屠蘇きけん

作者不明。
明治時代の作と思われる。
内容は以下。

n this print we see two ladies and a gent.
Each name runs from right to left,
新造若里　Apprentice Wakazato
林屋竹次郎　Hayashiya Takejiro
大文字楼花柳　Daimonji-house Hanayanagi
An apprentice is supposed to regard her older
sister as role model, but in this case what one
is to emulate does not seem to be trustworthy.
This is wirnessed by the young master of
Hayashiya and the apprentice Wakazato.
In the box at the right corner above, we read
高ふなる　拳の調子や 　屠蘇きけん
From tones, when you sense how excited and
escalated one is playing "fox, hunter and village
headman," you can see the danger of sake
for anyone to drink celebrating a New Year.
Hana-yanagi has a fox embossed plate, doesn't she?
Fox and the word knuckle in the box suggest that
Hanayanagi might have been palying kitsune-ken or
"fox, hunter and village headman," this is the game
similar to paper, scissors and stone; hunter is shoots
fox, while hunter can't say no to his village headman,
but fox dupes village headman.
The imagery of fox deeply associated with
beautiful woman metamorphosed from nine tailed fox.