fox wedding…?

While we were walking in Maruyama park to see the Hanatouro evening lantern and flower displays, this masked bride (?) glided by, wheeled along slowly in a rikisha by a crew of attendants. People turned and stared at the procession, aiming cameras and cellphones. A trail of onlookers formed behind the fox woman, and they all passed down the street and into the night.

fox-wedding-1-2


Comments

10 responses to “fox wedding…?”

  1. Is this kitusne no yomeiri dochu?

  2. *sorry, spelled “kitsune” wrong

  3. Hmm, interesting… well, Google says that the “joyful and humorous” kitsune no yomeiri dochu parade is held on Setsubun, but Setsubun was about a month earlier, and this event was solemn and mostly silent. Just a slow “klik….klik….” of the what do you call those percussion sticks?
    Mari and I were gently pushing each other toward the attendants and whispering, “ask!” but we were both too shy.

  4. Found these other photos of the foxy lady on Flickr:
    http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=fox+bride+hanatouro&m=text
    “fox bride of Hanatouro”
    She might be just for this Hanatouro event, which is apparently a recent thing (2003) started to sort of fill in the calendar…

  5. Holy Cow! I think Miki and I saw the wedding of her twin sister the week before!
    Coincidence?

  6. Awww, so it was all just a show for the tourists… not a once-in-a-lifetime supernatural phenomenon, not a blessing from the kami-sama. Now I feel all Disney.

  7. Hmm, so now I know where the word “rickshaw” originated.
    Is the event also where the term “foxy lady” comes from?

  8. that is a lovelier mask than most!

  9. Interesting, so why was the bride masked?

  10. I think it wasn’t actually a real wedding, but just a show for the Hanatouro flower and lantern show that was going on at the time.