Most stories advise against seeing a fox wedding—foxes are powerful in Japanese folklore, but dangerous. A wise person keeps well away, and getting wrapped up in Kitsune magick is rarely healthy in Japanese folklore.

If you remain undeterred, and really want to see a Fox Wedding, according to the folklore of the Fukushima Prefecture, it can be done, but only on the 10th day of the 10th month of the Lunar Calendar. (In 2019, this falls on November 6).

• Here’s what to do:

Wear a suribachi mortar on your head and stick the wooden pestle in your belt. Then stand under a date tree. The length of time is unspecified… I’m assuming for however long it takes.

Aichi prefecture has a much easier method—just spit in a well and weave your fingers together. You are said to be able to view the Kitsune no Yomeiri though the gaps in your fingers.

More about the Fox Spirits known as Kitsune can be found at The Powers That Be, a story about a fox wedding can be found on Widdershins. A Fox Wedding festival is held annually in Japan on November 3rd. You can read about that in The Pagan Calendar.

Source: Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai

Many towns hold Kitsune no Yomeiri festivals re-creating the famous processions. Most of these festivals are modern—coming from the 1950s to as recently as the 1990s—and were started as tourist attractions to draw people into town. Local politicians and businesses participate in the festival, and sometimes the fox bride and groom are selected as a sort of “beauty pageant.”

Not all are modern tourist traps, however. The festival in Kudamatsu city, Yamaguchi prefecture, has also been held since ancient times, although it bears little relationship to popular images of the Kitsune no Yomeiri. It involves asking the blessing of a pair of white fox deities whose wedding ceremony is re-enacted every year.

Kitsune no Yomeiri has been an event and Shinto ritual at Inaho Festival since 1950. People who wear fox masks walk at the old street slowly to the final destination – Hanaoka station.

Fox bride and groom ride on a Jinrikisha (a pulled rickshaw), and relatives and attendants dressed in the crested kimono – hakama follow and walk after a Jinrikisha. A Jinrikisha is a two-wheeled vehicle which is pulled and run by a rickshaw driver. It had been used widely in Japan before an automobile was invented.

After fox couple’s arriving at the Hanaoka station, the ceremony called “San San Ku Do” (three-three-nine times) exchange of nuptial (marriage) cups takes place.

What is “San San Ku Do”?

“San San Ku Do” is a ceremony between bride and groom, where they sip sake three times from three sake cups. The sizes of three cups are different. One is a small cup, another is a medium cup, and the other is a large cup.

• Small cup stands for the past.

Drinking from a small sake cup intends to express thanks to ancestors who gave the chance for a couple to meet.

• Medium size cup means the present time.

Drinking from this one stands for the intention of the couple to live together for a long time and helping each other.

• Large size cup means future.

By drinking from a large cup, the couple hopes that both families will be happy in the future with prosperity of both families’ descendants.

The public never knows who play the roles of foxes’ bride and groom. According to a legend, it is said that a person who became a fox bride will find a good partner to get married.

Why Do People Worship Foxes Here?

According to a legend, there was a chief priest in Hory-ji temple. He was known as the person who had high virtues and was loved by people.

One day, he went out, and the on the way back to his temple, he noticed that his rosary (praying beads) was missing. He tried to look for his praying beads, but he could not find it in the dark. He could not do anything and slept in his bed.

When he was sleeping, a white fox appeared in his dream. The fox said to him:

“We are a couple of white foxes who were dead in woods, we will bring your praying beads back to you this evening, if you take our corpses back to your temple and bury us in the same way as human beings. We also promise you to protect the people of your temple and village from misfortune”.

The priest woke up soon.

Surprisingly, there was the rosary he lost by the pillow. After that, the priest found corpses of white foxes, and buried carefully. Since then, people who are looking for something, or who lost something, have been coming to pray here. And actually many of them found what they were looking for.

Sources:

• Worldly Resort
• Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai
• Festival Go