Ushi-no-koku, or Ushi-no-toki, mairi (Two-o'clock in the morning prayer) to curse a person to death whom he or she detested

This Edo ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), catalogued by ukiyo-e.org (image aggv i02438), depicts the ritual known as ushi no koku mairi (also ushi no toki mairi), the "hour of the ox" pilgrimage. In Japanese folk belief, a person seeking to curse an enemy to death would visit a shrine in the small hours of the morning - the hour of the ox, roughly 1-3 a.m. - over a series of nights, driving iron nails through a straw effigy fixed to a sacred tree. The participant traditionally appeared in white robes, with an inverted iron crown bearing three lit candles, mouth clenched around a comb, and wooden geta strapped to the feet, a highly theatrical image that lent itself naturally to ukiyo-e treatment. Kuniyoshi, the foremost designer of warrior prints in late Edo Japan, was equally well known for his supernatural and ghostly subjects, drawing on kabuki, Buddhist hagiography, and popular folklore for many of his most striking compositions. The ushi no koku mairi subject sits within this broader strand of his oeuvre, where the spectacle of female rage, jealousy, and ritual cursing receives a careful and often sympathetic visual articulation. The print is in keeping with Kuniyoshi's long-running interest in legends of female vengeance, including stories such as that of Kiyohime, in which jealous love turns destructive. The work documents both the artist's continued engagement with the supernatural and folkloric corners of Japanese culture and the visual richness that Edo ukiyo-e was able to extract from such material.