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supernatural powers of these animals that if the rice 

 crop fails or the silkworms are stolen all is ascribed 

 to the howling of foxes on certain days or the non- 

 appearance of a white fox the emblem of good luck 

 in a certain part of the paddy-field. 



The fox has a double and contradictory power in 

 Japan : that of a beneficent god, the messenger of 

 Inari, the rice-goddess, the Ceres of Japan, most popular 

 of all Shinto deities, who is believed to have a vulpine 

 shape, and on the other hand, that of a wicked 

 demon, haunting and possessing men. The idea that 

 foxes were able to metamorphose themselves into beings 

 shaped like men was originally borrowed from the 

 Chinese, whose influence on Japanese folklore has been 

 enormous. In many of the temples fox images are 

 to be seen, and the people pffer food at their shrines ; 

 and in every kitchen there is a small red shrine to Inari, 

 the goddess who makes the rice crop flourish and fills 

 hungry mouths. 



Not so important and complicated are the stories 

 connected with the badger, of which there are three 

 kinds : the tanuki, mujina, and mami. The first has 

 the foremost place, and is often bracketed with the 

 fox under the term kori (foxes and badgers). The 

 tanuki, as well as mujina, can change themselves into 

 men and haunt and possess mankind, but they are 

 not so skilful and djangerous as the fox, since they 

 lack the divine rice spirit which gives this animal a 

 special position, as the representative of the great bless- 

 ing of the country. The badger plays the part taken 

 by the wolf in Europe ; he bewilders unlucky mortals 

 by producing musical sounds, and takes on human 

 form to entice them to their death. Mitford tells the 



