Curious advantages have been taken of the superstitions relating to the
Fox-God.
In Matsue, several years ago, there was a tofuya which enjoyed an
unusually large patronage. A tofuya is a shop where tofu is sold--a curd
prepared from beans, and much resembling good custard in appearance. Of
all eatable things, foxes are most fond of tofu and of soba, which is
a preparation of buckwheat. There is even a legend that a fox, in the
semblance of an elegantly attired man, once visited Nogi-no-Kuriharaya,
a popular sobaya on the lake shore, and ate much soba. But after the
guest was gone, the money he had paid changed into wooden shavings.
The proprietor of the tofuya had a different experience. A man in
wretched attire used to come to his shop every evening to buy a cho of
tofu, which he devoured on the spot with the haste of one long famished.
Every evening for weeks he came, and never spoke; but the landlord saw
one evening the tip of a bushy white tail protruding from beneath the
stranger's rags. The sight aroused strange surmises and weird hopes.
From that night he began to treat the mysterious visitor with obsequious
kindness. But another month passed before the latter spoke. Then what he
said was about as follows:
'Though I seem to you a man, I am not a man; and I took upon myself
human form only for the purpose of visiting you. I come from Taka-machi,
where my temple is, at which you often visit. And being desirous to
reward your piety and goodness of heart, I have come to-night to save
you from a great danger. For by the power which I possess I know that
tomorrow this street will burn, and all the houses in it shall be
utterly destroyed except yours. To save it I am going to make a charm.
But in order that I may do this, you must open your go-down (kura) that
I may enter, and allow no one to watch me; for should living eye look
upon me there, the charm will not avail.'
The shopkeeper, with fervent words of gratitude, opened his storehouse,
and reverently admitted the seeming Inari and gave orders that none of
his household or servants should keep watch. And these orders were
so well obeyed that all the stores within the storehouse, and all the
valuables of the family, were removed without hindrance during the
night. Next day the kura was found to be empty. And there was no fire.
There is also a well-authenticated story about another wealthy
shopkeeper of Matsue who easily became the prey of another pretended
Inari. This Inari told him that whatever sum of money he should leave at
a certain miya by night, he would find it doubled in the morning--as the
reward of his lifelong piety. The shopkeeper carried several small
sums to the miya, and found them doubled within twelve hours. Then he
deposited larger sums, which were similarly multiplied; he even risked
some hundreds of dollars, which were duplicated. Finally he took all his
money out of the bank and placed it one evening within the shrine of the
god--and never saw it again.