F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-164

Kitsune no Yomeiri Shinji — Fox Wedding Ritual (Kitsune no Yomeiri Shinji)

狐の嫁入り神事きつねのよめいりしんじ

Each year on Setsubun (February 3rd), Kaiyamichi Jinja in Yokkaichi City stages a ritual re-enactment of a fox wedding in which a bride fox (Fukuko, daughter of the Fukutoku household, divine messenger of Kaiyamichi Kaiun Inari Jinja) is ceremonially wed to a groom fox (Suketarō of the Sukeshirō household, chief divine messenger). Participants in formal dress — bride, groom, go-between, and relatives — process in bridal procession attire through the surrounding streets and into the shrine precinct. The ritual draws on the folk-religious identification of the fox as the divine messenger (shinshi) of Inari, guardian of agricultural abundance and good fortune, combined with the Setsubun tradition of oni-harai (demon expulsion); it is understood as both a purification rite and a re-enactment of the mythological bond between fox messengers. The present form is said to derive from an oni-harai (tsuina) rite of the Edo period that was revived after the war.