Greetings yokai lovers!
Thanks for waiting for this post while I set up my new tablet. One of my favorite depictions of this folklore is in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, where a little boy goes out into the forest and witnesses a procession of kitsune. You can see a clip of that scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLhKObIHefQ There’s something so eerie and mystical about it that I really love.
Anyway, on to the story!
狐の嫁入り
きつねのよめいり
Translation: a fox’s wedding; sun shower
Alternate names: kitsune no yomeiri gyōretsu, kitsune no yometori, kitsune no kon, kitsune no shūgen
Habitat: throughout the Japanese islands of Honshu, Kyūshū, and Shikoku
Appearance: Kitsune no yomeiri is a beautiful yet eerie event: a grand procession preceding the wedding of a kitsune–the magical foxes of Japanese folklore. In many ways it resembles an old fashioned Japanese bridal procession, in which the bride would travel to her new home among a parade of paper lanterns. Such weddings usually take place during the deep quiet of night, where they appear as a long string of kitsunebi–phantom lights–stretching over a large area.
Origin: Kitsune no yomeiri is a common phrase referring to a sun shower. When rain falls while the sun is shining, it was said to be a kitsune trick. Kitsune create rain during their weddings so that humans don’t go into the mountains and spy upon their ceremonies. Thus, whenever there was a sun shower, people believed that kitsune were having a wedding nearby.
Legends: A folktale from Miyazaki Prefecture describes a kitsune no yomeiri. A man was traveling along a road in the woods, when all of a sudden a sun shower began. “A kitsune must be getting married!” thought the man. Suddenly, he spied a beautiful woman ahead of him on the road. She turned back and smiled in his direction. He followed her as she walked, and every time she turned and smiled he felt his heart flutter.
The woman entered a grove of trees. She broke a few branches and slid them into her hair, and they turned into beautiful hairpins. She traced her fingers along the trunk of a large tree and circled around it. As she did, her clothing transformed into a fabulous white bridal kimono. “How strange… This woman must be a kitsune!” he thought to himself as he stared in amazement.
The woman approached a bamboo grove. Countless fox-shaped faces began to emerge from the forest. They were carrying long ornate chests and a palanquin, which they brought up to the bride for her to enter. Each of the guests was wearing a splendid kimono decorated with their family crests. “I was right! It’s a kitsune wedding!” The man was excited to witness something so rare.
The man followed the procession for a long time, deeper and deeper into the mountains. Finally, it arrived at a large manor with a straw roof. The kitsune all entered the manor. “This must be where the ceremony will take place!” thought the man. He searched around for a place from which he could spy on the ceremony. He found a small hole high up in the wall. The man climbed upon a large stone step and stretched his legs to reach the hole. From there he could see the whole interior. The inside of the manor was decorated with expensive dining tables. A kitsune was seated at each one, and the ceremony began. “It’s just like a human wedding!” the man thought to himself.
After watching for some time, the man grew tired and stepped down off from the peephole. He lit his pipe and had a smoke. As he puffed away on his pipe, the scenery changed before his eyes. What was a great straw-thatched manor just a moment ago was now a wooden shrine. What he thought was a stone stair was the pedestal of a great stone lantern. And the hole he peeked through was the round hole of the lantern. The guests were all gone. Even thought he knew they were kitsune, he had still been bewitched by their magic.