“The Origin of Fox Wedding”
Once upon a time, a Buddhistic priest lived at the Hosho Temple in Hanaoka, Kudamatsu-city.
He practiced ascetism to get a higher spirit of Buddhism, and he was virtuous and longed to be like the older, more experienced priests.
One day, he went to Tokuyama [[city next to Kudamatsu]] and it was evening when he had finished his errands.
After the sun set he was heading for his temple, but he wasn’t anxious about walking in the dark, because it was a familiar road. After he had passed the hills, he could see his temple. Suddenly he noticed that he had lost his Buddhist rosary.
He looked for it everywhere, but he could not find it. He was obliged to return to his temple, but he could not fall asleep all night becuase of worrying about the rosary.
He was dozing off for a moment, when something appeared to him, vaguely, because of his half-awake, half-asleep state.
The spirits that appeared said, ‘We are the spirits of the white fox mates from Shiamuga forest. We have brought your rosary tonight. In return for it you must bury our dead bodies like human beings at this temple.
If you grant our request, we will promise to protect the temple and the people who live in the nearby village from disasters.’
After hearing the voices, the priest awoke. To his surprise there was the rosary, which he had lost somewhere, laying near his head, neatly coiled.
The priest immediately took the dead bodies of the white foxs and buried them the same way as human beings. He then held a memorial service for them.
Thereafter people increasingly came and visited the temple hoping for the miraculous recovery of things which had been lost. The temple had become famou for finding ‘lost things.’ The white fox mates have been enshrined in the precincts of the Hosho Temple since then.
The Inari Matsuri (festival) is held annually on Novembr 3rd here at Hanaoka, Kudamatsu-cit. The pageant claled F”Fox Wedding” is very famous in this area.
Every year on November 3rd, visitors come and see the pageant. Usually more than 40000 people attend.