THE FOXES' WEDDING
Once upon a time there was a young white fox, whose name was Fukuyémon. When he had reached the fitting age, he shaved off his forelock and began to think of taking to himself a beautiful bride. The old fox, his father, resolved to give up his inheritance to his son, and retired into private life; so the young fox, in gratitude for this, laboured hard and earnestly to increase his patrimony. Now it happened that in a famous old family of foxes there was a beautiful young lady-fox, with such lovely fur that the fame of her jewel-like charms was spread far and wide. The young white fox, who had heard of this, was bent on making her his wife, and a meeting was arranged between them.

There was not a fault to be found on either side; so the preliminaries were settled, and the wedding presents sent from the bridegroom to the bride's house, with congratulatory speeches from the messenger, which were duly acknowledged by the person deputed to receive the gifts; the bearers, of course, received the customary fee in copper cash.

When the ceremonies had been concluded, an auspicious day was chosen for the bride to go to her husband's house, and she was carried off in solemn procession during a shower of rain, the sun shining all the while. After the ceremonies of drinking wine had been gone through, the bride changed her dress, and the wedding was concluded, without let or hindrance, amid singing and dancing and merry-making.

The bride and bridegroom lived lovingly together, and a litter of little foxes were born to them, to the great joy of the old grandsire, who treated the little cubs as tenderly as if they had been butterflies or flowers. "They're the very image of their old grandfather," said he, as proud as possible. "As for medicine, bless them, they're so healthy that they'll never need a copper coin's worth!"

As soon as they were old enough, they were carried off to the temple of Inari Sama, the patron saint of foxes, and the old grand-parents prayed that they might be delivered from dogs and all the other ills to which fox flesh is heir.
In this way the white fox by degrees waxed old and prosperous,  and his children, year by year, became more and more numerous around him; so that, happy in his family and his business, every recurring spring brought him fresh cause for joy.

-------------------------
Sorry if this story ends up being a repost of a previous story. This came from a different source this time.

Also, Lack of updates have been due to a death and funeral I had to attend to. I hope that now I can stableize again and post weekly.
The last of the Nô was The Little Smith, the scene of which is laid in the reign of the Emperor Ichijô (A.D. 987—1011). A noble of the court enters, and proclaims himself to be Tachibana Michinari. He has been commanded by the Emperor, who has seen a dream of good omen on the previous night, to order a sword of the smith Munéchika of Sanjô. He calls Munéchika, who comes out, and, after receiving the order, expresses the difficulty he is in, having at that time no fitting mate to help him; he cannot forge a blade alone. The excuse is not admitted; the smith pleads hard to be saved from the shame of a failure. Driven to a compliance, there is nothing left for it but to appeal to the gods for aid. He prays to the patron god of his family, Inari Sama.38 A man suddenly appears, and calls the smith; this man is the god Inari Sama in disguise. The smith asks who is his visitor, and how does he know him by name. The stranger answers, "Thou hast been ordered to make a blade for the Emperor." "This is passing strange," says the smith. "I received the order but a moment since; how comest thou to know of it?" "Heaven has a voice which is heard upon the earth. Walls have ears, and stones tell tales.39 There are no secrets in the world. The flash of the blade ordered by him who is above the clouds (the Emperor) is quickly seen. By the grace of the Emperor the sword shall be quickly made." Here follows the praise of certain famous blades, and an account of the part they played in history, with special reference to the sword which forms one of the regalia. The sword which the Emperor has sent for shall be inferior to none of these; the smith may set his heart at rest. The smith, awe-struck, expresses his wonder, and asks again who is addressing him. He is bidden to go and deck out his anvil, and a supernatural power will help him. The visitor disappears in a cloud. The smith prepares his anvil, at the four corners of which he places images of the gods, while above it he stretches the straw rope and paper pendants hung up in temples to shut out foul or ill-omened influences. He prays for strength to make the blade, not for his own glory, but for the honour of the Emperor. A young man, a fox in disguise, appears, and helps Munéchika to forge the steel. The noise of the anvil resounds to heaven and over the earth. The chorus announces that the blade is  finished; on one side is the mark of Munéchika, on the other is graven "The Little Fox" in clear characters.


from:

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tales of Old Japan, by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Tales of Old Japan
Author: Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford
Release Date: July 24, 2004 [eBook #13015]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF OLD JAPAN***
I hope to start once again doing weekly updates here. I have also found a few more stories to post sometime in the future. for now this weeks update:


Giving color to kitsune by zahpkiel

by

:iconzahpkiel: zahpkiel
Hello everyone,

Recently we've been getting more and more art and content submitted to the group that was either in the wrong folder or not appropriate content. So today the group rules got a bit of an update to detail what we allow submitted to the group and a reminder to please submit to the right folders! This will help me organize the group a little better while our group owner is unable to attend to the group most of the time =)

Another thing that got added in is two new folders in the gallery! There is now a section for comics, and a section for Fox Hybrid art for those who have characters of foxes mixed with other species. I've done as best as I could to move our fox hybrid submissions to the right folder, but if you have submitted art of a fox hybrid character, or know if its a hybrid character feel free to let us know so we can move it to the right folder.

Last thing to note too is content that was submitted to the group as having questional themes such as blood, gore and death have been removed. For those who had some images removed from the gallery please don't take offense to it as your art or stories may be fantastic, its just we're trying to maintain a general audience gallery =) If there is any leftover images left in the gallery that deviates away from our guidelines for content submission feel free to drop a private note to either myself, :iconivykirax:, or our group owner :iconhakuzo-nightfox:, and we will investigate the submissions in question as soon as possible.

Thank you again everyone

~ Ivy Kirax :iconivykirax:
I am in need of Furries that can speak fluent Japanese and English. I would like to talk to them in matters involving Inari and Shintoism. Anyone that knows anyone please contact me Via PM. I want to add more value to Kitsune Archives and I need to expand out to others.

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