The , in popular Japanese folklore, is a fox or fox spirit which possesses the supernatural ability to shapeshift or bewitch other life forms.
General overview
, though literally a 'fox', becomes in folklore a 'fox spirit', and a type of . They are ascribed intelligence and magical or supernatural powers, especially with long-living foxes.
The kitsune exhibit the ability of , or transforming ones shape and appearance, like the tanuki, as well as the ability to , i.e. beguile or bewitch. These terms are related to the generic term meaning "spectre" or "goblin". Another scholar describes the kitsune as being a "disorienting deity" (that makes the traveler lose his way). Such capabilities were also ascribed to badgers (actually tanuki or raccoon dog) and occasionally to cats (cf. bakeneko).
The archetypal method by which the kitsune tricks () humans is to lead them astray or make them lose their way. The experiences of people losing their way (usually in the mountain after dark) and blaming the kitsune fox has been recounted first or secondhand to folklorists well into the present times.
Other typical standard tricks occur as folktale types: people are tricked into taking a "bath in a night-soil pot" (i.e., manure pit), or eating "horse-dung dumpling", or accepting "leaf money" (cf. ).
The "fox wife" theme occurs in a number of noted medieval works (e.g. Nihon ryōiki),. Chapter 2. "Foxes, Wives and Spirits: Shapeshifting and the Language of Marriage", pp. 33–70 but on that theme, the story of nine-tailed vixen Tamamo-no-mae ('Jewel-algae ladyship') and sessho-seki ("murder stone") deserve special attention,. Chapter 1. "The Jewel Maiden and the Murder Stone: Orientations to Shapeshifting and Signification", pp. 1–32 as well as the story of a vixen Kuzunoha giving birth to the astrologist-magician Abe no Seimei.. Chapter 5.
The "Fox wife" is also a folktale type category., # 116ABC , pp. 161–170 There is a weather myth that associates sunshine rain with the kitsune's wedding (Cf. ), and its folktale type.
The fox jewel or tama (cf. ) sometimes occurs in folktale tradition as something held important by the fox, sometimes as the item necessary for it to transform or conduct other magic. This and the kitsunebi ('fox-fire'), which the creature is reputed to be capable of firing off (cf. ), are standard parts of the pictorial depictions of kitsune, especially on a white kitsune or byakko ().
The came to be associated with Inari, a Shinto or spirit, and serve as its messengers (). The fox is also a figure in Buddhism as the mount of the deva Dakini, and there is some conflation between the two deities ().
Another dimension is that the kitsune was thought capable of spiritual possession or kitsunetsuki (q.v.), which was a superstition widespread throughout Japan. This is multi-faceted: the illness causing possession might be sought to be exorcized by hiring some shaman, but the fox can turn into a benevolent guardian spirit also, or both, as in the case of an 11th century tale; (cf. Kitsunetsuki#Hungry fox).
For an unwanted possession to be exorcised, a professional miko priestess (as in the foregoing tale) or a shugendō priest would be consulted, well into the 20th century as the superstition persisted. A miko or itako purports to be capable of forcing a controlled possession of herself by a fox spirit, and engage in , a sort of séance to speak on behalf of the spirit.: kitsune no kuchiyose; : a izuna kuchiyose might also be considered fox spirit summoning; but , et passim, a miko performs such kuchiyose for various spirits not necessarily of the fox kind.
The concept of certain families being "fox owners" (kitsune-mochi) due to having tamed a jinko or ninko were written about in the Edo Period and Meiji era, but appear to be localized around Izumo Province (also further described under kitsunetsuki) which was the backdrop of Lafcadio Hearn's folkloristics. In Izumo, the "owner" families were feared as being able to unleash the fox spirits on normal people.
In other regions, it is only the yamabushi or lay priests trained in shugendō who have the reputation of using . In some cases, the fox or fox-spirit summoned is called the osaki. The familiar may also be known as the because they were believed to be so small, or become so small as to fit inside a tube.
The kitsune appears in numerous Japanese works. Noh (), kyogen (), or bunraku and kabuki (, Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura) plays derived from folk tales feature them,: "the most interesting part of fox-literature belongs to the Japanese stage". However, Hearn's example which he presents as if it is a play with dialogues, is Hizakurige, an Edo Period novel widely known in Japan. as do contemporary works such as native animations, comic books and video games.
Etymology The full etymology of is unknown. The oldest known usage of the word is in the text Shin'yaku Kegonkyō Ongi Shiki, dating to 794.
Other old sources include the aforementioned story in the Nihon ryōiki (810–824) and Wamyō Ruijushō (c. 934). These old sources are written in Man'yōgana, which clearly identifies the historical form of the word (when rendered into a Latin-alphabet transliteration) as . Following several diachronic phonological changes, this became .
The fox-wife narrative in Nihon ryōiki gives the folk etymology as 'come and sleep', while in a double-entendre, the phrase can also be parsed differently as to mean 'always comes'.
Many etymological suggestions have been made, though there is no general agreement: Myōgoki (1268) suggests that it is so called because it is "always () yellow ()".
