Remember that nice trip to Japan, where you visited that out of the way shrine, the one you just stumbled across while hiking. You and your partner got some great photos of the two stone foxes, cracked and covered in moss. And then back at the hotel, your partner began acting funny. Scratching behind their ear with their foot. I’m afraid you have an animal possession, a tsukimono, on your hands.
Hey hey, this is Thersa Matsuura and you’re listening to Uncanny Japan. The place where I talk about all the more obscure parts of Japanese culture. Be it weird creatures, interesting superstitions, creepy tales or any combination of those words.
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I’m putting up “ten at a time” blocks of older episodes for “$5 an up” a month patrons, because I’ve been told some people like listening to certain older shows to relax and fall asleep to. So working on getting all those up.
As for today’s background vibes, we’ve had some lovely spring rain the last couple days, so I’ve been recording that. One day we even got some nice low rolling thunder. And happily, the little birds don’t care about no rain or thunder, they’re out excitedly chatting about worms and seeds and other important bird things. I’ll stick the background only (spring rain, thunder, & birds) up on patreon as well. You know, in case you want to know what it feels like to wake up in a very small neighborhood in Japan.
Now, let’s talk about possession, tsukimono. It can be translated as “a thing that has attached itself (and is possessing)”. Or more simply, “possessing thing (things)”. Tsuku = to cling to, possess. And Mono = thing or things.
Think of tsukimono as an invisible spirit that has for some reason or another decided to stick to you, or your friend, or your weird neighbor. Anyone really.
One being an onryō (wrathful or vengeful ghost). This happens usually when someone has died a horrible or violent death and they are overcome with negative emotions at the time of passing like hate, jealousy, or revenge. These spirits are so strong that they remain in the world of the living and can — if they’re feeling froggy — attach to a person. Either the target of their emotion or some innocent who happens to get in the way. Think: Sadako from the Ring franchise or Kayako from the Grudge (Juon). Those are your onryō.
But there’s also the more disturbing, I think, phenomena called ikiryō. Iki is from ikiru, to live, be alive. Ryō = spirit. My mother in law first told me about these and it was disturbing. These ikiryō are the spirits of living people who are also filled with negative emotions (let’s say someone who is extremely jealous of their best friend, or absolutely loathes with every fiber of their being their disgusting, hateful, cruel boss or world leader).
Then — usually without them even knowing it — a small chunk of energy from their soul breaks away and goes to mess with the target of THAT emotion. It could impart any bad luck, illness, or whatever on this oblivious person — whether deserved or not. And this is another reason to foster humility and not brag about your good fortune. Not because it’s the right thing to do, but according to my mother in law, because you don’t want to invite an ikiryo into your life.
The concept of the ikiryō has been around forever. It was even mentioned in the Tale of Genji (11th century) and has shown up in the plots of books, stage plays, and in real life ever since.
And these are both a type of tsukimono. Something that attaches and possesses. But today, since I’ve already covered the human variety, I want to go into the animal flavor of tsukimono. Because animals do it, too. But probably not because they’re jealous of your new haircut. Although, they might me.
So, first, what kind of animals do you think of when you think about an animal possession? Yep. Every single one of you said, Fox, kitsune. And you are all right. Kitsune-tsuki are the big ones. And when you’re talking about foxes they can go by different names. You might hear izuna, ninko, osagi-gitsune, kuda-gitsune, and yako.
But there are so, so many more. I can’t list all the animals — probably no one can — but let me name a few of the more common creatures who can (and do) possess humans:
You have your dogs (inugami), snakes (tōbyō or hebi-gami — do you notice the suffix (gami, kami) here, meaning deity or god. Yes, you weren’t mishearing. Some end in tsuki (to possess), like kitsune-tsuki, and others end in gami (spirit or deity). A couple more animals are weasels (called gedō), badgers, tanuki, and horses. Even horses (uma-tsuki).
You have so many questions. I know. Let’s get into them. Now you know a handful of animals that can cling to you and possess you. But why?
Well! It could be they were sent by some kind of medium or someone with the right skillset to curse you. Literally, putting a curse on you by way of badger. Don’t laugh. It’s been done.
