Andre’s Reviews > The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship > Status Update

Ok, she kept fox behavior to a minimum.

Foxes in the wild are solitary animals
Not necessarily, the foxes in my city have been spotted to form family groups and even once raised cups as same sex couples.
Also we came to foxes again... oh boy I hope she keeps her misinformation in that regard to a minimum.

I argue that Inari goes even further…because devotees are not merely interpreting the traditions in subjective ways but, are quite actively changing them. Because of the considerable shamanic component … new traditions easily come into being as direct commands of Inari…it allows Inari to develop in almost infinitely diverse ways, as people worship their own individualized or personalized version of the kami.

The author says that unlike in western imagination the fox in Japanese is canny and sly, but also cautious and intelligent, uncanny and eerie, but also sacred and beyond rational knowledge. Apart from sacred and beyond rational knowledge, isn't this how they are perceived in the western world as well?

Ok, wait a minute... does this part here suggests that the author actually thinks that foxes can cause fire? Her reaction to the story of that zoologist and how the matches of his father spontaneously combusted does seem to suggest this.

Tamamanamae...she was forced into a rock in Nasuno
Ok, either:
a) a version of that fox's story is like that (aka the stone is not her transformed spirit after she was killed) and the author did not mention these different versions
OR
b) The author is ignorant of the popular story where she gets killed
Either option does not make me trust the author.

Somehow the fox was both Inari's spirit fox and the
wild fox in the forest.
Which is pretty normal for tricksters. This woman really doesn't seem to understand the basic elements of Japanese fox lore. Also she mentions its many facets but especially regarding fox-human matings she doesn't seem to get that the same story/element was interpreted differently based on the times.