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Ônishi Chinnen (1792-1851)
Shijô
Tsurigitsune, fox trap (Fox ghost)
Signed: Chinnen
Seals: Taijû
Technique: sumi and light colours on paper, mounted album leaf 30.5 x 56.5
Mounting: blue decorated gold brocade and pale green raw silk 131 x 66.5
Condition: some minor flaws, otherwise good

The legend of Hakuzōsu 白蔵主 became a Kyōgen play, Tsurigitsune (‘Fox Trapping’) / Konkai (‘The Cry of the Fox’)

In this story, a hunter is visited by his uncle, the priest Hakuzōsu, who lectures his nephew on the evils of killing foxes. The hunter is nearly convinced, but after the priest departs, he hears the cry of the fox and realizes it wasn't his uncle at all but a fox in guise. The fox resumes his natural form and reverts to his wild ways, takes the bait in a trap and is captured. (Wikipedia)

An old fox whose clan has been completely caught by a hunter goes to the hunter in the guise of a monk named Hakuzosu, the uncle of the hunter. Hakuzosu uses the legend of Tamamo -no-Mae to explain the horror of fox tatari and stop hunters from fishing. On the way back, he found the fried tofu of the fox fishing trap that the hunter had thrown away, and finally lost the temptation, took off his ghost costume, and tried to come back. The hunter who notices it sets a trap and waits. The fox who has revealed his true nature and returned is trapped, but at the end he manages to remove the trap and escape.

Chinnen, born in Edo. He studied with his father Ônishi Keisai (1773-1829) and with Tani Bunchô (1763-1840). After Watanabe Nangaku (1767-1813) had come to Edo in 1809 to teach the Maruyama style, Chinnen and Suzuki Nanrei (1775-1844) studied with him. They became some of the few Maruyama-Shijô painters in Edo and they were at least as good as their contemporaries in Kansai. Officially he was in charge of the rice warehouses of the shogunate and lived in Asakusa Kuramae.

Reference:
Roberts p. 14
Araki p. 2242
Hillier pp. 315-325

WAS: € 700,- ($ 760)

Price:
SOLD