The Kitsune, the Fox of Japanese Folklore between Inari and Trickery

In the Japanese countryside the fox, kitsune, has for centuries been an animal laden with meaning. It can be the messenger of a benevolent deity, the mysterious bride of an ordinary man or a cunning creature that deceives travellers. Folklore credits it with the power to take human form, above all that of a young woman, and with a wisdom that grows with age. In this figure local beliefs, Chinese influences and Shinto and Buddhist cults meet.

The Fox of Inari

The best-known link is with Inari, the deity of rice and fertility, and later also of commercial prosperity. At the shrines dedicated to Inari, which in Japan number in the tens of thousands, pairs of stone foxes stand guard at the entrance, often holding in their mouths a key, a jewel or a scroll. The foxes are not Inari itself, but its messengers, called shinshi, that is envoys of the deity.

The main shrine is Fushimi Inari Taisha, at the foot of Mount Inari in Kyoto, famous for the thousands of red torii gates donated by the faithful, which form long corridors up the mountainside. Tradition dates the founding of the cult to the early eighth century. Foxes are often offered fried tofu, and from this custom a popular dish takes its name, kitsune udon.

The Fox Wife and the Nihon ryōiki

One of the oldest tales of a fox turned woman is found in the Nihon ryōiki, a collection of Buddhist stories compiled by the monk Kyōkai at the beginning of the ninth century. A man marries a beautiful stranger and has a son with her, until the household dog unmasks her and she resumes her fox shape. Her husband asks her to come back and sleep with him every night, and from this plea the tale derives the name kitsune, interpreted as “come and sleep”.

Another famous story is that of Kuzunoha, the white fox who according to legend married a man and became the mother of Abe no Seimei, the most famous master of onmyōdō, the divinatory art of ancient Japan, who lived in the tenth century. Once her true nature was discovered, Kuzunoha had to leave her family and return to the forest of Shinoda. The story was brought to the bunraku and kabuki stage from the eighteenth century onwards.

The Nine Tails and the Killing Stone

The image of the nine-tailed fox comes from China. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Shanhaijing, a collection of mythical geography that took shape over many centuries between the Warring States period and the Han era, already speaks of a fox with nine tails that devours people. In Japan the idea spread that foxes gain new tails with age and wisdom, until they reach the number nine, a sign of great power.

The best-known legend is that of Tamamo-no-Mae, a beautiful and highly cultivated courtesan at the court of Emperor Toba in the twelfth century. When the ruler fell ill, a diviner discovered that the woman was a nine-tailed fox. She fled, was killed on the plain of Nasu, and her spirit turned into a poisonous rock, the Sesshō-seki, the “killing stone”. In 2022 the rock, which still stands at Nasu, split in two, arousing great curiosity in Japan.

The kitsune embodies an ambivalence that runs through all of Japanese folklore. It is a faithful messenger of the divine and at the same time a trickster, a devoted lover and a spirit that, according to old beliefs, could take possession of people. The relationship with the fox reflects the relationship with nature itself: generous and mysterious, close to the cultivated fields and yet able to escape all human control.