Oji Inari - Oji Inari

...In the area around Kiryu in Gunma Prefecture, there was a custom of canceling the bridal procession and refraining from going ahead if a fox fire was seen on the night of a wedding. It is said that foxes from the Kanto region gather under the large Enoki tree at Oji Inari in Edo every New Year's Eve and light fox fires, which are also used to predict the fortunes of the coming year. Fox fires are often seen at dusk or just before darkness falls, or at times when the weather is changing and it looks like it might rain the next day. They also appear in places such as the opposite bank of a river, the border between mountains and plains, village borders, and the outskirts of towns, which also seem to coincide with the places where people are tricked by foxes. ...

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Oji Inari" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…群馬県桐生付近には結婚式の晩に狐火を見ると，嫁入行列を中止して謹慎する風習があったという。江戸の王子稲荷の大エノキの元には毎年大晦日に関八州のキツネが集まって狐火をともしたといわれ，その火で翌年の吉凶を占う風もあった。狐火がよく見られるというのは，薄暮や暗くなる間際のいわゆるたそがれどきとか翌日が雨になりそうな天候の変り目に当たるときであり，出現する場所も川の対岸，山と平野の境目，村境や町はずれといった場所で，キツネに化かされる場所とも一致するようである。…

※「王子稲荷」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報