Osaka Kuzunoha Legend

The Osaka Kuzunoha tradition is a fox-wife and birth legend set in Shinoda Forest (modern Izumi, Osaka) of Izumi Province, connecting the marriage of Abe no Yasuna with a white fox-wife and the birth of the onmyoji Abe no Seimei. In the Heian period, Abe no Yasuna rescued a white fox being chased by hunters at Shinoda Forest; the fox changed into a woman named Kuzunoha and became his wife, bearing a boy (later Abe no Seimei). One day the child saw her true form and she returned to the forest. The parting poem she left on the shoji, "If you yearn for me come and seek -- Shinoda Forest of Izumi, where the leaves of kuzu hide my regret," is the heart of the legend. The structure has four stages: Yasuna's rescue of the white fox, the marriage and birth of a son, the disclosure of her true form and her parting with the written poem, and the grown Seimei learning of his mother and rising as a great onmyoji. The puppet play Ashiya Doman Ouchi Kagami (first staged Kyoho 19, 1734, by Takeda Izumo) made the legend a foundation in performance. Older sources include the medieval Hoki-sho and Abe no Seimei Monogatari. The Shinoda Forest Kuzunoha Inari Shrine in Izumi is the primary site.