Or it could be that you inadvertently pissed off a snake in your garden, maybe accidentally or on purpose killing it? Or I read that even passing through an area where some animal spirit or kami resides while you have food but not offering any can also make one irritated and a little possessy.
A third possibility is it could be part of a family lineage. That one is really interesting and needs more discussion. We’ll circle back to it in a minute.
And finally, what might cause someone to be possessed by an animal? You might never know. Surely there IS a reason, but sometimes you just don’t know what it was. Your partner was traipsing through life not very conscious of what they were doing or their surroundings and did something offensive to, mm, let’s say, a tanuki and next thing you know they’re parking it on the sofa, eating all night long and scratching themselves silly.
Oh wait, another one. The animal spirit might just be hungry. Fox spirits evidently have been reported to inhabit a human just because they were feeling a little peckish and what you were having for dinner looked really good.
That segways us into, what happens when a person gets a tsukimono. Like, how can you tell?
Okay, first, look for behavioral changes. Your partner gets back to the hotel after that visit to the falling apart inari shrine and they aren’t acting like themselves. Erratic, impulsive. Running around naked? Possibly, animal like? This is entry level possession. You’re not quite sure yet. They could just be drunk.
But then after a couple days or weeks, they might have voice changes. As someone who was allowed to watch the Exorcist at age eleven, this one scares the crap out of me. The person might have a different tone or timbre to their voice, or downright an entirely different voice. Even speaking an unknown language. Possibly, animal like?
They can also start to mimic or even look like the animal that is possessing them. Keep an eye on their movements, posture, habits. Is their face looking a little more narrow, pointy nose? Maybe they’re more hunched over, are they twitching…maybe crawling around. Oh god. I hope you’ve taken them to a hospital before this point.
Another way to diagnose your partner’s new personality and possible possession, is to notice what are they eating or craving. Tofu? Aburaage (fried tofu) or adzuki beans? There’s a fox in there. Are they overeating suddenly just about anything, acting vulgar? Tanuki.
Now let’s back up for a second and talk about kitsune-tsuki again. Possession by a fox. Those possessed by a kitsune seem to traditionally be young women. And the fox is able to enter into the body from under her fingernails or through her breasts.
Here let me read to you from Lafcadio Hearn’s Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan:
“Strange is the madness of those into whom demon foxes enter. Sometimes they run naked shouting through the streets. Sometimes they lie down and froth at the mouth, and yelp as a fox yelps. And on some part of the body of the possessed a moving lump appears under the skin, which seems to have a life of its own. Prick it with a needle, and it glides instantly to another place. By no grasp can it be so tightly compressed by a strong hand that it will not slip from under the fingers. Possessed folk are also said to speak and write languages of which they were totally ignorant prior to possession. They eat only what foxes are believed to like — tofu, aburagé, azukimeshi, etc. — and they eat a great deal, alleging that not they, but the possessing foxes, are hungry.”
Sometimes, fox spirits were actively invited into a host (usually a woman) who acted as the medium and then was asked to make some divinations. Questions were asked, questions were answered, and then the fox was instructed to leave. And you really hope that it leaves.
Because other than odd behavior, you really don’t want to have a tsukimono. No matter how much you like foxes, snakes, and horses. Think: evil or curse. So whether you accidentally invited one by not sharing your obento with a fox pup or one was sent to attach to you, the result on top of all that unsettling personality and appearance changing, is a whole lot of misfortune and disease. Remember they’re there because they’re angry or an angry person sent them.
We’ll talk about getting rid of a suspected tsukimono in a second. But first, there are a couple branches from here that are interesting. Up until now we pretty much talked about some animal spirit possessing a person because of an accident or one being sent. These are involuntary and harmful to the possessee.
But there is also something called kitsune -mochi. Having a fox. This can be hereditary. Some family lines were thought to have foxes (or some other animal but foxes were most well known) associated with it and it was passed down from generation to generation.
