CHAPTER 1 
BACKGROUND TO APPRECIATION 
IN Japan, Kitsuné is considered to be the most interesting 
and popular animal in tradition. You will find the 
tradition of the fox existing everywhere you go in the 
country. And Kitsuné is loved and worshiped by the 
people. 
All the principal authorities on ancient customs and 
ideas tell us that animal worship has prevailed in every 
part of the globe. And whatever may be the origin of 
this worship, a good authority on Hindu religion asserts 
that it is to be accounted for by the working of one or 
other of the motives of gratitude, fear, or awe, 
operating separately in the separate cases. Men, in not 
understanding the ways and powers of animals, 
considered them as higher than themselves and hence 
worshiped them and copied them in some of the habits. 
In this connection, it is interesting to note how the 
American Indians, good hunters as they were, feared 
and worshiped the animals of woods and forests. 
"The animal people lived," says an Indian legend, 
"before the days of the first grandfather, long, long ago, 
when the sun was new and no larger than a star, when 
the earth was young, and the tall firs of the
forest no larger than an arrow." 
A beautiful legend, this. 
Indeed it was the fox, the Silver Fox, that created the 
world, according to the legend of the Hat Creek Indians, 
who live in the Northwest of America. 
The word Kitsuné comes from two Japanese syllables: 
kitsu and né. Kitsu is the sound made when a fox yelps, 
and né is a word signifying an affectionate feeling, a 
suitable name for such an interesting creature as a fox. 
Foxes are rarely seen nowadays in Japan even in rural 
districts. In ancient times, however, they would roam 
about leisurely in any place, wagging their long pointed 
muzzles and dragging their long busy tails. 
Late at night, in the stillness of a deserted village, the 
plaintive barking of a fox would be heard. 
"Kitsu* is yelping. Kitsu is yelping again," a mother 
would tell her infant, giving the breast to him in bed. 
In ancient times, according to the Nihon Ryakki, one 
of the oldest books of records, a great number of foxes 
lived even in the national capital, Kyoto: In the reign of 
the Emperor Kammu (737-806), foxes barked at night in 
the Imperial Palace in December, 803; and in the reign of 
the Emperor Saga (786-842), foxes walked up the stairs of 
the Imperial Palace in September, 820. 
Yoshida Kenko, the famous writer-recluse of the middle 
part of the 14th century, writes in his Tsure-zuregusa as 
follows: 
*Kitsuné was called Kitsu in ancient times. Not an abbreviation here. (See the 
chapter Fox in Poetry.) 
"In the palace at Horikawa, a servant was bitten in 
the leg by a fox while he was in bed fast asleep. A 
petty priest of the Ninnaji temple was passing one 
night in front of the main building of the temple when 
three foxes attacked him. He unsheathed his sword to 
defend himself and lunged at two foxes. One of them 
was killed, the other two scampered away. The priest 
was injured in several parts of his body. However 
fortunately he was not so seriously wounded." 
You can see by the above statement made by Kenko 
that foxes were still rampant in the 14th century capital 
of the country. 
In Japan, says the Nihon Shoki, the annals compiled in 
720, Kitsuné was formerly held in respect as an animal 
of good omen. In 720 a black fox was presented from Iga 
Province to the Emperor Gemmyo (661-726), an 
empress-regnant, the founder of the capital of Nara. 
However in the 10th and the llth centuries when 
poetry was flourishing, Kitsuné was not treated with 
affection. The animal, then, was merely considered to be 
weird and uncanny. Kitsuné, in those days, was 
associated in literature in general with such a thing as an 
apparition or a wraith. 
To understand the tales (including, of course, those of 
Kitsuné) told in the era during which The Genji 
Monogatari or The Konjaku Monogatari was written, 
we must know the social conditions. The foregoing stories 
were written in the epoch dominated, to all intents and 
purposes, by the military men. And it must also be 
remembered that the religion of these 
military men was Power. Each of the war barons, who 
wanted to be the master of the capital by conquering his 
rival, had no leisure to resign himself to his fate. He 
simply strove against it, casting aside effeminate fatalism. 
