Protection against Fox Magic
There are many ways to protect against fox-sorcery. Fox possession, as we have seen, requires more effort than breaking illusions and fox disguises. Possession requires professional exorcists and powerful invocations of Inari. Exorcism often ended with the death of the familiar. Possession puts the fox at the most risk because it is her most powerful ability.
Most ways to protect against fox magic are simple, like getting a dog. Foxes fear dogs, and dogs see through fox illusions. Other methods are just silly, like turning around and looking at someone through your legs. Seeing the fox upside down supposedly breaks her spell.[102]
Fried rat and fried tofu distract young foxes. The fox won’t usually lose her transformation, but a beautiful woman or a tree eating a fried rat…well, seeing that would make you wonder. If you don’t have a fried rat handy—why are you traveling Japan without one?—pinch yourself. If you don’t feel anything from the pinch, you are trapped in a fox illusion. Another tip: look for an abnormally long face or a slight glow. [103]
If you are at home and hear a knock at the door, listen closely to the knock. Foxes are said to use their tails to knock on doors. The rap will sound different than a human knocking with a fist. Pinch yourself after you open the door!
Finally, eating the tongue of a fox confers protection from all her tricks. A fox tongue cannot fool another. If a fox tongue doesn’t sound appetizing, keeping a seek from a ginkgo tree in a pocket offers the same protection.[104]
Western Witches and Fox-sorcerers
I’m sure some of this fox-familiar stuff reminds you of witches. Luckily, Western tradition doesn’t have us eating the tongues of cats to ward off witch magic. Both Western witches and fox-sorcerers use familiars. Most of us think of a black cat when we think of witch familiars. However, European witch stories speak about a wide variety of familiars, including horses, birds, dogs, and even stags.[105] Witch familiars and foxes lend their powers and knowledge. Both transform their shapes. Witch familiars and Japanese foxes provide material wealth for their masters and predict the future.
Despite these similarities, fox-sorcerers and witches differ. Witch’s familiars approach the witch-to-be first. The familiar offers its powers in return for the witch’s soul.[106] The fox becomes a familiar by choice rather than through a covenant. The fox doesn’t want the sorcerer’s soul. Foxes are more powerful than witch familiars—witch familiars rarely possess people. The last difference between a witch familiar and a fox favors the witch. Witch familiars can heal people; foxes cannot.
With our distance from feudal Japan, stories of fox-sorcerers are fiction. However, most people believed the stories were fact. Foxes really could become familiars, possess people, and predict the future. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the rapid Westernization of Japan, fox beliefs declined. Fox stories considered to be fact became superstition. The Meiji Restoration removed power from the Tokugawa Shogunate and restored it to the Emperor of Japan. Soon afterward, Japan adopted modern technologies and restructured its political systems. Rapid modernization didn’t take the fox out of Japan’s soul.
Chapter 7 The Tip of the Tail
You’d think science would leave the fox behind, but Kitsune adapted. Technology gave her new ways to play her pranks: wild foxes started delivering telegrams and playing phone pranks. Thanks to these tricks, Japanese answer phones with moshi-moshi. The doubled phrase tests for a fox. Only old foxes speak human language well. But the word moshi gives even wise, old foxes trouble. An old fox can manage the word once but never twice in quick succession. Failing to answer a phone call with moshi-moshi is impolite and puts your humanness into question.[107] She didn’t stop at phone pranks. The Japanese fox turned her shape-shifting skills toward the new creations of the modern era: trains and cars.
Late one evening, a man was walking along the narrow and steep road known as “Kurumazaka” (“Cart Hill”), which led down from the Inari Shrine when a huge automobile, blazing with lights, rushed up and came within a hair’s breadth of hitting the pedestrian, who stepped to one side in the nick of time. Several days later, in the wee small hours of the night, this same man was in his own motor-car carefully making his way down “Kurumazaka” when again up the hill came a larger car going at tremendous speed. There was no room to pass and no time to stop. The driver in the first car put on brakes and braced himself for the collision. There was a dull thud, and the huge car disappeared. Getting out, the driver saw beneath the wheels of his car an old, dead fox![108]
Just as Japan didn’t leave all of its past behind, the fox didn’t leave all of her past. She appears in an old drinking game similar to rock-paper-scissors calledKitsune-ken. In the game, there are three different gestures. Hands at shoulder height with palms facing out represent a hunter. Two fists mimic a rifle, and hands on thighs suggest a fox running. The hunter uses the gun to kill the fox, but the fox can’t use the gun against the hunter. However, the fox deceives the hunter. Three of the possible nine combinations can win.[109]
As the aristocratic classes of Japan turned away from “superstition,” merchants and farmers told her stories and played kitsune-ken.Even today she continues to live through popular media like manga and television. In the popular anime and manga series Naruto, a nine-tailed fox lives within the namesake hero. He wrestles with the fox inside him and sometimes draws upon its power. Another manga series, Inuyasha,features shape-shifting fox characters. The fox isn’t limited to animation and comics. Director and screenwriter Akira Kurosawa sprinkles traditional fox stories into his movies. For example, the movie Ran tells a story about the nine-tailed fox.
