Fox Money or Kitsune no Koban / 狐の小判 (Patreon)

I'm doing some odd researching for a short story I'm working on and I came across this. I didn't know anything about it. Did you?  

It's called Kitsune no Koban or Fox Money. 

This was a child's game back in the day. There's a tree called the haze no ki / 櫨の木 which I see it translated as a Japanese Wax Tree. (Elsewhere I saw sumac, but the seeds look different, probably related, maybe).

It turns brilliant red in the fall. 

Then it gives way to these bunches of seeds. The seeds themselves are very hard and have a waxy consistency. They don't just fall from the tree and germinate because that would mean the parent tree would have to compete with its bebes. And those are a lot of bebes. And parent trees don't like that. They want them to grow up far away. 

As it turns out these seeds are delicious and highly nutritious to birds. So birds swoop in, eat them up, and fly away. They digest the first layer of the seed but eventually p##p out the inner most seed, preferably far away so that they can start growing their own little forest elsewhere.

Now, children way back when (delightful imaginative creatures that they are), would come across these inside seeds, which just happen to be tiny light brown ovals and look a lot like a koban, the type of money used at the time. 

Here's a replica of a koban.

Here's a handful of seeds. 

Here are some more close up. 

(Yes, I see gallstones, too. Tells you how my imagination works these days)

Anyway, children are much more magical thinkers and they see that and go: FOX MONEY! Lucky us! 

Then they make up a game where if you collect one hundred you get a wish. 

I just love that so much. Not enough to do a podcast about, but I really wanted to share with someone who would appreciate the wonderfullness of this little bit of old culture. And that would be you all. 

It seems the wax from the seeds was valuable as well. It was used to make shaving oil, the waxy stuff to put in sumo wrestlers hair, and Japanese candles. 

I love Japanese candles. Here's one. 

And when I say valuable, I mean it. If you were to buy these candles now using 100% Haze no Ki wax. It'll set you back 30,000 yen. See below. Oh, but I wonder what they smell like. 

And finally, here are the two links I got the most information from (all in Japanese if you're up to reading and listening practice). The first one has a wonderful video of a Japanese grandpa teaching his grandchildren about them and doing a little experiment to show how the seeds burn. 

1) The Grandpa Video. Even teaches you how to make a candle using the seeds.

https://www.at-s.com/news/article/movie/asobi/862534.html

2) More about the seeds themselves.

https://blog.lyra-art.jp/post-7413/

XOXO, stay well everyone,

terrie