Kuzunoha (Osaka)

Kuzunoha is a white fox of the Shinoda Forest of Izumi Province (now Izumi, Osaka). After being rescued by Abe-no-Yasuna, she takes the form of a human woman, marries him, and bears the child who later becomes the onmyoji Abe-no-Seimei. The "child-parting" scene and the parting poem said to have been left on the shoji, "If you long for me, come and see me; in Izumi the resentful kuzu-leaves of the Shinoda Forest," are widely known. The narrative is recorded in medieval onmyodo texts including the Hoki-sho and the Hoki Naiden Kin-u Gyokuto-shu, where it stands as the origin-account of Seimei's birth, and is later dramatized in the joruri Shinoda-zuma (1674) and Takeda Izumo's Ashiya Doman Ouchi Kagami (1734 premiere). The canonical narrative follows the Izumi Shinoda Forest white fox rescued by Abe-no-Yasuna, the marriage as the daughter Kuzunoha, the bearing of the boy who becomes Abe-no-Seimei, the revelation of identity, and the return to the forest; the Shinodanomori Kuzunoha-Inari-jinja in Izumi, Osaka, transmits the tradition. The figure also appears in the figural Bakemono Zukushi Emaki and the Toriyama Sekien Gazu Hyakki Yagyo / Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki lineage. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database compile the cases. Related sites include Seimei-jinja in Kamigyo, Kyoto, and Abe Monju-in in Nara. Adjacent fox-mother traditions include Tamamo-no-Mae, Kitsune-Tadanobu in Yoshitsune Senbon-zakura, and Izuna/Kuda-gitsune in Shinshu.