The fox appears in Japanese art in her varied forms. During the Edo period, artists tried to capture her as she changed her shape. Many woodblock prints show her dressed as a human and going about human activities. Others offer glimpses of a tail peeking out from under a kimono.
Kitsune came from China, but she found a home in Japan. She became the shape of the Japanese soul, and her stories possess anyone who hears them. She continues to live on in Inari statues and modern stories. She still listens for us to call out: come and sleep.
Further Reading: Ainu Fox Stories
The Ainu, one of Japan’s indigenous people, told stories about the fox long before Chinese fox stories crossed the Sea of Japan. Basil Hall Chamberlain collected a few of these tales in his 1886 work Aino Folk-tales. I selected two stories, “How a Man Got the Better of Two Foxes” and “The Two Foxes, the Mole, and the Crows,” to show how the fox’s pranks and shape-shifting ability changed little from Ainu tales.
How a Man Got the Better of Two Foxes
A man went into the mountains to get bark to make rope with and found a hole. To this hole, there came a fox, who spoke as follows, though he was a fox, in human language: "I know of something from which great profit may be derived. Let us go to the place to-morrow!" To which the fox inside the hole replied as follows: "What profitable thing do you allude to? After hearing about it, I will go with you if it sounds likely to be profitable; and if not, not." The fox outside spoke thus: "The profitable thing to be done is this. I will come here to-morrow about the time of the mid-day meal. You must be waiting for me then, and we will go off together. If you take the shape of a horse, and we go off together, I taking the shape of a man and riding on your back, we can go down to the shore, where dwell human beings possessed of plenty of food and all sorts of other things. As there is sure to be among the people someone who wants a horse, I will sell you to him who thus wants a horse. I can then buy a quantity of precious things and of food. Then I shall run away; and you, having the appearance of a horse, will be led out to eat grass, and be tied up somewhere on the hillside. Then, if I come and help you to escape, and we divide the food and the precious things equally between us, it will be profitable for both of us." Thus spoke the fox outside the hole; and the fox inside the hole was very glad, and said: "Come and fetch me early to-morrow, and we will go off together."
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The man was hidden in the shade of the tree and had been listening. Then the fox who had been standing outside went away, and the man, too, went home for the night. But he came back next day to the mouth of the hole, and spoke thus, imitating the voice of the fox whom he had heard speaking outside the hole the day before: "Here I am. Come out at once! If you will turn into a horse, we will go down to the shore." The fox came out. It was a big fox. The man said: "I have come already turned into a man. If you turn into a horse, it will not matter even if we are seen by other people." The fox shook itself and became a large chestnut [lit. red] horse. Then the two went off together, and came to a very rich village, plentifully provided with everything. The man said: "I will sell this horse to anybody who wants one." As the horse was a very fine one, everyone wanted to buy it. So the man bartered it for a quantity of food and precious things and then went away.
Now the horse was such a peculiarly fine one that its new owner did not like to leave it out-of-doors but always kept it in the house. He shut the door, and he shut the window and cut grass to feed it with. But though he fed it, it could not (being really a fox) eat grass at all. All it wanted to eat was fish. After about four days it was like to die. At last, it made its escape through the window and ran home, and, arriving at the place where the other fox lived, wanted to kill it. But it discovered that the trick had been played, not by its companion fox, but by the man. So both the foxes were very angry and consulted about going to find the man and kill him.
But though the two foxes had decided thus, the man came and made humble excuses, saying: "I came the other day because I had overheard you two foxes plotting, and then I cheated you. For this, I humbly beg your pardon. Even if you do kill me, it will do no good. So henceforward I will brew rice-beer for you, and set up the divine symbols for you, and worship you,—worship you forever. In this way, you will derive greater profit than you would derive from killing me. Fish, too, whenever I make a good catch, I will offer to you as an act of worship. This being so, the creatures called men shall worship you forever."
The foxes, hearing this, said: "That is capital, we think. That will do very well." Thus spake the foxes. Thus does it come about that all men, both Japanese and Aino, worship the fox. So it is said.
The Two Foxes, the Mole, and the Crows
Two brother foxes consulted together thus: "It would be fun for us to go down among men, and assume human shape." So they made treasures, and they made garments out of the leaves of various trees, and they made various things to eat and cakes out of the gum which comes out of trees. But the mole[-god] saw them making all these preparations. So the mole made a place like a human village and placed himself in it under the disguise of a very old man. The foxes came to that village; they came to the very old man's house. And the mole himself made beautiful treasures and made garments out of various herbs and leaves of trees, and, taking mulberries and grapes from the tops of the trees, he made good food. On the arrival of the foxes, the mole invited all the crows in the place and all sorts of birds. He gave them human shape and placed them as owners in the houses of the village. Then the mole, as chief of the village, was a very old man.