He engaged in internecine feuds. He would break his 
promises. And only the brave could win the laurels of 
victory. 
On the other hand, the masses in those days, who lived 
in the world of disturbances, must have found themselves 
exhausted physically and spiritually. They had previously 
suffered under the tyrannical government. And now they 
could not seek a place for peaceful living because of wars. 
Therefore they were obliged to take refuge in superstition, 
a natural course for them to take. 
Superstition is a thing calculating and materialistic in 
any age, common to all. Superstition instantly captivates the 
masses by its momentary pleasure and immediate 
advantage. It always avails itself of the disadvantages of 
people. They lose their reason when blinded by superstition. 
Thus there were two different currents in those days 
power-worship and the addiction to superstition, as 
seen in the military class and the lower people, phenomena 
totally contradicting each other in nature. The faith of the 
latter was under pressure by the former. 
Now we must look back upon the later era the Édo 
Era (1615-1847), during which such famous tales as The 
Ugétsu Monogatari and The Hakken-den were written. We 
find there a different aspect of life totally
different from that of the above-mentioned age. 
Tokugawa-Iyéyasu, who assumed the reins of government 
after Toyotomi-Hidéyoshi in the early part of the 
17th century, was an extremely shrewd statesmangeneral. 
He believed not only in Power, but also in 
religion as a policy, and he was afraid of his fate after 
death, like an ordinary man. 
As for the populace in this era, they saw peace ensured 
by the establishment of the Tokugawa shogun-ate. 
However the class system, the samurai class and the 
lower classes still existed. It was still the world of 
samurai. In consequence, the populace could do nothing 
but resort to their faith for the relief of their sufferings. 
However after the insurrection of Shima-bara, a great 
revolt of Christians in Kyushu in 1637, a strict 
surveillance was exercised over religion their only 
safety-valve. It was natural that they began to indulge 
merely in pleasure. 
The samurai class, at the same time, sank into 
effeminacy by the neglect of military discipline; and 
began to follow the example of the people in general as 
they became used to peace. As a result, they became as 
superstitious as the populace. 
Tsunayoshi, the 5th Shogun of the Tokugawas, for 
instance, believing blindly in the preaching of Priest 
Ryuko, established several big temples and issued an 
order to protect animals, especially dogs, because he was 
born in the Year of the Dog (The year falling on one of 
the twelve horary signs, Dog). Dogs, therefore, thrived, 
and the streets of Édo, as might well be imagined, were 
full of their feces, and they called Tsunayoshi the Dog- 
Shogun. He was a wise and
learned shogun. However superstition made him such a 
man. 
The literature, and especially the stories told of foxes in 
those days, naturally reflect this tendency to superstition. 
When, for instance, a maniac or maniacs appeared on the 
street of Édo (present Tokyo) and cut women's hair and 
they could not apprehend the culprits, they attributed the 
offence to the act of Kitsuné, calling them hair-cutting 
Kitsuné. 
The hair-cutting Kitsuné was the town-talk in the days 
of the great artist Utamaro (1753-1806). The outrageous 
act must have caused considerable alarm among the 
women at that time who prized their hair so much, as 
shown in several block-printed genre-pictures. 
To the minds of the people, Kitsuné seemed to take 
delight: 1) in assuming the form of human beings; 2) in 
bewitching human beings and 3) by possessing human 
beings. The people of the Heian Era (781-1185) and the 
Édo Era (1615-1867) believed in these things and the 
superstition still survives in some rural districts of the 
country. 
Kitsuné, it must be remembered, was real in the minds 
of these people. They lived with Kitsuné. They shared 
joy and sorrow with Kitsuné. They fell in love with 
Kitsuné and Kitsuné was infatuated with men and 
women, as you will read later in The Konjaku 
Monogatari and other tales. The writers of these books, of 
course, related stories about Kitsuné believing in 
Kitsuné, the animal of romance and mystery.
The author of this book, therefore, sincerely hopes that 
the reader will live with those people believing in 
Kitsuné endowed with supernatural power. Then you can 
appreciate him fully and enjoy the tales found in this 
volume.