Oh, this is painfully believable: many peasant women were accused of being Kitsune. They were beaten and hanged so often that women stopped leaving their houses. Without maids, laundresses, and all the other jobs that women did, The Capital was squalid. The Ministry of Onmyodo “explained” to The Capital that all Kitsune were men. The explanation was ridiculous but everyone believed it, and Kitsune sightings vanished. Fascinating premise!