Kitsune: Japan's Fox of Mystery, Romance & Humor

by Kiyoshi Nozaki

The classic exposition on Japan's folkloric fox details all appearances of the kitsun found in Japan's rich culture, from religion and superstition to art and literature. Historical illustrations throughout the book reveal an entire nation's enduring fascination for this mysterious animal. Kiyoshi Nozaki was a writer and Japanese folklorist.

Genres: Nonfiction, Folklore, Japan, Research, History, Japanese Literature

235 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating overview of the Kistune myth in Japanese history. Rather than delving into analysis, the book simply presented texts (or summaries of the texts) themselves with accompanying old illustrations of the like. The book was divided into several sections, each detailing a different place where the Kistune myth had popped up (i.e. books, poetry, No plays, etc.)

While I think the book would have benefited from some analysis, the stories were still very entertaining and some of them seemed to give a certain idea of the folklore's development. In particular, the section of fox-possession was interesting as it included several case-studies of people who had been possessed by foxes.

Rather than satiating my interest, this book only seemed to further it, which I suppose is a good thing overall. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic of Kistune, however I would not recommend it to people who are looking for a truly in-depth study of the phenomenon itself.

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in search of information on kitsune. To my delight, this book was downloadable through a link on the "kitsune" Wikipedia page. It's a scan of a poorly copied version but it's readable. The book certainly doesn't come across as a very scholarly book, even as one published in 1961. The tone is uneven, at times acting like kitsune could be real and while at others times discounting them entirely. It does provide more details than Wikipedia and other web sites on certain phenomena such as kitsune-bi (when kitsune create balls of fire) and kitsune-tsuki (kitsune possession, similar to demon possession). It's a very staid book, but it also discussed some sexual content on kitsune, including rape and remedies on treating the pain that results from relations with foxes (a boiled buckwheat douche, FYI).

This is certainly one of the more odd and intriguing research books I've read of late. I imagine I'll reference the ebook again in the future.

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

What this book is not: An encyclopedia on the beliefs about foxes in Japan.
What this book is: It is a good collection of fox stories and some comments of beliefs about them.

I say this book is definitely recommendable for the fact alone that it gets the fundamental nature of foxes in Japanese folklore: they are foxes, magical foxes!
They are not spirits like so many western people, even experts, constantly claim. They are foxes and can be killed just like any mundane red fox, as these stories show. Other books also have such stories but even there it doesn't seem to occur to the authors that these are not spirits, one actually came with something like "affecting the real fox affects the spirit fox somehow" when a fox was killed and the haunting ceased.
The chapter about the Inari shrine was over pretty quickly, in fact it must have been the shortest on the subject that I have ever seen. Speaking of chapter length, several were split into two parts for some reason. The title would literally say part 1 or part 2, or more in some cases, and I wonder why, why not let them as one chapter?
I also asked myself whether "badger" here actually refers to the badger or whether it was once again a case of the wrong translation of "tanuki" that many often translate with "badger" instead of the correct translation "raccoon dog." But that is not due to this book, there is nothing to assess this here (a later possession story suggests that it might be a raccoon dog but not more), it is simply a problem I encountered very often.
It was interesting to see the difference to the Chinese sexual legends about foxes since in all of those I read so far the human usually dies due to the sexual encounter, but when someone dies here it is the fox. Of course in both cases you notice that no one ever wondered whether these stories make sense, e.g. that one guy really should have known that the fox he captured could create illusions since that is pretty much one of their defining features. There was also a tale where the first sentence spoke of a man marrying a serpent, but the tale had none. Plus I really thought it weird that one chapter was called the fox in fairy tales. Because what were all those previous stories then? It was also weird how in that chapter they only have a short description of a fox-wedding but no story about such an event itself.
I personally would also not agree with the author's statement that "No masks are strange things and the making of them is a strange art; they are not merely carvings. They are not things to be admired by hanging them on the wall. The real value of the No masks is to be appreciated when the players play their parts wearing them on the stage."
That sentence by itself shows that No masks are masks like any other. The author can be as dramatic as he wants, but what he says there is typical for all masks.
What was also odd, was how this describes terms like ohitsu and tenugui when wooden container and towel would do as well but it gives no explanation regarding "-san" until it had been used several times.
The first chapter on fox-fire was interesting regarding what different ideas there are, e.g. breathing fire or making light holding horse-bones in their mouths. I also finally found where the claim of there being 13 types of foxes comes from. According to a certain kannagi (maiden of the shrine who divines things, besides having other duties), there are 13 kinds of foxes with their different methods of witchery, such as celestial foxes, earthly foxes, black foxes, white foxes and so forth. However there is nothing to suggest that this is a generally accepted categorization.
The examples of fox-possession were interesting for me, but probably not for everybody, and the list of things being named after foxes (having "kitsune" in their name) was ok, just a weak ending. An epilogue or so would have been nice.
So like I wrote at the start, it is a nice collection and recommendable complementary book when you want to know about foxes in Japanese folklore.

Ps. That one story saying how a man had a sensation like an electric shock when he was bewitched was the first time ever I found anything electric related in an actual fox story. Wikipedia claims kitsune-bi also refers to lighting but based on what? So far I found nothing.

[Margit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of Kitsune lore, with (limited) historical and cultural context and accompanying illustrations. A fun read for those interested in the Japanese Kitsune.