“Who Does the Fox Live With?”

For centuries in Japan, “a fox has entered them” was a way to explain suffering, and “that family keeps a fox” was a way to explain luck, wealth, and distance. This episode walks through four rooms: the sickroom, the neighborhood, the clinic, and the medium’s house. It follows fox possession and fox-owning families from the Heian period through Lafcadio Hearn’s Izumo and Meiji-era psychiatry, and asks what the belief did for the people who used it. A cultural-history episode, not medical advice. Episode 20 of an animated series exploring East Asian fox legends, with the sources checked.