page_title: Kitsune no yomeiri
section_title: Classics and legends
hierarchical_section_title: Kitsune no yomeiri / Classics and legends
caption_attribution_description: 狐の狛犬 と 女化稲荷神社
context_page_description: The Kitsune no Yomeiri, which is similar to "monkey's wedding" in English, is a strange event told about in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The "kitsune no yomeiri" can refer to several things: atmospheric ghost lights, a phenomenon during which it appears as if paper lanterns from a wedding procession are floating through the dark; what is commonly referred to as a sunshower; and various strange wedding processions that can be seen in classical Japanese kaidan, essays, and legends. The "kitsune no yomeiri" is always closely related to foxes, or kitsune and various Shinto rituals and festive rights relating to the "kitsune no yomeiri" have been developed in various parts of Japan.
context_section_description: Fox's weddings were not merely phenomena of nature, but also things that were actually seen in the old literature of the Edo period as well as various legends depending on the area.
  There are various stories of strange wedding processions that were witnessed, and where there were actually foxes, like in the essay "Konjaku Yōdan Shū" (今昔妖談集) of Kan'ei period of one taking place in Takemachi, in the Honjo area of Edo, as well as the written work "Edo Chirihiroi" (江戸塵拾) where one was seen at the Hacchō canal in Edo, as well as the kaidan collection "Kaidan Oi no Tsue" (怪談老の杖) of the Kansei period where one was seen in the village of Kanda, Kōzuke (now Gunma Prefecture).
  Stories of marriages between foxes that were shown to humans are disseminated country-wide. As an example, according to folk legend, in a legend of Sōka, Saitama prefecture, in the Sengoku period, a certain woman promised to marry with her lover, but died to an illness, and foxes were inspired by the regretfulness of this situation, and thus it is said that a fox's wedding procession could be seen near the woman's grave. Also, according to a folktale in the Shinano Province (now Nagano Prefecture), there is a story where when an old man helped a little fox, he was eventually greeted by the wedding procession of the fox when it grew mature, and as a gift of thinks to the old man, he was taken along it. In stories of weddings like these, natural phenomena like those written about above as well as supernatural "kitsune no yomeiri", function like stage settings, and weddings that take place in the day frequently take place in a sunshower, and those that take place at night frequently take place among atmospheric ghost lights.
  There are also legends in various areas that one could see a fox's wedding by performing some specific actions, and in the Fukushima Prefecture, it is said that at evening in 10/10 on the lunisolar calendar, if one wears a suribachi on one's head, and sticks a wooden pestle in one's waist, and stand under a date plum, it is possible to see a fox's wedding, and in the Aichi Prefecture, it is said that if one spits in a well, intertwine one's fingers and look through a gap in between, one is able to see a fox's wedding.
  There are also stories of weddings not just between foxes, but also between a human male and a female fox, and as a representative work, which also became a ningyō jōruri, there is the story about the birth of the Heian period onmyoji, Abe no Seimei in Kuzunoha. Other than this, there is also a similar tale in the Nihonkoku Genpō Zen'aku Ryōiki, as well as in the "Tonegawa Zushi" (利根川図志) a topography book published in 1857 (Ansei 5). The latter one concerns a commander 栗林義長 who actually existed who was comparable with Zhuge Liang, and the town of Onabake (女化, literally "shapeshift into woman") in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture got its name from this, and the a fox is deified in the Onabake Jinja in Ryūgasaki of the same prefecture.
  Also, in the Konjaku Monogatarishū as well as the "Honchō Koji Innen Shū" (本朝故事因縁集) published in 1689 (Genroku 2) and the "Tamahahaki" (玉掃木) published in 1696 (Genroku 9), there is the story of a fox who appeared before a married man, shapeshifted and disguised as that person's wife. Also, in the kaidan collection "Tonoigusa" (宿直草) published in 1677 (Enpō 5), there is the reverse story where a male fox fell in love with a female human, shapedshifted and disguised as that woman's husband and intercourse, and resulted in the birth of children with atypical appearance.
caption: The Onabake Jinja in Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki Prefecture
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