This lineage of having foxes would also be called kitsune-suji. And what is interesting is depending on the family line, this could be a good thing and associated with wealth. These families treated their little fox spirit or spirits well through the centuries and it paid out. But also there was a lot of social stigma associated with kitsune suji. Why? Because they might also be kitsune-tsukai. Fox users.
Kitsune-tsukai are people who actively and deliberately control and send fox spirits to do their bidding, curse, cause harm, or spy. This probably reminds you of onmyouji magic. Remember Abe no Seimei made shikigami to do his bidding. Same vibe.
There was a type of fox spirit called a kuda-gitsune sometimes pronounced kanko that looked like a tiny mammal and was able to fit inside a pipe — kuda gitsune means pipe or tube fox. Tube because yamabushi mountain ascetics carried them around in small bamboo tubes and used them in magical incantations. Sleeves were another good place for a kuda gitsune to hide out. Because it’s so small.
However, it was only seen by the kitsune tsukai, the one who used it. Otherwise, it was invisible. This fox manipulator could also use it to curse someone or bring calamity, in general.
So fox owner families were feared, discriminated against, and believe it or not, unable to marry freely. And this is quite heartbreaking. If you happened to be born into a family that someone or other generations ago declared was a kitsune-suji family, you probably would have a hard time getting married. For example, a woman who was thought to be of a kitsune mochi family, might be shunned because she would bring the fox spirit into the new family, it would propagate, and in effect, infect this new family line. The fox lineage was basically contagious.
With kuda gitsune, and some others, it was believed they would multiply and spread all the while bringing fortune and prosperity, until their number grew to 75 and then they’d start “eating away at the family’s wealth” and cause their decline and downfall.
So I guess that makes sense. You might be tempted to marry into a kitsune suji line thinking wow they’re well off. I wanna be rich, too. What could possibly go wrong? Well, I’ll tell you what could go wrong. They could already be at like number 74 when you get married, and since no one knows the real number of fox spirits, it’s quite the gamble. You bring the number to 75 and all that wealth just vanishes.
And again not just foxes. Inugami tsuji, dog spirit lineages were very big in western Japan. And snake lineages were found in Shikoku and the Chugoku regions. Again, sometimes these were associated with wealth or protection. But regular people were just afraid of them.
You don’t hear much though about tanuki or horse lineages. Those are one off possessions it seems.
Back to you. So you find your partner is now inhabited by a fox spirit, what do you do? Well there were different techniques and rituals depending on where you are in Japan and what century it is. Some where a gentle cleansing ritual was performed, this could be by Shinto shrine maidens (miko), mountain ascetics (yamabushi), or Buddhist priests. Here you’d find chanting prayers, invoking deities, there might be some bells, horns, incense, and negotiating with the spirit that’s attached. Sometimes, a miko might actually accept the spirit into herself to communicate with it, ask what it wants, before inviting it to leave.
Because shrines are associated with foxes, you’ll most likely go to a shrine to get rid of a kitsune spirit. If it’s a weasel or a horse, feel free to choose where you’d like to go.
A little more persistent entity calls for more drastic measures. Cold water purification, fasting, and fire rituals might be in order.
More negotiation. You’ll find this even today or at least the last time I watched TV. People who have been possessed by something, in this case usually some human spirit, there is quite a bit of negotiating that happens. In the case of animal spirits, what do they want? would they like some food? Do they want to be properly worshiped? Okay, we can do that, too. Now move along.
And then you get to the other end of the spectrum where abuse occurs and people die from the cure. We all know how the bad exorcisms work. That’s also happened when getting rid of tsukimono.
Speaking of abuse. You can very easily see how this folk belief both the one-off tsukimono and the entire family lineage of kitsune or hebi suji could and was used as a tool to cause real harm. It created a system where certain people or families were discriminated against as dangerous or cursed or contaminated. The taboo of marrying into certain families because it would bring ill fortune and spread the number of spirits, could very well bring to end an entire family line. You kind of wonder how often that happened.
This is where superstition is fascinating and fun and games, but rumors cause real hurt. Many physical and mental illnesses weren’t recognized as such, so someone who was different than the rest of society, a little off perhaps, might very well be labeled possessed and they and their whole family shunned.
