Kitsune
Kitsune (狐) is the Japanese word for fox. Japan is home to two subspecies of foxes: the Japanese Red Fox (Hondo kitsune living in Honshū; Vulpes vulpes japonica) and Hokkaido Fox (Kita kitsune living in Hokkaido; Vulpes vulpes schrencki).
Foxes are prominent in Japanese folklore, where they are considered sapient beings. Folk tales hold that they possess great magical powers, the scope of which increases with their age and wisdom, including the ability to assume human form. While some stories speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others, as foxes in folklore often do, others portray them in a more favorable light as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.
Many kitsune are said to possess multiple tails, numbering as high as nine. A larger number of tails usually indicates an older, wiser, and more powerful kitsune. Their potential power and influence is such that offerings are sometimes made to kitsune as they might be to a kami who is a personified deity.
Kitsune are closely associated with the Shinto kami Inari, serving as his messengers.
Folklore
In folklore, kitsune are a type of yōkai. In this context, the word kitsune is often translated as "fox spirit." However, this does not mean that a kitsune is not a living creature, nor that a kitsune is a different creature than a fox. Because the word spirit is used in its Eastern sense, reflecting a state of knowledge or enlightenment, any fox who lives for a sufficient amount of time can be a fox spirit.
Kitsune are believed to possess great intelligence, long life, and magical powers. Foremost among these is the ability to take on human form; a fox learns to do so once it attains a certain age (usually a hundred years, though some tales say fifty). Kitsune typically appear in the shape of a beautiful woman, a young girl, or an elderly man.
There are two major types of kitsune; the myobu, or celestial fox — those associated with Inari, who are presented as benevolent — and the nogitsune, or wild fox (literally "field fox"), who are often presented as malicious.
Physical characteristics
The physical attribute kitsune are most noted for is their tails — a fox may possess as many as nine of them. Generally, an older and more powerful fox will possess a greater number of tails, and some sources say that a fox will only grow additional tails after it has lived for a thousand years. The foxes that appear in folk stories almost always possess one, five, or nine tails, rather than any other intermediate number.
When a kitsune gains its ninth tail, its fur becomes white or gold. These kyūbi no kitsune ("nine-tailed foxes") gain the power of infinite vision — they can see (and hear) anything happening anywhere in the world. Occasionally, they are attributed "infinite wisdom," essentially omniscience.
In some stories, kitsune have difficulty hiding their tail — usually the foxes in these stories have only one, which may be an indication that this is a weakness born of inexperience — when they take human form. The observant protagonist sees through the fox's disguise when the drunken or careless fox allows its tail to show.
Looking for the fox's tail is one common method of attempting to discern the true nature of the kitsune, but some sources speak of other methods to reveal its true shape. Variants of this theme feature the kitsune retaining other foxlike traits, such as a coating of fine hair over much of its body. A shapeshifted kitsune may cast the shadow of a fox rather than of a human, or its reflection might be that of a fox. Kitsune have a great fear and hatred of dogs, even while in human form, and some become so rattled by the presence of a dog that they will revert to the shape of a fox and flee. Finally, a particularly devout individual may be able to see through the fox's disguise.
Powers
Supernatural powers commonly attributed to the kitsune include, in addition to shapeshifting, possession (see kitsunetsuki below), the ability to generate fire or lightning from their tails or to breathe fire (known as kitsune-bi, literally "foxfire"), the power to manifest in dreams, the power to fly, and the ability to create illusions so elaborate as to be almost indistinguishable from reality.
Some tales go further still, speaking of kitsune with the ability to bend time and space, to drive people mad, or to take such nonhuman and fantastic shapes as a tree of incredible height or a second moon in the sky. Occasionally kitsune are ascribed a characteristic reminiscent of vampires or succubi — these kitsune feed on the life or spirit of humans, generally through sexual contact.
"Star balls"
Kitsune or their possessed victims may be depicted carrying a round or pear-shaped ball, known as as a "hoshi no tama" ("star ball"). Those who obtain the ball may be able to extract the kitsune's promise to help them in exchange for its return. One belief states that the ball holds a portion of the kitsune's magical power when it changes shape.
Servants of Inari
Kitsune are associated with the deity of rice known as Inari. Originally kitsune were the messengers of Inari, but the line between the two has now become blurred to the point that Inari is sometimes depicted as a fox, and that there exist shrines dedicated to the kitsune. There is speculation, but little supporting historical evidence, as to whether another Shinto deity who is a fox exists. Kitsune are connected to both the Shinto and Buddhist religions.
Inari's kitsune possess the power to ward off evil and sometimes serve as guardian spirits. According to beliefs derived from feng shui (fusui in Japanese), a fox statue serves to ward off evil kimon that flows from the northeast.
One of the most famous shrines of Inari is Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, Japan, which features numerous fox statues.
Portrayal
In Japanese folklore, the kitsune are often presented as tricksters — sometimes very malevolent ones. The trickster kitsune employ their magical powers to play tricks on people; those portrayed in a favorable light choose as targets overly-proud samurai, greedy merchants, and boastful commoners, while the more cruel kitsune abuse poor tradesmen and farmers or devout Buddhist monks.
Despite their role as tricksters, however, kitsune will keep any promise given and will strive to repay any favor owed. Occasionally a kitsune will take a liking to and attach itself to a person or household. As long as it is treated with respect, it will use its powers for the benefit of its companion or hosts. As yōkai, however, kitsune do not share human morality, and a kitsune who has "adopted" a house in this manner might, for example, bring its host "gifts" of money or items that are in fact stolen from the host's neighbors. Any household thought to harbor kitsune therefore is treated with suspicion.
