p. 12 | THE JAPANESE FOX by B. O. WADE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 19, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 12.

THE JAPANESE FOX.

By B. O. WADE

The Mikado's empire, like an artless king of old, has so completely opened its treasures to the man with a book and a pencil that the suggestion of anything Japanese fails to carry with it any features that are novel or astonishing, but tends rather to awaken incredulity. Nevertheless there are many incidents connected with the Japanese fox that make the place he occupies in Japanese "lore" and in fact of especial interest to the Gospel worker, and aid in throwing light upon demon possession in the time of our Saviour.

The superstitious fear and reverence paid to the fox is "partly because it is considered the messenger of one of the gods—Inari Sama, the rice god—and still more because it is supposed to bewitch people. Many persons are thought to be victims of fox possession. They bark like a fox, jump about, and move their bodies in a curious way."

Near my home there are several large temples dedicated to Inari Sama. Stone images of foxes are set in the courts and in sacred places of the shrines. These temples are resorted to by possessed people, who perform certain Buddhist ceremonies, hoping thus to rid themselves of the evil spirit. Every fifth night a festival is held in honor of Inari Sama. One instance will suffice to show the zeal of the worshipers. Ten years ago a lonely waste containing a small cave, situated about six miles from Tokyo, was purchased by a designing speculator, who erected a temple at the mouth of the cave and dedicated it to the fox god. To-day the thriving city of Kawasaki surrounds this cave, and owes its existence to the fox temple and its devotees.

The conditions of a possessed person according to Dr. Baelz, is stated in "Things Japanese" as follows:—

Possession by foxes is a form of nervous disorder or delusion not uncommonly observed in Japan. Having entered a human being, sometimes through the breast, more often through the space between the finger nails and the flesh, the fox lives a life of his own, apart from the proper self of the person who is harboring him. There thus results a sort of double entity, or double consciousness. The person possessed hears and understands everything that the fox inside says or thinks, and the two often engage in a loud and violent dispute, the fox speaking in a voice altogether different from that which is natural to the individual. The only difference between the cases of possession mentioned in the Bible and those noticed in Japan is that here it is almost exclusively women who are attacked—mostly women of the lower classes. Possession never occurs except in such subjects as have heard of it already, and believe in the reality of its existence.

To mention one among several cases. I was once called in to see a girl with typhoid fever. She recovered; but during her convalescence, she heard the women around her talk of another woman who had a fox, and who would doubtless do her best to pass it on to some one else, in order to be rid of it. At that moment the girl experienced an extraordinary sensation. The fox had taken possession of her. All her efforts to get rid of him were vain. "He is coming! he is coming!" she would cry, as a fit of the fox drew near. "O, what shall I do? Here he is!" And then in a strange, dry, cracked voice, the fox would speak, and mock its unfortunate hostess. Thus matters continued for three weeks, till a priest of the Nichiren sect was sent for. The priest upbraided the fox sternly. The fox (always, of course, speaking through the girl's mouth) argued on the other side. At last he said, "I am tired of her. I ask no better than to leave her. What will you give me for doing so?" The priest asked what he would take. The fox replied, naming certain cakes and other things, which, said he, must be placed before the altar of such and such a temple at 4 P. M. on such and such a day.

A Japanese Heathen Religious Procession.

The girl was conscious of the words her lips were made to frame, but was powerless to say anything in her own person. When the day and hour arrived, the offerings bargained for were taken by the relatives to the place indicated, and the fox quitted the girl that very hour.

In the May (1900) number of the Japan Evangelist, Miss Harriet M. Brown gives her experience with a girl under the influence of a fox, whose actions coincide with those in the case referred to by Dr. Baelz; but the method adopted to relieve the possessed one is in all respects the antithesis of the bargain concluded by the Nichiren priest.

Miss Nishiyama Tsuji (the possessed girl), having a superstitious turn of mind, was repeatedly overcome by the power of the fox. One night when Miss Brown returned from prayer-meeting, she found the girl under the influence of the evil one. In her experience with the girl during former possessions, she had never been able to quiet her; but she listened while the evil spirits were commanded "in the name of Jesus to come out of her and never come again." This was followed by prayer and the reading of Scripture relating to demon possession.

During this time she stopped her talk and said, "I wonder what they are chattering about." As one of the girls went on reading the story of Jesus and the demons, she crept into the corner of the dark room she was in, as near to the reader as possible, pressing her face into the corner like a dog, listening intently. After a little she rose and took a few steps saying, "Let's go home," and fell rigid as at the close of each former attack, and as before, waked as if out of an ordinary sleep in less than five minutes.

Having been instructed to resist the power of the fox, the girl confessed "that very often some fearful thing would follow her and call out, 'Wait! Wait!' that when she paid no attention, it would disappear, but if it became disagreeably persistent, and she replied to it, she never could tell what happened afterward."

There will doubtless be enough in certain circles who will assert that the weapon used in this battle was not one of "precision," but it is not a matter of detail, rather of belief in a personal Creator who has power to hear the cry of the helpless; and we thank God that in this our day in the name of Him who trod the wine-press alone when "of the people there was none with Him," even weak girls spoil principalities and powers, openly triumphing continually over them, to the confusion of the materialistic, critical, fine-art school of the Japanese negation.

B. O. WADE.