Once upon a time in present-day Izumi, Osaka, there was a mystical forest called Shinoda-no-mori, home to many kitsune—mischievous, shapeshifting foxes of Japanese folklore.

According to legend, these magical creatures lured a hunter named Akuemon to the forest. His wife was severely ill and he had been advised by his sorcerer brother Ashiya Douman to hunt a kitsune and collect its liver to make medicine for her.

Akuemon was about to kill a white fox named Kuzunoha when Abe no Yasuna, who just so happened to be the son of a lord Akuemon had murdered years prior, stumbled upon the scene. Yasuna fought the hunter and bravely saved the poor fox’s life, avenging his father in the process.

Grateful beyond words, Kuzunoha took the form of a beautiful girl and married Yasuna, and the two had a son named Dōjimaru. When the child was seven years old, however, Yasuna found out the true identity of his wife—a taboo among the supernatural. Kuzunoha now had to return to the forest, leaving her loved ones behind.

Having inherited her mother’s magical prowess, Dōjimaru (later Seimei) grew up to be a spiritual advisor to the Emperor as an onmyōji—astronomer, sorcerer, exorcist, all in one. Today, he is remembered as the single greatest sorcerer in Japanese history.

The legend was immortalized through literature during the Edo period, adapted into several kabuki plays. In the 1740s, in the heyday of the story’s popularity, a local magistrate dedicated his household shrine, which stood in the heart of the legendary forest, to the fox god Inari. It came to be known as Shinodanomori Shrine, dedicated to Lady Kuzunoha.

The main hall is said to enshrine the stone that Kuzunoha transformed into after she returned to the forest, and there is also a well-worshipped camphor tree that has stood here for over 2,000 years, which some say was once Kuzunoha’s home. It may not be an enchanted forest today, but there certainly remains a sort of magical air about this place. Who knows, perhaps some foxes still roam the area, unseen by humans.