Kitsune

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. Japan has two kinds of fox: the Japanese Red Fox (Hondo kitsune living in Honshu; Vulpes vulpes japonica) and Hokkaido Fox (Kita kitsune living in Hokkaido; Vulpes vulpes schrencki).

Related Topics:
Japan - Fox - Red Fox - Honshu - Vulpes - Hokkaido

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In Japanese folklore, these animals are believed to possess great intelligence, long life, and magical powers. Foremost among these is the ability to take the shape of a human; a fox is said to learn to do this when it attains a certain age (usually a hundred years, though some tales say fifty). Kitsune usually appear in the shape of a beautiful woman, a pretty young girl, or an old man.

Related Topics:
Folklore - Magic

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Other powers commonly attributed to the kitsune include possession, the ability to breathe or otherwise create fire, the power to manifest in dreams, 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 — these kitsune feed on the life or spirit of the humans they come into contact with. Sometimes kitsune are depicted guarding a round or pear-shaped ball (hoshi no tama or star ball); it is said this ball contains some amount of the kitsune's power, and if it is stolen the thief can coerce help from the kitsune.

Related Topics:
Possession - Fire - Dream - Illusion - Vampire - Pear - Ball

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Kitsune are often associated with the deity of rice known as Inari. Originally kitsune were the messengers of Inari, but now the line between the two has become blurred to the point that Inari is sometimes depicted as a fox. Kitsune are connected to both the shinto and Buddhist faiths.

Related Topics:
Deity - Rice - Inari - Shinto - Buddhist

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The folkloric kitsune is a type of yōkai. In the context of folklore, the word kitsune is often translated as fox spirit. However, one should not take this to mean that a kitsune is not a living creature, nor that a kitsune is a different creature than a fox. The word spirit is used in its Eastern sense, reflecting a state of knowledge or enlightenment. Any fox who lives sufficiently long, therefore, can be a fox spirit. 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, though not always, presented as malicious.

Related Topics:
Yōkai - Fox spirit - Myobu

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Kitsune are often noted for 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 grows an additional tail for each hundred or thousand years it has lived. However, the foxes that appear in the tales almost always possess one, five, or nine tails.

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When a kitsune gains nine tails, its fur becomes silver, white, or gold. These kyūbi no kitsune ("nine-tailed foxes") gain the power of infinite vision. Similarly, in Korea, a fox that lives a thousand years is said to turn into a kumiho (literally "nine-tail fox"), but the Korean fox is always depicted as evil, unlike the Japanese fox, which can be either benevolent or malevolent. Chinese folklore also has fox spirits with many similarities to kitsune, including the possibility of nine tails.

Related Topics:
Korea - Fox spirit

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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.

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A famous kitsune would be the great guardian spirit, Kyubi. Revered by some, Kyubi is a protective Guardian spirit, helping young souls who appear to be "lost", in their journey through this incarnation. Kyubi usually does not stay for very long, only for a few days, but may end up staying for years at a time when it becomes attached to one soul. It is a rare kitsune spirit that gifts those lucky few that it graces with its presence.

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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 tend to choose as targets overly-proud samurai, greedy merchants, and boastful commoners, while the more cruel kitsune tend to abuse poor tradesmen and farmers or Buddhist monks.

Related Topics:
Trickster - Samurai - Buddhist

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However, there is a second common portrayal: as a lover. 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.

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The oldest known story of a fox-wife, which provides a folk etymology of the word kitsune, is an exception. In this story, the fox takes the shape of a woman and marries a human male, and the two, in the course of spending several happy years together, have several children. She is ultimately revealed as a fox when, terrified by a dog, she returns to her fox shape to hide, in the presence of many witnesses. She prepares to depart her home, but her husband prevails upon her, saying, "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. Therefore, she comes to be called Kitsune — because, in the classical Japanese, "kitsu-ne" means "come and sleep", while "ki-tsune" means "always comes".

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The human progeny of human-kitsune marriages are generally held to possess special physical and/or supernatural qualities. The specific nature of these qualities, however, varies widely from one source to another. Among those who are said to have such extraordinary power is the famous onmyoji Abe no Seimei, who is said to be a son of a kitsune hanyō.

Related Topics:
Onmyoji - Abe no Seimei - Hanyō

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Rain falling from a clear sky — a sun shower — is sometimes called kitsune no yomeiri or "the kitsune's wedding".

Related Topics:
Rain - Sky - Sun shower

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Many people believe that the Kitsune travel from China to Japan.

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