Shinano Kitsune-tsuki Legend

The Shinano kitsune-tsuki legend belongs to the broad east-Asian belief in fox possession, attested in Japan from the Nihon Ryoiki (c. 810-824) and the Konjaku Monogatarishu. In Shinano the tradition is concentrated in the Matsumoto basin, the Suwa basin, the Ina valley and northern Shinano. A possessed person is reported to suddenly speak at length, describe places they have never visited, or crave foods they have never eaten; release comes through Shugendo, yamabushi or Shinto priestly rites, after which the person returns to normal. The associated stigma of being a kitsune-mochi (fox-keeper) household functioned as a regional explanatory system for mental and physical disturbance well into the early-modern period. The Shinano variant connects to the Togakushi mountain ascetic tradition and the Suwa ritual sphere. Documentary sources include the Nihon Ryoiki, the Konjaku Monogatarishu volume 27, the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, the Edo-period Tankai (1795) by Tsumura Soan, the journals of Sugae Masumi, and modern studies including Yanagita Kunio's Yama no Jinsei, Komatsu Kazuhiko's Hyorei Shinko-ron and Inoguchi Shoji's work on possession.