Fictional thought exercise

[chipotle]

In a setting that is an alternate version of feudal Japan, with races of anthropomorphic animals instead of humans but no other (overt) magic and myth, what would it mean for a fox-person to be a kitsune?

Comments

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting question to me, because it is sort of a mirror to a situation I have observed.

After Fred Patten had his stroke, and had recovered enough to be placed in a convalescent residence/hospital in North Hollywood, I would transport him to weekly LASFS meetings, and to monthly meetings of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organisation (C/FO) and CinemAnime at the LASFS Clubhouse. The latter two events were so that Fred got SOME social interaction with fellow fannish folk, but could also keep up at least an appearance of trying to stay current on new anime releases and trends. To do this, however, meant he had to rely on me continuing to devote a good deal of time each week to getting him out of the hospital, driving him to and from, loading him in and out of his wheelchair, and generally attending to his needs. The only thing he could do to foster this was to try to pass on his interest and love of Anime to me, so I got the benefit of his observations on what was presented each week, and his background and interpretation of what we were seeing. There are perhaps better tutors on the subject, but one would be hard-pressed to find any westerners with a better grasp and understanding, to learn from.

I did NOT catch the Anime bug, unfortunately (or at least, I don't THINK so), but I marvelled at how much of what we were seeing was actually a japanese vision of our own cultural influences impacting their way of life, and their own interpretation of western values, motives, and personalities in what we were seeing - things which weren't "truly" japanese, and yet, when involving a western subject such as christianity or our own supernatural myths, that the producers just could never get right, and couldn't quite grasp. Seeing our cultural elements partially digested and served back to us DID give me a fascinating look at a part of japanese cultural CONTRAST which I don't think can be revealed in any other fashion.

Now - what does all of this have to do with your thought-problem? Simply that much of what we currently think we know or understand about japanese folklore - PARTICULARLY stories involving Fox-Spirits - is actually of our own, western creation, elaborations and embellishments wrapped around the original Japanese folklore core - which itself seems to have entered Japan via Manchuria (Korea), having migrated there from China, which adapted a very small core from what is now India, from "Way Back". I'm writing this "off the cuff" as it were, but I'm referring to a specific tale of an evil empress who was actually a shape-shifted fox.

There was a nice, scholarly website devoted to the history of the fox legends, at http://inari.garunya.com/, but it seems to now either have been removed, or changed its name, I can no longer access it....

(Continued)

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

(Continuation)

...As to your question directly - I think that Stan Sakai's treatment is perhaps one of the best, since he has set his stories in the world which you describe; he does have a character named Kitsune, who was the daughter of a fabric merchant and his wife. Her mother was the stronger personality in the marriage, and had a good head for business, but she dies. Her father remarries a woman who sees Kitsune as a threat and a liability ("Evil Step-mother"), and as the business slowly fails, indentures her off to a family who run an inn, and treat her as an indentured servant. She grows and matures, until she catches the eye of the owner of the local brothel - and overhears the deal whereby she is sold to him, she flees, with only the clothes on her back. Eventually she is forced to steal bread, is chased by the local cops, but is sheltered by a cat femme street conjurer. Seeing "potential", the cat takes her under her wing, and teaches her two skills - street conjuring and juggling - and how to be a pickpocket and burglar. The cat femme also gives her a new name for her new life, christening her as "Kitsune" (and here, Sakai has her responding, "After the Trickster Fox?").

There is no magic in this setting - at least, none involving the Kitsune character - she is just an ordinary mortal, in a world of Cats (Neko) and Dogs and rabbits and lions and at least 2 rhinos, but again the shape reflects personality rather than distinct ethnic differences. The japanese, after all, pride themselves on an ethnic and racial homogenaeity (sp), which isn't _quite_ 100 percent.

There is a history of slang references to prostitutes as "neko" and "kitsune" in feudal and post-feudal Japan, but this may just be referring to the attractiveness and attributed sensuality of these creatures to attractive women of "negotiable affections".

The question is one of whether you wish to have a world with demons, spirits, and supernatural wildlife prominent or not. The powers which folklore attributes to Foxes and Raccoon-dogs and Badgers, etc, are only attributable because these creatures ARE "Not people/not human", but represent the external, the "other". Make the people in your setting anthro animals, and you can't really have them assuming the powers of "the other". Demos, Ghosts, Kami, Tengu, yes - but not the wildlife of which folklore speaks, if they happen to make up Society.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I know the "modern kitsune" that comes to us mostly through anime and roleplaying games (and from what my research a while ago suggested, from Mercedes Lackey!) are only marginally related to the original myths, yep. I actually did an article a few years back for a long defunct furry non-fiction 'zine on kitsune; a version of it is on my web site now.

I've thought about Usagi Yojimbo in relation to my story setting, which I suppose isn't at all surprising: you're quite right in that the settings are very similar. Usagi's world is more overtly mythic, by conscious design, but Hisae, my samurai wolf, could appear as a character in a Usagi story without being remotely out of place. But I think Hisae's world isn't one in which magic is going to be quite as easy to come across as Usagi's world, or at least as easy to be sure you've actually come across it. After all, in the original folk tales, people sometimes lived for years with a kitsune among them before some mistake on the kitsune's part revealed their spirit nature.

(The homogeneous nature of "real" Japan, particularly during that time period, is something I haven't tried to grapple with yet. Having the species reflect personality like Sakai does is one approach; another that occurred to me is having them reflect social class, but that opens cans of worms that wouldn't have been there in the real world that I may not want to add.)