Somebody's Favorite Food

You can sometimes see fox-shaped jizou on small roads in Gensokyo. Foxes in Japan, or kitsune, are often associated with fried tofu. If you leave fried tofu as an offering, something good might happen, but beware―a kitsune shikigami might come before your wish is even heard.

The people of the past treasured kitsune. They would eat the mice that fed on the people's fields. This led to kitsune being revered as gods and gods' messengers.

Why do people leave fried tofu as an offering to kitsune gods? One theory is that the kitsune's favorite food, abura-age (literally "oil-fried"), used to refer to oil-fried mice rather than oil-fried tofu.

When did the meaning of abura-age change from fried mice to fried tofu? Apparently, it is related to Buddhism. In Buddhism, killing any animal is considered a sin, even if it is for an offering, so people started to offer fried tofu instead.

Now, leaving fried tofu as an offering for kitsune gods has become the norm. Another theory is that inari sushi―fried tofu stuffed with rice―can look like a mouse. Other people say that inari sushi looks like a rice bag, because Inari, the kitsune god, is also the god of agriculture, and that is why inari sushi is also called "o-inari-san."