Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/230

 attest the supernatural powers of the fox. On the Nasu moor (Nasu-no-hara) in the province of Shimotsuke there used to stand a large rock known as sessho-seki, or the stone of death. It had been bewitched by a fox, and any living thing that touched it — man, bird, or animal — perished. In the year 1248 the Emperor Fukakusa II. commissioned a priest of renowned piety, Genno, to exorcise the evil spirit. Genno repaired to the moor, invoked the aid of Buddha, and struck the rock with his staff, whereupon the big stone split into fragments, and a beautiful girl, stepping out, thanked the priest with tears and vanished.

To the badger somewhat similar powers are attributed, but it is regarded rather as a mischievous practical joker than as a malicious demon. One of its most celebrated exploits as a supernatural trickster was in connection with a tea-urn which fell into the uncanny habit of developing the tail, snout, and claws of a badger at most inopportune moments of a social réunion. This half-transformed tea-urn — the bunbuku-chagama, as it is called — furnishes a favourite subject to carvers in wood or ivory. Another feat of the badger's has also been frequently depicted by Japanese sculptors and painters. It is called the hara-tsuzumi (paunch drum). On moonlit nights the animal raises himself on his hind-legs and goes roystering about the country, beating a drum on his paunch, knocking at the doors of timid folks, leading belated travellers