Come and Sleep This story is the first known Japanese fox tale. Written by the monk Kyoukai in the late eighth or early ninth century, it gives a charming folk etymology for the word "kitsune."
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In the reign of Emperor Kinmei (that is, Amekuni-oshihiraki-hironiwa no mikoto, the emperor who resided at the Palace of Kanazashi in Shikishima [510-571 AD]), a man from Ouno district of Mino province set out on horseback in search of a good wife. In a field he came across a pretty and responsive girl. He winked at her and asked, "Where are you going, Miss?" "I am looking for a good husband," she answered. So he asked, "Will you be my wife?" and, when she agreed, he took her to his house and married her.
Before long she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy. At the same time their dog also gave birth to a puppy, it being the fifteenth of the twelfth month. This puppy barked constantly at the mistress and seemed fierce and ready to bite. She became so frightened that she asked her husband to beat the dog to death. But he felt sorry for the dog and could not bear to kill it.
In the second or third month, when the annual quota of rice [that is, the rice due to be sent to the capitol as taxes] was hulled, she went to the place where the female servants were pounding rice in a mortar to give them some refreshments. The dog, seeing her, ran after her barking and almost bit her. Startled and terrified, she suddenly changed into a wild fox and jumped up on top of the hedge.
Having seen this, the man said, "Since a child was born between us, I cannot forget you. Please come always and sleep with me." She acted in accordance with her husband's words and came and slept with him. For this reason she was named "Kitsune" meaning "come and sleep."
Slender and beautiful in her red skirt (it is called pink), she would rustle away from her husband, whereupon he sang of his love for his wife:
Love fills me completely
After a moment of reunion.
Alas! She is gone.
Koi wa mina
Waga he ni ochi nu
Tamakagiru
Haroka ni mie te
Ini shi ko yue ni
The man named his child Kitsune, which became the child's surname—Kitsune no atae. The child, famous for his enormous strength, could run as fast as a bird flies. He is the ancestor of the Kitsune-no-atae family in Mino province.
[For another translation of this poem, see
Japanese Ancient Romances.]
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In classical Japanese, "kitsu-ne" means "come and sleep," while "ki-tsune" means "come always."
"Come and Sleep" is unusual for two reasons: One, the wife returns to her husband, although only at night. Once discovered, fox wives usually disappear, although their husbands may track them down and meet them briefly once or twice in the wild. Two, the fox-woman is credited with the founding of a family, whose descendants are chronicled rather than slipping into discreet anonymity once their role in the fox-woman's story has been fulfilled. One of these descendants, Mino no kitsune, is chronicled in another story by Kyoukai, "On a Contest Between Women of Extraordinary Strength."
Sevita Rhys · Thu Sep 20, 2007 @ 12:35am · 3 Comments
