ABSTRACT
The oldest recorded account of shapeshifting foxes in Japan can be found in the Nihon ryōiki , a collection compiled in the early ninth century by a Buddhist monk affiliated with the Yakushiji in Nara. Entitled “On Taking a Fox as a Wife and Bringing Forth a Child” (1.2), the tale is translated by Kyoko Nakamura as follows:
In the reign of Emperor Kimmei…a man from Ōno district of Mino province set out on horseback in search of a good wife. In a field he came across a pretty and responsive girl. He winked at her and asked, “Where are you going, Miss?” “I am looking for a good husband,” she answered. So he asked, “Will you be my wife?” and, when she agreed, he took her to his house and married her.
