30 Nights with Japanese Folklore 30 Nights with the Kitsune: Japanese Fox Spirit Stories Retold, (Paperback)

In Japan, the fox is never just a fox.It is a trickster that makes you eat horse dung and believe it is a feast. It is a woman so beautiful that an emperor neglects his empire to sit beside her. It is a mother who gives up immortality to raise a child she knows she will have to leave. It is a ball of pale fire drifting across a rice field on the last night of the year, carrying a message that no one alive can read but everyone alive can feel. <p>30 Nights with the Kitsune brings thirty of these stories to life in polished, atmospheric, modern English prose. Each tale is drawn from the Japanese fox-spirit tradition - from Lafcadio Hearn's atmospheric essays to Niimi Nankichi's heartbreaking children's stories to the epic legend of the nine-tailed fox who destroyed three civilizations - and retold for the contemporary reader who wants to be immersed, not lectured. </p><p><b>The stories include: </b></p><ul><li><b>The Fox Wife of Shinoda </b>- a white fox rescued by a young man takes human form, becomes his wife, bears the boy who will become the greatest sorcerer in Japan, and writes a farewell poem when she can no longer stay</li><li><b>Gon, the Little Fox </b>- a mischievous fox who stole a dying woman's last meal spends months secretly leaving gifts at the grieving man's door, and is shot the moment the man finally sees him</li><li><b>The Tamamo-no-Mae Saga </b>- told across five consecutive nights, the story of a nine-tailed fox who corrupted courts in India, China, and Japan before being hunted down and transforming into a poisonous stone that killed for eight hundred years</li><li><b>Buying Mittens </b>- a mother fox transforms her kit's paw into a human hand and sends him to town to buy winter gloves, but the frightened cub extends the wrong paw</li><li><b>The Fox's Ball </b>- a traveler catches a fox playing alone with a glowing pearl in the darkness, and holds the fox's soul in his hands</li></ul>Plus tricksters who shave your head while you sleep, invisible foxes that ruin families through rumor alone, a detective who discovers that the fox everyone fears is actually a man, and a grandmother teaching her granddaughter to count fox-fires on New Year's Eve. <p><b>Each story includes: </b></p><ul><li><b>The Night Before </b>- a brief atmospheric scene-setter that draws you into the story's world</li><li><b>One Word (&amp;#19968;&amp;#35486;) </b>- a single Japanese word explored in a short essay, opening a window into something English cannot quite reach</li><li><b>On This Story </b>- source notes, historical context, and the real geography behind each tale</li></ul>No prior knowledge of Japan required. The stories are self-contained, the Japanese terms are translated, and the cultural context is woven in naturally. Whether you're a lifelong Japan enthusiast, a mythology reader, a dark fantasy fan, or someone who simply loves a well-told story, this book was written for you. <p><i>Read one story per night. Light a candle. And keep an eye on the treeline - the fox is watching.</i> </p><p><b>Part of the 30 Nights with... series - each volume explores a different creature from Japanese folklore. </b></p>

• 30 Nights with Japanese Folklore 30 Nights with the Kitsune: Japanese Fox Spirit Stories Retold, (Paperback)
• Author: Independently Published
• ISBN: 9798257189449
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2026-04-13
• Page Count: 318