Fox-den Setsu
Hi-hi, friend! 🦊
Shinshi here — messenger-fox and keeper of these little trails through this part of the forest.
Welcome to Fox-den Setsu: a small, growing collection of tales, released one at a time on the first of each month, that carry a kanji or a compound word from Japanese wrapped inside a story you might actually want to remember.
Each tale takes about as long to read as it takes to enjoy a good cup of tea. And inside each one is a kanji — sometimes two — met the same way a folktale carries its lore: with reverence, a little humor, and the trust that when you want to be with what you’re learning, it wants to be with you too!
The tales are free. The trail is here. And the next one rises on the first of the month, every month.
tail swish, scroll drop
The Tales:
The next tale rises with the October moon.
A NOTE FROM THE WORKDESK
“Densetsu” is the Japanese word for “legend” or “tale” — built from the kanji for transmission (伝) and opinion (説). So Fox-den Setsu is something like fox-told tales, or fox transmissions.
The odd little idea I’m running with here is to see what happens when longer-form mnemonics are set out for others as well. Will they help others grasp both kanji and culture, the way my own mental mnemonics have helped me?
I honestly don’t know if they’ll work for you. But for me, imagining a story around a kanji that’s interesting-to-me, good-hearted, and something my mind wants to come back to has done me more good than the short, sharp, shock-based ones I first met when I started learning Japanese, (and rather wish I hadn’t).
I imagine Fox-den Setsu as bedtime-stories for grown-ups. Something you can read while falling asleep, filling head and heart with positive things — things that, over time, might inspire dreams that help you on your own journey with this wonderful language.
Wishing you all the best on your explorations —
~Emily
STAY IN TOUCH
Would you like to hear each new tale a few days early?
Um… h-hi! It’s me — Deshi!
If you’d like to hear each new tale a few days before it goes out to the wider world, you can sign up for our newsletter! Shinshi and I send quiet letters — just the new tale when it’s fresh, and sometimes a peek at what Emily-san is working on at her desk. That’s all.
(No pawprints on your sofa. Well… mostly no pawprints. I try! 🐾)