Tale of the Fox (Kitsune no sōshi)
Unidentified painter and calligrapher
From medieval times through the early Edo period, popular folktales, usually with Buddhist didactic motives, were frequent subjects in both handscroll and book formats. This example, The Tale of the Fox, is about a Buddhist monk who is seduced by a beautiful woman, only to discover that she is actually a mischievous fox. That a monk, who had taken a vow of celibacy, could not resist temptation served as a humorous moral admonition to readers.
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