Procession

The wedding procession was much more beautiful than I expected. Especially after the bunsui courtesan parade. The myth behind the procession begins on Kirinzan (the mountain I had climbed earlier). Throughout the mountain's history local people have claimed to have seen mysterious lights floating along the ridge. As you have seen, the ridge is pretty treacherous and impassable to humans at night and so the story evolved that is was a fox wedding procession. The lights may actually have been a natural phenomenon when phosphorus ignites in contact with oxygen which is actually called fox fire and thus the fox bride procession.

The procession begins as the sun starts to set near the shrine in Tsugawa. The fox bride travels a short way to her groom's house with 108 attendants (this short distance actually takes an hour for them to walk). They walk to eerily beautiful music with a slight chasse step and occasionally stop to strike a fox like pose while pawing at the air.

The bride and many attendants retire in the house while little children in long white underwear and puffed up fox tails scamper around in little foxy dances. After the dances the procession resumes and makes its way down to the river which takes another hour and a half.

The wedding is held on the bank of the river with the mountain as a majestic backdrop. The priest says some words in Japanese they drink some sake and are fictionally married to the beats of taiko drums. They then embark in a boat to the other bank of the river and shortly after lights appearing leading up the mountain and along the ridge, the finale of the fox bride procession. It was beautiful.