Japanese Ghosts Week 7a Outline: Intro to Yôkai and Foxes

Intro

I. Yôkai (bewitching apparitions)

A. Term invented by Meiji scholar Inoue Enryô (1858-1919) in an attempt to rid Japan of "superstitition" and bring "Civilization and Enlightenment" (image)

B. 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.using spells and incantations	Ghosts (people who  become demonic/  supernatural after death) onryô mononoke muenbotoke yurei ubume

C. Yôkai begin with late Heian and medieval stories about Night Parades of 100 Demons (Hyakki Yakô or Yagyô, then develop through illustration in Edo period

1. 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-17th century) emaki illustrated scrolls of Hyakki Yakô (eg. Hyaki Yakô no Zu)

3. Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788) specialized in Hyakki Yakô encyclopedias, resulted in proliferation of a wide variety of yôkai (Toriyama Sekien "catalogs" them, in the process apparently creating many new kinds)

Night Parade of 100 Demons (Hyakki Yakô (or Hyakki Yagyô)

D. Examples of medieval to early modern yôkai

1. Ryû (dragons) (can sometimes be shape-shifters; control rain) and serpents (women/men who are jealous can transform into fire-breathing serpents)

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 (2) (the mountain hag), a kind of supernatural earth-mother demon. Later becomes associated with hag of Adachigahara, but originally a more ambivalent figure. Sometimes paired with one-eyed Yamawarawa (mountain boy).

Bakemono ("things that change"):

1. Shape-shifter animals (henge): foxes (kitsune), tanuki racoon dogs (sometimes confused with mujina badgers) and bakeneko/nekomata (2) cats, inugami dogs who can change shape and bewitch you. Note that stories about foxes, tanuki and mujina date to the medieval period; inugami overlap wtih foxes; bakeneko are later, dating to the 17th century.

2. Ordinary objects that have come alive

Scooby Doo: Tsukumogami 1, Tsukumogami 2

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 lstories about tsukomogami.

Tsukumogami

Other examples of Yokai (images): images

 

II. Foxes

A. Natural characteristics (image)

B. Supernatural characteristics:

1. 100 years can bewitch

2. 500 years can transform into a human or any shape

3. 1000 years, turns white (or gold), full power (can fly, control tama flames, create illusions), nine tails (Pokemon Vulpix)

(image)

4. Kitsunebi (fox fire) (2): explanation for lights (flames) in marshes at night

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

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

a. Why are foxes related to Inari harvest deity?

b. What do they love to eat?

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

a. symptoms?

b. one possible goal of fox possession?

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. Solitary sorceror (Kabuki image of fox ownership from play, Ogura no Shikishi, performed in Osaka in 1852, so very late)
     
2. Families

3. What do fox owners use to control them?

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

1) Dakini-ten = derived from a demonic Tantric Hindu female deity Hariti, a child eater who was transformed by an encounter with the Buddha into guardian deity of Buddhism; in esoteric Buddhism she is a deity who protects women and children; also associated with Inari Deity

2) Dakini ritual was thought to give the performer magical control over foxes, worldly benefits

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? [image]

B. What does the way the foxes move indicate about their nature?