Bio: Abe-no-Yasuna frequently visit the Inari shrine within Settsu Province praying for the restoration of his family’s status. Upon one such trip as he paid his respects, he would encounter a white fox, whom begged help before disappearing into the forest. Not long after a military commissioner came along, asking for the fox’s location. When Yasuna asked why the commissioner wanted to know he told Yasuna he was hunting foxes to use their livers for medicine.
Yasuna knowing the fox to be sacred to Inari barred arms against the man and in the processes wounded by him. Wounded as he was, he was able to chase the would-be hunter away, and slowly made his way out of the forest only collapse from his wounds coming to deaths door. As he lay there dying a woman would come, she dressed his wounds, nursed him back to health, and left the forest with him becoming his wife.
This woman was Kuzunoha a kitsune born of and in-service to Inari as well as the vary fox that Yasuna had saved from the hunter. This fact eluded him for years as she would use magic to remain a human woman and within this form she would bear a child Doji. Though appearing human even from a young age, he demonstrated supernatural abilities having inherited his mother’s power.
For a few years Kuzunoha was able to raise her son, though not without certain abnormal problems. From a young age Doji showed supernatural power, commanding weak Oni to do his bidding at just five years of age. To ensure he would not fall upon a path of evil Kuzunoha entrusted Kamo-no-Tadayuki to teach him to use these powers and ensure Doji remained human. Kuzunoha lived a happy life with her son and husband, but this was not to last.
While Kuzunoha viewed the beautiful Chrysanthemums of her garden, Doji would see the tip of his mother’s tail. In her son seeing her true form, she was forced flee worried what the revelation of her existences as a Kitsune would affect her family. However, before she did Kuzunoha left a poem telling him and his father asking that, if they love her, to meet in the forest where she and Abe-no-Yasuna meet.
After arriving at the forest Abe-no-Yasuna and Doji would meet Kuzunoha in her true form where she would explain much of herself. She revealed she was a Kitsune (somewhat obvious but it’s the thought that counts) as well as her existence as a kami tasked by Inari to guard the forest. She told her husband and son of how much she loved them, and gave Doji a parting gift, the ability to speak to beasts, before fully returning to the forest never to be seen again.
Doji would go on to further develop his supernatural powers, using both these and the many other gifts left to him by his mother to benefit himself, his father, and many others. His skill in the mystic arts, divination and astrology in particular, would attract the attention of Kamo no Yasunori, who would take him in as a disciple. In this honor he earned his adult name, the one which become famous throughout japan and the world, Abe no Seimei.
Abe no Seimei would become Yasunori’s successor inheriting his role in astrology and divination, becoming a Onmyoji of great power and prestige. Much of his time was spent upon divining the future, finding what was lost, and giving life advise. On occasion however he was called upon to help in the slaying of terrible demons and yokai. One particular instance of such was when he helped Minamoto no Yorimitsu in defeating the Oni Shuten-Doji.
Unfortunately the fame and fortune Seimei earned for himself would earn the ire and jealousy of others, most of all that of Ashiya Doman. A fellow Onmyoji powerful and famous in his own right, but considered the lesser of Seimei, Ashiya vowed to still Seimei’s title. Again and again he attempted to embarrass, outwit, and defeat Seimei but never once did he succeed.
One of these famous duels was a dual of divination, where Ashiya set out a box. Ashiya and a friend placed within fifteen mandarin oranges, and when the competition began Doman “divined” there to be fifteen oranges within the box. Seeing through the ruse Seimei transformed the oranges to rats and gave his answer “Fifteen rats live within the box.” Feeling he had bested his “Rival” Ashiya opened the box and was shocked to find not the oranges he had picked but rats scurrying out.
Though barring divine blood, Seimei still lived as a human, and died as one as well succumbing to old age. In his death he was recorded into the Throne of Heroes and left a long lineage of mages. One of these descendants Abe no Yasuchika would gain some small amount of fame for her role in the tale of Tamamo-no-Mae. To more easily gain fame and prestige Yasuchika claimed to be Abe no Seimei, thus fueling the misconception that it was he whom was exposed the Kitsune for whom she was.
Originally Posted by Bugs
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