The fur and the fury
Sadly here in Japan - while rummaging through many a vintage shop or a high-class department store - I have espied real fox furs draped across the shoulders of mannequins and many stores have a `fur rack`. To my horror, today at Qrover I trod upon the glorious and dead tail of a fox. Also shocking is that shops do not only stock red fox furs, but also the furs of the grey fox and the Arctic fox (which is pure snow white and as far as I know, not very common - although perhaps they breed the Arctic fox at the many fox farms in Scandinavia).
The fox - or kitsune in Japanese - is my favourite animal and I must confess to being struck with melancholy when the handsome weight of a fox`s silky brush lay dead upon my feet, strung up with a price tag of 50,000 yen.
On another note, each night I read a Japanese fairytale before going to bed. One story was entitled the Fox-Wife. It detailed the story of a fox that transformed into a woman and sought the love and company of a lonely hunter in the mountains.
The fox - or kitsune in Japanese - is my favourite animal and I must confess to being struck with melancholy when the handsome weight of a fox`s silky brush lay dead upon my feet, strung up with a price tag of 50,000 yen.
On another note, each night I read a Japanese fairytale before going to bed. One story was entitled the Fox-Wife. It detailed the story of a fox that transformed into a woman and sought the love and company of a lonely hunter in the mountains.
posted by Miss Ember at 7:39 pm
1 Comments:
Well, one might almost argue that Asian countries don't really give a fuck about animal rights and what not, that it's a particular Western conceit. Yet Japan's Shinto religion is essentially animist, with a healthy respect for all living things. Foxes are the patron animals of Inari, the Harvest Deity, and I think they would be sacred in some areas where Inari's temples exist.
I can understand fur wearing if this happened to be the Ice Age or if humans are reduced to apocalyptic levels of subsistence, but since it isn't, it's just wankery, innit?
What's that book you're reading? Does it have "Monogatari" in the title?
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