And it’s not like you were safe if you worked your butt off and made your money on the up and up. Because remember the wise words of my mother in law, you don’t want to make anyone jealous. And it wasn’t just because of that ikiryou business, all you had to do was incur a little jealousy and next thing you know old Mochizuki from down the block is telling everyone you gained your riches because you’re using a fox spirit. Next thing you know, no one is talking to you anymore or marrying your daughter.
Not nearly to this degree, but I know a little something about this. Because when I was in my early thirties I was under enormous stress here, raising a child, husband living half way across Japan for years on end — as isn’t out of the ordinary here, really. Or at least it wasn’t back then. I was also dealing with my mother in law telling me everything I did was wrong and coming over to inspect my refrigerator to tell me I wasn’t feeding my son correctly, dressing him correctly, talking to him in English would ruin his brain, you get the picture. At the time it was a lot to navigate in a second language and different culture and no one was in my corner. And I got really sick.
When I came back to Japan after treatment, suddenly something had changed and she was convinced not only did I have *something* attached to me, but every time any relative sneezed or misstepped and fell down, it was because of me. She outright said it to me. That she thought I was the one bringing high cholesterol and arthritis to the family and before long people who start dropping dead. Because of me.
I told my good Japanese friend not really understanding the weight of her words, and this normally gentle, never ever ever upset or angry or emotional friend got furious. It was enough to get my attention and realize that I was being made the scapegoat for every bad thing that happened to anyone. And you know what, you can argue with someone who really believes that. Because they will simply point to anything and say, well, aunt Shizue who loves sweets, by the way, never had diabetes BEFORE you married into the family. And she’s not wrong.
So, let’s hear it for a Mr. Kagawa Shūtoku who in 1807, in Volume 5 of Ippondō Gyoiigen wrote — and I’m paraphrasing — Hold up. There are some illnesses and conditions that have been labeled as fox possession for centuries, but they’re not. They are, in fact, medical conditions and should be treated as such. Not, let’s say, exorcised by your local Shinto priest who wants you to stand under an ice cold waterfall.
He listed six categories that are distinctly not caused by animal possession.
Childhood illnesses where any kind of convulsions are present.
Epilepsy
Neurological disorders
mental illness such as schizophrenia
any kind of intellectual or learning disability
and eating disorders.
While Kagawa-sensei was on the right track here, regular folk found it hard to give up this way of thinking. See: mother in law.
Again later, in 1885, a western physician treated a woman who was said to be possessed by a fox and found that she instead had hysteria that stemmed from a brain dysfunction. He wrote a paper, reported his findings to the Japanese government and they, too, tried to get the word out by way of official gazettes to educate the masses. But superstitions die hard, or not at all.
How prevalent is this way of thinking now? Well, while researching I found a website called: tsukimono shindan: Think of it like a 1 800 number to get in touch with someone who will charge you a lot of money to tell you your future. But in this case, they tell you if you are being possessed by someone or something.
On this website you put in your name, address, all kinds of important information. There is actually a checklist and you can check as many as you like to find out not only about yourself but to see if something is possessing someone in your family, your house or some land you own, or even your company. With your company at least it was asterixed and said it has to be your actual company you can’t just put in a name like Tesla or Palintir and see if it’s possessed. No prices listed. But I’m guessing it might be expensive.
oof. Since that ending is a bit of a downer, I wasn’t intending but just sort of landed there. Let me liven things up with two fun little tsukimono accounts through the ages.
1. There was a story recorded about a man who smelled really, really bad. His whole life he smelled bad. He was also afraid of dogs. When he died, his body suddenly vanished from his coffin. The consensus being, he must have been a fox all along.
And 2. There was a man named Tarousuke who in his youth tried to stop two horses from fighting. But he accidentally killed one. More than 40 years later, when he was in his mid forties, he entered a stable, neighed like a horse, drank dirty water and died.
And there you have it. I was aiming for a happier ending, but we landing on death by dirty water. Stay safe out there. Place your hands together and thank the little critters you happen to come across. They might be testy.
I’ll talk to you in two week. Bye bye.
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