Arai Hakuseki in (1717) suggests that means 'stench', is a possessive particle, and is related to , the word for 'dog'. Tanikawa Kotosuga in (1777–1887) suggests that means 'yellow', is a possessive particle, and is related to , the word for 'cat'. Ōtsuki Fumihiko in (1932–1935) proposes that the word comes from , which is an onomatopoeia for the bark of a fox, and , which may be an honorific referring to a servant of an Inari shrine. Nozaki also suggests that the word was originally onomatopoetic: represented a fox's yelp and came to be the general word for 'fox'; signified an affectionate mood.
is now archaic; in modern Japanese, a fox's cry is transcribed as or .
Nihongi chronicle In the Nihon Shoki (or Nihongi, compiled 720), the fox is mentioned twice, as omens. In the year 657 a byakko or "white fox" was reported to have been witnessed in Iwami Province, possibly a sign of good omen. And in 659, a fox bit off the end of a creeping vine plant held by the laborer (shrine construction worker), interpreted as an inauspicious omen foreshadowing the death of Empress Saimei the following year.
For pre-historic considerations before the chronicles, Cf.
Anciently-aged foxes
(1850) argued that there were three classes of foxes, gradable by age, the sky or celestial tenko, the white fox byakko and black fox, of which the tenko was the most ancient, but had no corporeal form and was strictly a spirit(cf. ).
In Japanese folklore, have as many as nine tails (but this is derived straight from Chinese classics, as explained below). Generally, a greater number of tails indicates an older and more powerful ; in fact, some folktales say that a fox will only grow additional tails after it has lived 100 years. One, five, seven, and nine tails are the most common numbers in folktales.
The story was later introduced (established by the 14th century), that the queen-consort Daji (Japanese pronunciation: ) was really a nine-tailed fox that led to the destruction of Yin/Shang dynasty, and the same vixen some 2,000 years later appeared as Tamamo-no-mae in Japan (q.v., also and Hokusai's painting of Tamamo previously as Lady Kayō of India). Tamamo clearly draws from Chinese myth and literature, so her being depicted as a golden-furred and matches precisely what the Chinese classics writes about the celestial fox (tian hu ) which a 1,000 year old fox turns into.
(Cf. also )
Inari Shinto deity Inari's kitsune are white, a color of a good omen. They possess the power to ward off evil, and they sometimes serve as guardian spirits. In addition to protecting Inari shrines, they are petitioned to intervene on behalf of the locals and particularly to aid against troublesome nogitsune, those spirit foxes who do not serve Inari. Black foxes and nine-tailed foxes are likewise considered good omens.
There can also be attendant or servant foxes associated with Inari, the Shinto deity of rice. Originally, kitsune were Inari's messengers, but the line between the two is now blurred so that Inari Ōkami may be depicted as a fox. Likewise, entire shrines are dedicated to kitsune, where devotees can leave offerings.
According to beliefs derived from fūsui (feng shui), the fox's power over evil is such that a mere statue of a fox can dispel the evil kimon, or energy, that flows from the northeast. Many Inari shrines, such as the famous Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, feature such statues, sometimes large numbers of them.
Swordsmith deity Kitsune are traditionally regarded as Inari's messengers rather than the deity itself, but in the Noh play Kokaji, based on the legend of the swordsmith Sanjō Munechika, Inari is described as transforming into the spirit of a fox to assist him. Munechika, active in Kyoto during the reign of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011), was ordered to forge a blade for the emperor but lacked a partner skilled enough to assist him. He traveled to Fushimi Inari Shrine to pray for aid, where a mysterious boy appeared and promised to help him, then vanished onto Mount Inari. When Munechika returned home and began the forging ritual, Inari appeared in place of the boy and matched every hammer stroke without instruction — in some depictions taking the form of a fox, in others appearing with an entourage of foxes as the deity's messengers. The finished blade, Kogitsune-maru ("Little Fox"), was inscribed with both Munechika's smithing name and the word "kogitsune," commemorating the fox spirit's assistance.
This legend is dramatized in the Noh play Kokaji, of unknown authorship, and reflects Inari's wider role as patron deity of smiths and metalworkers, a role closely bound up with the fox as Inari's earthly manifestation. The story has remained a recurring subject in later Japanese art, including Ogata Gekkō's 1887 woodblock print Inariyama Ko-Kaji ("The Swordsmith on Mount Inari"), which depicts Inari and a troop of foxes assisting at the forge, and a 19th-century ivory netsuke showing Inari watching over Munechika as he works
Abura-age
The fact that Japanese soup noodles garnished with fried slice of tofu called abura-age are called kitsune udon and kitsune soba (in Eastern Japan) stems from the popular belief the Inari deity (and its fox minions) prefer to be offered the abura-age (or sushi-rice stuffed in aburage pouches, called inarizushi).
However, the custom of offering abura-age must have arisen rather late (in the Edo Period). In comparison, the notion that the fox's favorite food being dates farther back, since it is attested in 's Matsunoya hikki (c. 1845), which also cites a Muromachi period work Sekyō shō (where there is a metaphor of "springing up like a fox at a yaki-nezumi [roasted rat]"). 卷九十六
Watchers of the kyōgen-play ("Fox Trapping") know full well that part of the theatrics involves the fox character being driven crazy by the presence of its favorite food, the "oil-fried young mice", While this freak food bait might be thought of as the stuff of popular belief, the oil-fried mouse was an effective bait for trapping foxes, and actually used into the modern era (see fig. right).