What is a kuda-gitsune?
The kuda-gitsune is a possessing spirit in the form of a fox small enough to fit inside a bamboo pipe (kuda). It is said to be the size of a mouse or weasel, or even smaller, and it is sometimes said that “75 can fit in one pipe.” It has been told of mainly in Nagano Prefecture (Shinshu), as well as the Kanto, Tokai and Chubu regions.
Izuna practitioners and the kuda-gitsune
The kuda-gitsune is linked with the worship of Mount Iizuna in Shinshu and is also called “izuna.” Mountain ascetics and practitioners called “izuna-tsukai” were believed to carry kuda-gitsune in bamboo tubes, making them possess people to cause illness or using them for divination and prophecy. The art of using kuda-gitsune was also called “the izuna method,” and some Sengoku-period warlords are said to have held izuna beliefs.
The legend of “families that keep pipe foxes”
In some regions, it was said that a family keeping kuda-gitsune would suddenly grow rich because the foxes carried money and goods from other houses, but that the foxes would multiply until they ate the family into ruin. Such legends of “lineages possessed by spirits” have in the past led to baseless prejudice and discrimination against particular families, and today their background is studied as a subject of folklore research.
How it differs from other fox yokai
Other fox possessing spirits include the “osaki” of Kanto and the “ninko” of the San’in region. Fox yokai that show the fox’s spiritual power include the yoko, which grows more tails over a thousand years, and the nine-tailed fox. The inugami, which uses a dog’s spirit, has likewise been told of as a possessing spirit.
