Twelve Days of Kitsune
- The First Day of Kitsune – a folk tale
- The Second Day of Kitsune — Shift Your Shape with a Kitsune Costume
- The Third Day of Kitsune – Wordless Wednesday kitsune images
- The Fourth Day of Kitsune – the Brief History and Use of Chopsticks
- The Fifth Day of Kitsune — Dining with the Daimyou
- The Sixth Day of Kitsune — On Kimono & Japanese Clothing
- The Seventh Day of Kitsune – Where Are They Now? Part 1
- The Eighth Day of Kitsune – Where Are They Now? Part 2
- The Ninth Day of Kitsune — A Period Playlist
- The Tenth Day of Kitsune — Using Furoshiki to Wrap Gifts
- The Eleventh Day of Kitsune – the Kitsune Code of Conduct
- The Twelfth Day of Kitsune – Mizuhiki
In recent years, kitsune and other folklore creatures have been making a striking comeback, it seems. Yes, they were always there, but now they’re everywhere, from fashion (French clothing line Maison Kitsune) to music (several music groups go by the name Kitsune).
Here’s a very brief collage of modern media in which you might spy a kitsune — and one of my favorite kitsune scenes in which there is no kitsune at all.
Yes, there’s a kitsune in Ran — sort of.
It’s actually one of my favorite scenes in the film. Kurogane has been dispatched to behead someone he considers innocent, and he knows the order originated with his susceptible lord’s scheming wife. He returns with the head as ordered, but when the wife unwraps it, she finds only the stone head of a fox.
Kurogane is shocked, shocked to discover that his victim had been a fox in disguise! But then, he muses to his lord, they should not be surprised, because he can cite many instances in history when a fox had taken a woman’s form to deceive and corrupt powerful men.
It’s a brilliant play by a man who cannot openly disagree. If you wish to see the scene, it’s roughly an hour and fifty minutes into the film (available on Netflix, on Amazon, and pretty much everywhere).
