1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910783867703321

Autore

Bathgate Michael <1967-, >

Titolo

The fox's craft in Japanese religion and folklore : shapeshifters, transformations, and duplicities / / by Michael Bathgate

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Routledge, , 2004

ISBN

1-135-88391-2

1-280-05262-7

0-203-48476-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (210 p.)

Collana

Religion in history, society & culture ; ; 7

Disciplina

398/.3699775/0952

Soggetti

Foxes - Religious aspects

Foxes - Japan

Inari

Japan Religious life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Book Cover; Title; Contents; Series Editors' Foreword; Preface; The Jewel Maiden and the Murder Stone: Orientations to Shapeshifting and Signification; Foxes, Wives and Spirits: Shapeshifting and the Languages of Marriage; To Whom Am I Speaking? Shapeshifting and the Semiotics of Revelation; The Gift of the Fox: Shapeshifting and the Power of Wealth; Using the Fox: The Crafts of Shapeshifting and Signification; Glossary; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

For more than a millennium, the fox has been a ubiquitous figure at the margins of the Japanese collective imagination. In the writings of the nobility and the motifs of popular literature, the fox is known as a shapeshifter, able to assume various forms in order to deceive others. Focusing on recurring themes of transformation and duplicity in folklore, theology, and court and village practice, The Fox's Craft explores the meanings and uses of shapeshifter fox imagery in Japanese history. Michael Bathgate finds that the shapeshifting powers of the fox make it a surprisingly fundamental symbol