Fox or Wolf ?

#ukiyo-e #japanesewolf #wolf #fox #japaneseprint

This is one of the #Yoshitoshi print sereis called 100 Aspects of the Moon in English.

I have often see the animal in this print identified as a fox however recently I have discovered it is not a gray fox but the probably extinct Japanese Wolf. Yoshitoshi was probably working of a fur or older pictures and had never seen a live wolf. Also Japanese wolves regardless of what you see in a certain #miyazaki film seem to have been rather small and slender and shy canids. They rarely seem to have attacked humans in Japan but tradition suggests they might follow humans walking by night and they were often thought of as protective spirits possibly because like foxes they might prey on herbivores that damaged crops.

This print suggests hostile intentions but given its a Heian aristo may simply be a legend based on some overtly sensitive poet encountering wolves courting and howling at the moon.

Here's a statute of a wolf at one of the last remaining shrines where they are honored as guardian spirits and servants of Oguchinomakami .

It looks like a modern copy of an older work to me.

There are said to be 20 wolf god SHINTO shrines but I've only found info about a copy of them.
I'll share more of what scraps I've found in the next post!