The is a term or metaphor for certain natural phenomena, or a folk belief regarding a supernatural event, in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The term "kitsune no yomeiri" can refer to several things: atmospheric ghost lights, in which it appears as if paper lanterns from a wedding procession are floating through the dark; sunshowers; or various other phenomena that may resemble wedding processions and are referenced in classical Japanese kaidan, essays, and legends. The kitsune no yomeiri is always closely related to foxes, or kitsune, who often play tricks on humans in Japanese legend; various Shinto rituals and festive rites relating to the kitsune no yomeiri have been developed in various parts of Japan.

As atmospheric ghost lights

A topography book of the Echigo Province (now Niigata Prefecture), from the Hōreki period, the "Echigo Nayose" (越後名寄), includes the following statement about the appearance of the "kitsune no yomeiri":

In here, lines of atmospheric ghost lights that stretch close to 4 kilometers are called "kitsune no kon", and also in Nakakubiki District, Niigata Prefecture, and Uonuma of the same prefecture, the Akita Prefecture, Sakuragawa, Ibaraki Prefecture, Nanakai, Nishiibaraki District of the same prefecture (now Shirosato), Hitachiōta of the same prefecture, Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, Higashichichibu of the same prefecture, the Tama area of Tokyo, the Gunma Prefecture, Mukawa, Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture, the Mie Prefecture, and Nanbu, Saihaku District, Tottori Prefecture, among other places, when atmospheric ghost lights (kitsunebi) are seen in the countryside at night, it is called "kitsune no yomeiri." while referred to as "kitsune no shūgen" (狐の祝言) in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

In Japan, holding a wedding in a specific place did not become common until the middle of the Showa period. Prior to this, it was common for weddings to be performed in the evening and for the bride to enter with a procession of paper lanterns. Since atmospheric ghost lights that extend in a line can look like lanterns and torches from a wedding ceremony, and since paper lanterns were known to be used during a fox's wedding ceremony, they were thus called such names. There are several theories as to why the bride and groom are seen as foxes. One such theory says that although the lights appeared to be signifying a wedding, there was actually no wedding anywhere and the entire thing was an elaborate trick played by foxes. Because the mysterious lights looked like paper lanterns from afar but disappeared once one got close, it was almost as if one was being fooled by a fox.

In Kirinzan, Niigata Prefecture, there lived many foxes, and it is said that there was a wedding procession at night that hanged paper lanterns. In Niigata as well as Shiki District, Nara Prefecture, a fox's wedding is thought to be connected to agriculture, and it is said that for many atmospheric ghost lights to appear means that it is a plentiful year, and for few of them to appear means it is year of poor crops.

Depending on the area, there are legends including not only the sighting of atmospheric ghost lights but purported sightings of actual weddings as well. In Gyōda, Saitama Prefecture, it is said that kitsune no yomeiri frequently appears in the Kasuga Shrine in Tanigou, and it is reported that here and there along the road, fox feces can be found after one such reported event.

In the Tokushima Prefecture, they were not considered fox's weddings, but rather fox's funerals, and were an omen that someone was about to die. and in Serizawa, Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture and the mountainous areas of Oe District, Tokushima Prefecture, it is called "kitsune-ame" (狐雨, fox rain). Another explanation is that since mountain bases experienced a lot of rain even when the sky was clear, people thought that foxes made rain fall in order to prevent people from going up the mountain and seeing the fox's wedding. as well as the written work "Edo Chirihiroi" (江戸塵拾) where one was seen at the Hacchō canal in Edo, as well as the kaidan collection "Kaidan Oi no Tsue" (怪談老の杖) of the Kansei period where one was seen in the village of Kanda, Kōzuke (now Gunma Prefecture). and in the Aichi Prefecture, it is said that if one spits in a well, intertwine one's fingers and look through a gap in between, one is able to see a fox's wedding.

right|thumb|240px|The [[Onabake Jinja in Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki Prefecture]]

There are also stories of weddings not just between foxes, but also between a human male and a female fox, and as a representative work, which also became a ningyō jōruri, there is the story about the birth of the Heian period onmyoji, Abe no Seimei in Kuzunoha.

Also, in the Konjaku Monogatarishū as well as the "Honchō Koji Innen Shū" (本朝故事因縁集) published in 1689 (Genroku 2) and the "Tamahahaki" (玉掃木) published in 1696 (Genroku 9), there is the story of a fox who appeared before a married man, shapeshifted and disguised as that person's wife.

In the ningyō jōruri first performed in 1732, there was also "it was quite clear weather all the way up to now, but then I heard it, the playful rain of the fox's wedding"

left|thumb|320px|Shūgen Kitsune no Mukoiri. It is determined to be a recent era work, but its time of creation and its creator is unknown.

Other than that, in Edo period kusazōshi and kibyōshi such as the (illustrated by Kitao Masayoshi) published in 1785 (Tenmei 5), (illustrated by Kitao Shigemasa), and "Anasaka Kitsune Engumi" (穴賢狐縁組) (illustrated by Jippensha Ikku), as well as in Kamigata e-hon such as the "Shūgen Kitsune no Mukoiri" and "Ehon Atsumegusa", there are depictions of "foxes' weddings" of humanized foxes going through weddings. There was a genre of works called of humanized animals going through weddings, but foxes had the special characteristic of concretely having the name Inari no Kami attached to them. and it is said that an actual fox's wedding precession was seen on a day of a sunshower.

Akira Kurosawa showed the Kitsune no yomeiri in his film Dreams (1990), where "Sunshine Through The Rain" is the first scene.

Japanese music producer -MASA Works DESIGN- the song "The Fox's Wedding"/"", featuring the voicebanks of Vocaloid's Hatsune Miku and GUMI. The song is part of a series called "The Story of the Kitsune and the Demon"/"" (also referred to as the Onibi series) which tell the stories of two families and the curse placed on the daughter of one family after the Kitsune, the daughter of the other family, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the mother of the former's family.

Due to the fox's wedding precession in Kirinzan in the Niigata Prefecture written about previously, the Kitsune no Yomeiri Gyōretsu is performed in the Tsugawa region, Aga, Higashikanbara in the same prefecture.

Also in the Hanaoka Tokufuku Inari-sha in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in the Inari festival held in November 3 every year, the "kitsune no yomeiri" is performed. which at that time it can be seen to flourish with several tens of thousands of visitors to the shrine.

References

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Sources

  • Kitsune no Yomeiri – The Fox Wedding at hyakumonogatari.com (English).