Then the foxes came, having assumed the shape of men. They thought the place was a human village. The old chief bought all the things which the foxes had brought on their backs, all their treasures, and all their food. Then the old man displayed to them his own beautiful treasures. The old man displayed all his beautiful things, his garments. The foxes were much pleased. Then the old man spoke thus: "Oh you strangers! As there is a dance in my village, it will be well for you to see it." Then all the people in the village danced all sorts of dances. But at last, owing to their being birds, they began to fly upwards, notwithstanding their human shape. The foxes saw this and were much amused. The foxes ate both of the mulberries and of the grapes. They tasted very good. It was great fun, too, to see the dancing. Afterward, they went home.
The foxes thought thus: "What is nicer even than treasures is the delicious food which human beings have. As we do not know what it is, let us go again and buy some more of it." So they again made treasures out of herbs. Then they again went down to that village. The mole was in a golden house—a large house. He was alone in it, having sent all the crows and the rest away. As the foxes entered the house and looked at them, they saw a very venerable god. The god spoke thus: "Oh! you foxes; because you had assumed human shape, you made all sorts of counterfeit treasures. I saw all that you did. It is by me, and because of this, that you are brought here. You think this is a human village; but it is the village of me, your master the mole. It seems you constantly do all sorts of bad things. If you do so, it is very wrong; so do not assume human shape anymore. If you will cease to assume human shape, you may henceforth eat your fill of these mulberries and grapes. You and your companions the crows may eat together of the mulberries and of all fruits at the top of the trees, which the crows cause to drop down. This will be much more profitable for you than to assume human shape." Thus spoke the mole.
Owing to this, the foxes left off assuming human shape, and, from that time forward, ate as they pleased of the mulberries and the grapes. When the crows let any drop, they went underneath the trees and ate them. They became very friendly together.
Further Reading: Chinese Fox Stories
Chinese fox stories are numerous and influential. The Japanese fox inherited most of her traits from her Chinese sisters. I selected two stories, “The Fox and the Raven” and “The Talking Silver Foxes,” to illustrate the commonality of the Japanese fox’s cunning and the fox’s ability to speak. The stories can be found in The Chinese Fairy Book, edited by R. Wilhelm in 1921.
The Fox and the Raven
The fox knows how to flatter, and how to play many cunning tricks. Once upon a time he saw a raven, who alighted on a tree with a piece of meat in his beak. The fox seated himself beneath the tree, looked up at him, and began to praise him.
“Your color,” he began, “is pure black. This proves to me that you possess all the wisdom of Laotzse, who knows how to shroud his learning in darkness. The manner in which you manage to feed your mother shows that your filial affection equals that which the Master Dsong had for his parents. Your voice is rough and strong. It proves that you have the courage with which King Hiang once drove his foes to flight by the mere sound of his voice. In truth, you are the king of birds!”
The raven, hearing this, was filled with joy and said: “I thank you! I thank you!”
And before he knew it, the meat fell to earth from his opened beak.
The fox caught it up, devoured it and then said, laughing: “Make note of this, my dear sir: if someone praises you without occasion, he is sure to have a reason for doing so.”
The Talking Silver Foxes
The silver foxes resemble other foxes but are yellow, fire-red or white in color. They know how to influence human beings, too. There is a kind of silver fox which can learn to speak like a man in a year’s time. These foxes are called “Talking Foxes.”
Southwest of the bay of Kaiutschou there is a mountain by the edge of the sea, shaped like a tower, and hence known as Tower Mountain. On the mountain, there is an old temple with the image of a goddess, who is known as the Old Mother of Tower Mountain. When children fall ill in the surrounding villages, the magicians often give orders that paper figures of them be burned at her altar, or little lime images of them are placed around it. And for this reason, the altar and its surroundings are covered with hundreds of figures of children made in lime. Paper flowers, shoes, and clothing are also brought to the Old Mother and lie in a confusion of colors. The pilgrimage festivals take place on the third day of the third month and the ninth day of the ninth month, and then there are theatrical performances, and the holy writings are read. And there is also an annual fair. The girls and women of the neighborhood burn incense and pray to the goddess. Parents who have no children go there and pick out one of the little children made of lime and tie a red
thread around its neck, or even secretly break off a small bit of its body, dissolve it in water, and drink it. Then they pray quietly that a child may be sent them.
Behind the temple is a great cave where, in former times, some talking foxes used to live. They would even come out and seat themselves on the point of a steep rock by the wayside. When a wanderer came by they would begin to talk to him in this fashion: “Wait a bit, neighbor; first smoke a pipe!” The traveler would look around in astonishment to see where the voice came from and would become very much frightened. If he did not happen to be exceptionally brave, he would begin to perspire with terror and run away. Then the fox would laugh: “Hi hi!”
Once a farmer was plowing on the side of the mountain. When he looked up he saw a man with a straw hat, wearing a mantle of woven grass, and carrying a pick across his shoulder coming along the way.
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