All about yokai: Kitsune
Kitsune are one of the most common yokai known in the world, alongside the similar yokai, the tanuki. They are involved in many folktales and also with the Shinto goddess Inari. However, unlike many yokai, there are many types of kitsune, both good and bad. In my stories I have explored both kinds, with the good kinds in A Deceptive Fox and the more mischievous kind in Drowning Hearts.
Kitsune
狐 - きつね
Translation: Fox
Despite there being many types of kitsune, there are plenty of things they all have in common. As kitsune grow older and wiser, they grow more tails (up to as many as nine), their abilities increase and they become more powerful. Those abilities come in the form of transformation, being able to summon kitsunebi, possession, flight, invisibility, and illusion making. Some are also known to appear in people’s dreams, drive them mad, and even bend time and space.
The most common number of tails for a kitsune to have is one, five, seven, and nine, with the ninth tail appearing once they reach 1000 years old. At this time the kitsune will turn white or gold and become a tenko—the most powerful form of kitsune.
Transformation
Kitsune are able to transform into a human form, something folktales say they learn when a kitsune reaches 50 or 100 years old. They often will take the form of a beautiful woman, a young girl but they are also known to transform into males too. They aren’t limited by the kitsune’s age or gender. Kitsune also have the ability to copy the appearance of a specific person. It was believed that any woman met alone, especially at night could be a kitsune.
In folktales, they tell of transformed kitsune who fall in love with human men, or who seduce them. Often the man doesn’t find out that she is a kitsune until later, and a devoted wife, and she is forced to leave him.
Kitsunebi
狐火 - きつねび
Translation: Fox fire
Kitsunebi are floating orbs of light which appear mostly as red or orange, but also sometimes blue or green. They come from a kitsune’s mouth as a ball of fire and signify that many kitsune are nearby. These are also used in yokai processions such as hyakki yagou—the night parade of 100 demons. Sometimes kitsunebi is used to trick or lure humans into malicious situations.
In my stories, I show a lot of these abilities. In One, Two, Three I include kitsunebi in a recalling of a hyakki yagou through the town. In A Deceptive Fox we meet other types of kitsune, and finally in Drowning Hearts I played with lots of kitsune abilities. In that story we see a lot of transformation, and also subversion of the norm as when the male, Oujirou, finds out she is a kitsune, he is entranced by her and it is never an issue for him. We also see possession of an animal, kitsunebi in a slightly different form, as well as the trick to revealing a kitsune.
In some folktales, kitsune have difficulties in hiding their vulpine features, especially their tails. So one way of figuring out if someone is actually a kitsune is to look out for a tail when they are drunk or careless. They can also be frightened or surprised and accidentally let the disguise slip, or even become rattled by the presence of dogs, which they hate.
Types of kitsune
Kistune are generally divided into two groups, the zenko and the yako (also called nogitsune). Zenko are the good foxes, and ones which are Inari’s messengers, and yako are the more mischievous kind, and are dangerous.
Zenko
善狐 - ぜんこ
Translation: good fox
Furthermore, these zenko are categorised further, depending on type or colour, although other classifications exist too. For my stories I chose the three ranks.
By fur colour:
By social rank:
Both tenko and kiko show up in my stories, with kiko being in A Deceptive Fox and tenko being in Drowning Hearts.
Kiko (気狐 - きこ) are kitsune who serve and act as messengers for Inari and are found around her shrines. They are usually around 500-1000 years in age and most of the are white (byakko), although can come in other colours too. These are spiritual kitsune who don’t have a true body, as when they gain the rank of kiko they shed their physical body.
Tenko (天狐 - てんこ) are the highest rank kitsune which have the most divine powers. To reach tenko, the kitsune is 1000 years old and usually has multiple tails. Much like the kiko, tenko also are spiritual without a physical body, so their appearance is what they decide. Tenko are worshipped by humans as they grant favours. Like all other kitsune, tenko can possess a human, however, the human then can gain the tenko’s power, and can be able to predict the future.
Yako
野狐 - やこ
Translation: Field fox
While zenko are spiritual, follow the rules, and help humans (or at least play lesser tricks on them), yako are the opposite. Their actions are mischievous and can be harmful from playing tricks on greedy merchants and prideful samurai, to farmers and even monks. They will seduce, thieve, humiliate, and seek vengeance on whoever crosses them. These actions are usually focused on men, as woman are possessed.
Both types of kitsune, however, are well known to keep promises made and will repay favours. They will remember friendships and forever spurn those who have wronged them.
I find them fascinating, and it was surely inevitable that I would write about them in at least one of my stories. I hope you, too, enjoy seeing them and how I have portrayed them, now you know more about the kitsune.
