Foxes, Tanuki, Rivalry, and Love…Oh My!

 One might assume that because I’m a fox, I wouldn’t enjoy working with tanuki. However, the fact of the matter is, I'm actually pretty comfortable working with them. While I have had a few issues with tanuki patients do to the ancient rivalry, the fact that a tanuki was willing to call on me at all shows a somewhat open-mindedness toward foxes. I could even say that the fox-tanuki rivalry has actually gotten me into hot water more often with foxes then tanuki. I’m not just talking about my patients, but my family. Once when I was working with a sweet young tanuki, my father called me. I don’t know how he learned about her, but he wasn’t happy.

“Haru,” Dad said in a serious voice. “I hear one of your patients is a tanuki.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Why are you working with a tanuki?!”

“Because I’m a midwife, and she’s excepting a cub,” I said, putting it plainly.

“She a tanuki, Haru. You can’t trust tanuki. They pay with leaves and rocks disguised as money. They pretend to be a bus, and then just dump people off in the middle of the woods. Not to mention—”

“The possession thing,” I interrupted. “Ok, Dad. For one, that has nothing to do with my job. For two, us foxes also have a reputation for luring and abandoning people in the woods. Plus foxes are also capable and known for possession. If you’re going to criticize tanuki for something, at least criticize them for something that doesn’t apply to us foxes as well.”

“Ok. How ‘bout the fact that male tanuki like to transform their testicles into anything: a rug, a parachute, a fucking store. Your patient and her husband are probably living inside house made of tanuki balls. Male foxes don’t do that crap with our balls. Although, we very much could, it’s—”

I hung up my phone. I wasn’t in the mood for Dad’s tanuki rant. I’d heard it and variations many times before. I understand; he’s a fox, so he can’t like tanuki. However, I am a midwife, so I must do what’s best for my patients and their new babies regardless of their species. I’d deliver babies for a nurikabe if one asked me. (Not that nurikabe give birth.)

The next time I checked on Aiya (my tanuki patient), she looked sad. “Maybe I should have a hospital birth,” she said. “Or at least get a different midwife."

“What brought this on?” I asked.

“Well, um. I accidentally told my parents you were a fox, and they…well…they, um…”

“Weren’t happy?”

“To put it mildly.”

“Aiya, it’s ok. You’re an adult. It’s ok to go against your parents.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Now, whose my patient, you or your parents?”

“Me?”

“Do care that I’m a fox?”

“Not really.”

“Good. Now let’s move on. Is everything feeling good with the baby so far?”

“I think so.”

You think so. “Anything of concern?”

“Other than my parents?”

Do I really need to clarify? “Have you been feeling anything other than your usual pregnancy symptoms?”

“No.”

“That’s good.”

“How do your parents feel about you having a tanuki patient?”

“Aside from my dad being jealous of your husband’s ball size?”

“He’s what??” She started laughing. “Are your dad’s balls really tiny?”

“I don’t actually know,” I said honestly. “Why? Are your husband’s?”

Aiya didn’t answer the question (with words). She simply hid her face and blushed.

“It’s ok,” I said. “As long as you make each other happy.”

“Tell that to your mom and dad!” Aiya laughed.

It was nice to see Aiya laugh. She was usually very shy. Although, I’m not sure how much of that shyness was just her personality and how much was her seeing me as a rival species. Granted, Aiya was not the first tanuki I worked with. There were actually two contenders for that title: Taki and Emi. Both were very different from Aiya. Emi was pretty chill. We got along well, but she never mentioned what her family thought of me. (Probably for the best.) Taki, on the other hand, was outright hostile towards me. She wasn’t my patient for very long (if she could be considered my patient at all), which is why I say there’s two contenders.

The first time Taki saw me, she said, “I didn’t realize you were a fox.”

“Well, now you know,” I said.

“You should go,” Taki said. “Unless,” she smiled. “You want to have a shape-shifting battle. You know, I’m a descendent of Danzaburō, and I would love to continue his legacy.”

“Danzaburō already won the fight. Why are you the one calling rematches?”

“You’re afraid?”

“No, I have a job to do.”

“Not with me you don’t.”

I didn’t argue with her; I couldn’t force someone to become my patient. My parents told me that I should’ve taken on that fight. Apparently, word got around that a fox had turned down a challenge from a tanuki.

“If she really is a descendent of Danzaburō,” Dad said. “It would’ve been a good chance for a rematch. The fox who went up against Danzaburō was clearly a fool. What kind of idiot dies in shape-shifting contest? If it had been any other fox, Danzaburō would have walked away in shame. You want proof, look at Tamamo no Mae. Name a tanuki who could pull off Tamamo’s accomplishments. That’s right, you can’t. That’s because Tamamo no Mae was one of the three most dangerous yōkai to ever live. Do you see a tanuki in those ranks?”

“Really, Dad,” I said irritably. “That’s who you choose to compare; Danzaburō and Tamamo no Mae. That’ll prove we’re better than tanuki. Here’s a famous tanuki; he stole money, but left ‘I owe you’ notes with a date he would pay his victims back by. Now here’s a famous fox; she plotted an assassination on the emperors of three different counties by pretending to be a concubine. The fact that Tamamo was much more wicked than Danzaburō does not mean foxes are better.”

“Yeah, but it proves we’re more powerful,” Dad said proudly.

“Actually,” Mom interjected. “Haru does have a point. Tamamo was evil, but there are a lot of famous good foxes throughout history. Take Kuzunoha and Otohime-gitsune, for example. They were both extremely well respected. Not to mention Inari!”

“That’s a good point,” Dad said. “Us foxes have the rice god, Inari. Tanuki don’t serve one of the major gods. You see Haru, that is something you could’ve used against—”

That’s the thing about my family; once they get started on a “foxes are better than tanuki” rant they will not stop until they are out of breath or something interrupts them. After a while I just stop listening.

Of course, there’s exceptions to every rule. My maternal great-grandmother, Biyakko, doesn’t hate tanuki. Granted, I’ve never seen her interact with one, but she is above participating in petty arguments. Although, she has an interesting viewpoint on it.

When I was little, Gram Biyakko told me, “Maybe the reason there are still foxes and tanuki in the human realm is because we’re always trying to out do each other.”

Until she told me that, I had assumed it was because we were both shape-shifters. I had met foxes and tanuki in both the human and spirit realms. Some families lived lived in the human realm, some in the spirit realm, and some (like ours) traveled back and forth between the two realms. River otters, despite also having the ability to shape-shift, did not live the human realm. Was it because they didn’t have a rival like how we do with tanuki?

Talking to Aiya and hearing her laugh makes me remember these things. The fact that she can open up to me and even laugh makes me think there will one day be an ending to the ancient rivalry. However, Gram Biyakko is very wise, and if her theory is true, ending the fox-tanuki rivalry could exile both our species from the human realm. Which will be hard on many tanuki and foxes, including myself.