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The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Culture: Shapeshifters, Transformations, and Duplicities
Abstract
For more than a millennium, the fox has been a ubiquitous figure at the margins of the Japanese collective imagination. In the writings of the nobility and the motifs of popular literature, the fox is known as a shapeshifter, able to assume various forms in order to deceive others. Focusing on recurring themes of transformation and duplicity in folklore, theology, and court and village practice, The Fox's Craft explores the meanings and uses of shapeshifter fox imagery in Japanese history. Michael Bathgate finds that the shapeshifting powers of the fox make it a surprisingly fundamental symbol in the discourse of elite and folk alike, and a key component in formulations of marriage and human identity, religious knowledge, and the power of money. The symbol of the shapeshifter fox thus provides a vantage point from which to understand the social practice of signification.
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Along with women, the snake is associated with the yin energy, which is regarded as cold and dark in nature, in contrast to the warm and bright yang energy.
“Along with women, the snake is associated with the yin energy, 15 which is regarded as cold and dark in nature, in contrast to the warm and bright yang energy.”
From The Road to Redemption: Killing Snakes in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (2019) · cites this paper as Bathgate 2004
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The Road to Redemption: Killing Snakes in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
Chen, H. (2019) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel10040247 · Cited by 10
Animals in Japanese Buddhism: The Third Path of Existence
Ambros, B. (2014) · Religion Compass · doi:10.1111/rec3.12118 · Cited by 9
Imagined reality: Urban space and Sui-Tang beliefs in the underworld
Sun, Y. (2015) · Studies in Chinese Religions · doi:10.1080/23729988.2015.1124512
Metadata
- Authors
- Bathgate, M.
- Corresponding author
- Bathgate, Michael
- Venue
- Routledge eBooks
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2004-03-01
- OpenAlex
- W4248493913
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Routledge eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Japanese History and Culture
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › General Arts and Humanities › Cultural and Mythological Studies
- Keywords
- fox spirits, kitsune, shapeshifters, Japanese religion, Japanese folklore, transformation, duplicity, marriage, human identity, religious knowledge, money, signification, popular literature
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