Actors Arashi Rikaku III as the Fox (Kitsune) Kuzunoha, and Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII as Abe no Yasuna

One of the most famous tales of a shapeshifting fox is the story of Kuzunoha, a fox who takes human form to repay a nobleman’s kindness. The nobleman had saved her from a hunter while grieving his dead fiancée. Kuzunoha pretends to be his late fiancée’s younger sister, and they fall in love, marry, and have a son. The son is Abe no Semei 安倍晴明, who later becomes a legendary onmyōji 陰陽師, a kind of official ghostbuster.

However, the part of the story seen in this print is steeped in pathos and tragedy. When the nobleman discovered his wife’s true identity, she had to return to the wild leaving behind only a poem. In the print, Abe no Semei is the child and Kuzunoha is the woman, seen writing the poem on a sliding door panel as she gradually transforms. Her transformation has progressed so far that she cannot use her hands and resorts to holding the brush in her mouth.