Japanese Ghosts Week 7a Outline: Foxes

Intro

I. Yôkai (bewitching apparitions)

A. Difference between yôkai and ghosts
 
 

CATEGORY 1	CATEGORY 2 (INTERMEDIATE)	CATEGORY 3
Yôkai (creatures  that are demonic /  supernatural in nature) Subcategory: Bakemono (literally "things that change shape"; shape-shifters). Animals that shape-shift are known as henge.	Living people who transform themselves into demons,  serpents, tengu, etc.	Ghosts (people who  become demonic/  supernatural after death)

B. Examples of medieval to early modern yôkai

1. Ryû (dragons) and serpents (can sometimes be shape-shifters)

2. Tengu (mountain goblins, either falcon-like or long-nosed; can sometimes be shape-shifters)

3. Kappa (green water sprites, Edo period development)

4. Yamamba (the mountain hag), a kind of supernatural earth-mother demon.

Bakemono :

1. Shape-shifter animals (henge): Foxes, tanuki racoon dogs (sometimes confused with mujina badgers) and bakeneko/nekomata cats who can change shape and bewitch you. Note that stories about foxes, tanuki and mujina date to the medieval period; bakeneko date to the 17th century.

2. Ordinary objects that have come alive (tsukumogami): very old and/or discarded utensils and household objects such as umbrellas, paper lanterns, sandals, teapots, etc. are thought to become animated if proper rituals of gratitude for their long-service are not performed. Late medieval development that becomes popular in the Edo period. This is mainly a visual category with many amusing illustrations from the Edo period in particular; there are not many stories about tsukomogami.

C. Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788), specialized in Hyakki Yakô (Night Parade of 100 Demons)

1. Late Heian and medieval stories about night parades of demons

Japanese Tales:
#74 "The Invisible Man" (99-101)
#168 "No Night to be Out Courting" (237-39)
#169 "Lump Off, Lump On" (239-40)
#170 "Take Good Look" (241)

2. Late medieval (16th century) emaki illustrated scrolls of Hyakki Yakô, including many tsukumogami

3. Edo period proliferation of a wide variety of yôkai (Toriyama Sekien "catalogs" them, in the process creating many new kinds)

II. Foxes

A. Natural characteristics (image)

B. Supernatural characteristics

1. 100 years can bewitch

2. 500 years can transform

2. 1000 years, full power, nine tails (Pokemon Vulpix)

C. Four interrelated forms (in basic chronological order of development)

1. Fox as Inari (Deity of Rice Harvest) or Fukutenjin (Heavenly Deity of Good Fortune)

a. Why are foxes related to Inari harvest deity?

2. Fox possession (illness and hysterical) (10th c. onwards)

3. Foxes taking the shape of human beings and other things (12th c. onwards)

4. Fox ownership (12 c. but prejudice kicks in 17-19th c.)
 

III. Carmen Blacker on Contemporary Fox Possession and Ownership ("Witch Animals")

A.  What are the signs of fox possession in contemporary exorcisms?

B. Why do foxes possess people?

1.Reason:

a. Appropriate response?

            2. Reason:

a. Appropriate response?
               

3. Reason:

a. Appropriate response?

C. If a fox is controlled, what two categories of people control them?

1.
     
2.

3. What do fox owners use to control them?

a. Izuna or Dakini (Dagini) ritual (click here and scroll down)

1) Dakini-ten = demonic guardian of Esoteric Buddhism (derived from a demonic Tantric Hindu female deity), associated with Inari Deity

2) Dakini ritual was thought to give the performer magical control

b. Tokugawa period version of how you get control of a fox

1) Ritual

D. According to Carmen Blacker, why are people accused of fox ownership? (pp. 56-60)

    1. slander

    2. Historical study

a.

b.

c.

    3. Who benefits?

4. Relationship to development of Burakumin (social outcastes)

    5. Point that people really see the foxes

E. Psychology of religion

A. What fox beliefs are visualized here?

B. Does the movement of the foxes remind you of anything?