roles into a structure already familiar from poetry anthologies. Kunisada's late-career studio practice is evident in the assured outline, the cartouche placement, the costume patterning, and the recognizable facial type. As a single sheet from a structured yakusha-e set, this Kuzunoha print is a representative example of how Utagawa school designers wove folklore, theater, and botany into a single image.