Kitsune are also commonly portrayed as lovers. These love stories usually involve a young human male and a kitsune who takes the form of a woman. Sometimes the kitsune is assigned the role of seductress, but often these stories are romantic in nature. Such a story usually involves the young man (unknowingly) marrying the fox, and emphasizes the devotion of the fox-wife. Many of these stories also possess a tragic element — they usually end with the discovery of the fox, who then must leave her husband. In some cases, the husband wakes, as if from a dream, to find himself far from home, filthy, and disoriented, and must often return to confront his abandoned human family in shame.
Many stories tell of fox-wives bearing children. Such progeny of human-kitsune marriages are human, but they are held to possess special physical and/or supernatural qualities, which are often passed to their children in turn. The specific nature of these qualities varies widely from one source to another. Among those who are said to have inherited such extraordinary power is the famous onmyoji Abe no Seimei.
False etymologies of the word "kitsune"
The oldest known story of a fox-wife provides a folk etymology of the word kitsune. This story is an exception to the norm in that it does not end tragically.
In the story, a fox takes the shape of a woman and marries a human man. They spend many happy years together and have several children. The wife is ultimately revealed as a fox when, terrified by a dog, she reverts to her fox shape in the presence of witnesses. She prepares to leave her home and return to the wild, but her husband says, "Now that we have spent so many years together, and I have had several children by you, I cannot simply forget you. Please come and sleep with me." The fox agrees, and from then on returns to her husband each night in the shape of a woman, leaving again each morning in the shape of a fox. She comes to be called Kitsune because, in classical Japanese, "kitsu-ne" means "come and sleep," while "ki-tsune" means "always comes."
Some have suggested that the origins of the word "kitsune" may be an onomotopoeia. "Kitsu" was said to be the sound produced by foxes in Japan, much in the way that "woof" is said to be the noise dogs make in the West. "-ne" can be translated to mean "noise," and so the word "kitsune" could literally refer to the sound produced by a fox. However, "kitsu" has not been used as representative of the sound foxes produce for some time; in modern Japanese the sound of a fox is transcribed as "kon kon" or "gon gon."
Origins
There is debate as to whether the kitsune is originally from China or is an indigenously Japanese concept, dating perhaps as far back as the fifth century B.C.E. Some fox-related myths in Japan can be traced to China, Korea, or (indirectly) India.
Chinese folklore contains fox spirits with similarities to kitsune, including the possibility of nine tails. Similarly, in Korea, a kumiho (literally "nine-tail fox") is a mythical fox that has lived for a thousand years. However, the Korean fox is always depicted as evil, unlike the Japanese fox, which can be benevolent.
Some scholars have suggested that fox-related myths spread from Indian sources such as the Hitopadesa to China and Korea, and ultimately to Japan.
Kitsunetsuki
Kitsunetsuki (狐憑き or 狐付き; also written as kitsune-tsuki) literally means the state of being possessed by a fox. The fox was believed to enter the body of its victim, typically a young woman, beneath her fingernails or through her breasts. In some cases, the victim's facial expressions were said to change in such a way that they resembled foxes. Japanese tradition holds that the possession can cause illiterate victims to temporarily gain literacy.
Lafcadio Hearn describes the condition in the first volume of his Japanese Fairy Tales:
Strange is the madness of those into whom demon foxes enter. Sometimes they run naked shouting through the streets. Sometimes they lie down and froth at the mouth, and yelp as a fox yelps. And on some part of the body of the possessed a moving lump appears under the skin, which seems to have a life of its own. Prick it with a needle, and it glides instantly to another place. By no grasp can it be so tightly compressed by a strong hand that it will not slip from under the fingers. Possessed folk are also said to speak and write languages of which they were totally ignorant prior to possession. They eat only what foxes are believed to like — tofu, aburage, azukimeshi, etc. — and they eat a great deal, alleging that not they, but the possessing foxes, are hungry.
He goes on to note that, once freed from the possession, the victim will never again be able to eat tofu, azukimeshi, or other foods favored by foxes.
Victims of kitsunetsuki were often treated cruelly — beaten or badly burned — in hopes of forcing the fox to leave. On some occasions, entire families were ostracized by their communities after a member of the family was thought to be possessed.
In Japan, kitsunetsuki was a common diagnosis for insanity as recently as the early 20th century. Possession was the explanation for the abnormal behavior displayed by the afflicted individuals.
Kitsunetsuki is also an ethnic psychosis unique to Japanese culture, which causes its victims to believe they are being possessed by a fox. Some of the symptoms of kitsunetsuki are cravings for rice or sweet red beans, listlessness, restlessness, and an aversion to eye contact. It is similar to, but distinct from, clinical lycanthropy.
In fiction
Embedded in popular folklore as they are, kitsune have made numerous appearances in Japanese works. They are featured in noh, kyogen, bunraku, and kabuki plays derived from folk tales, as well as in such contemporary works as manga and video games. Western authors of fantasy have also begun to make use of the kitsune legends. While these portrayals vary considerably, kitsune are generally depicted, in accordance with the folk stories, as wise, cunning, and powerful.
Among the most well-known kitsune characters in traditional Japanese works are the evil Tamamo-no-Mae and Kuzunoha, mother of Abe no Seimei.