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The Shape Changer Kitsune: The Many Faces of the Japanese Fox
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16925 |
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CULTURE
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4 / 1990 |
2,583 Words |
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Thomas Wayne Johnson
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Other than the four-footed animal that one sometimes sees in rural areas, the fox is at least three separate characters in Japanese folklore, one of which is its major trickster figure. The living creature and these three (or more) different personae are frequently interwoven in interesting and confusing ways.
The first fox that the foreign tourist is likely to find in Japan is the messenger of the Shinto deity Inari-sama. Inari is responsible for many important aspects of Japanese life. He began as the god of the rice harvest, but over time he has been vested with powers over many other related areas and he is today most frequently seen as devoted to prosperity and fertility in general. By extension, he has also become a patron deity of prostitutes as well as modern business.
Even the casual tourist in Japan will come across roadside shrines with a pair of foxes at the gate. These may be elaborate stone carvings several times larger than life-size, or they may be miniature white porcelain statues decorated with gold and red. There are tens of thousands of shrines to Inari throughout the country. In rural Japan nearly every household has a small shrine dedicated to him in the yard, or at least an amulet and a pair of miniature statues on the family shrine indoors. The largest of the shrines to Inari, Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, covers much of a mountain and contains thousands of statues and red torii (shrine gates) dedicated to the deity. Shrine gates painted red invariably signify a place sacred to Inari.
A second fox, and one that the tourist is much less likely to find, takes possession of the spirit of an individual and must be driven out by various means. Fox possession is sometimes diagnosed when a person becomes irrational and begins behaving strangely. One of the many modern religions of Japan, Sukyo Mahikari, frequently cures alcoholism by exorcising thirsty fox spirits. (The fox is generally seen as fond of sake, fried tofu and fried rats, and these are often used to trap him as we will see below.)
A frequent means used to drive out a fox spirit is through pain. In the first half of this century there were several cases reported in the newspapers of people who died during the process of having a fox spirit driven from them. One case tells of a mad woman who died during treatment by being denied all food, having red pepper applied to her nose, eyes, and mouth, and having her body rubbed with red-hot fire tongs. Another police case reported in the newspaper tells of a woman who had been insane for several years. Eventually, after all other attempts at a cure had failed, her kinsmen became convinced that she was possessed by a fox spirit. She died during the "usual" curing process of having her eyes and nostrils filled with sulfur while on-lookers chanted Buddhist sutras. Even today, small children who are cranky and cry too frequently may be perceived as possessed by foxes. The exorcism is far more gentle today, however.
The Fox as trickster and shape changer
The third fox, and the one that concerns us most, is the fox as trickster and shape changer. When a fox attains a great age (the exact age depends on the text and varies from fifty to a thousand years) it gains the power to change its shape. Usually it assumes human shape, frequently that of a beautiful woman, but it may also
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