A Little Guide to Kitsune and Other Foxes (1) 

There’s a story in Chinese Literature from the year 333 BCE. A fox and a tiger are talking. The tiger is strong, every single one of its movements a reflection of beauty and grace. The tiger walks up and down, ever so slowly getting closer to the fox. Even dangerously close. However, the fox doesn’t seem too impressed, telling the tiger: “Be careful to not attack me and eat me, because the Sovereign of Heaven has privileged me among all animals by giving me greater cunning than others. Should you devour me, you would certainly displease him very much.”

Quite a bold claim, but are we surprised? It is a fox after all.

Stories of Foxes

I think most people have heard similar stories. I remember talking about one of Aesop’s fables involving a fox quite a few times when I was in school. And after having briefly mentioned kitsune in this post: Introducing Yōkai, I decided it was finally time to write a longer post on them. Fox-lore is complicated to say the least, so this is the first part of a little series.

Foxes are often portrayed as incredibly smart animals, able to trick any unsuspecting animal or human. And real life foxes are just that: They might not be the biggest predators size-wise, but they show adaptability, intelligence and a capability to learn new things. They also live in close proximity to humans, but usually know how to avoid them. Still, once in a while, one might catch a glimpse of the red coated (or white, or black, or brown) animal. So, it is no surprise that the fox plays an incredibly important role in folklore around the world, both as a benevolent and a malevolent entity. And in Japan, they wait around every corner, ready to trick you.

A classic story related to the trickery of a fox might go something like this (this is not a specific story, I’ve read there are a lot of stories like in different variations all over Japan):

A traveller is alone on the road at night, he is tired and needs a rest, when he glimpses a light not too far away. He approaches to find a house there, with lights shining brightly from the inside, exuding a warmth very much needed in this cold night. Or maybe the traveller meets a beautiful woman on the way, she asks where he is going to stay and then invites him to come to her place, leading him to the very same house. There he enjoys himself, bathes and gets offered a delicious meal. The next morning he wakes up to find himself in a ditch, realising he has bathed in mud and eaten leaves.

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Stories of foxes exist in both China and Korea as well, which makes some scholars suggest the origin of these stories can be traced back to China. While some stories certainly overlap, there are also Ainu tales of foxes and specifically Japanese fox stories, which suggests the legendary fox is native to Japan. We’ll get into some Chinese and Japanese foxes over the course of this little (or not so little) guide. We’re gonna start with the basics:

Part 1: Why Is the Fox Called Kitsune 狐 ?

There are various names for foxes, both good and bad. Of course I won’t list all of them, even though we are going to talk about some types of foxes later. The most famous and most general name is Kitsune 狐. Kitsune literally means fox, both natural and magical.

A fox, meaning the natural occurring vulpus vulpus, can and might be a mischievous trickster, or it might just be a simple (young) fox. This fluidity occurs not only in case of the fox, but also for other things (see tsukomigami).

So what does the fox say? In old Japan the answer might have been ketsuketsu 「ケツケツ」 or kitsukitsu 「キツキツ」. Add -ne, a Shintō honorific, and you have kitsune. (It is actually quite common to add honorifics to animal’s names like neko-chan (meaning cat-chan) etc., I’m assuming the honorific is related to the fox being a powerful animal and related to some gods.)

The Fox-Wife

There’s also another explanation for the name. And this is where we’re already getting into the folklore. It tells the story of a man, who marries a beautiful woman he meets while walking across a field, (btw that’s the first red flag) and soon she gives birth to a child. The same day the household’s dog gives birth to a puppy. As the puppy grows, it starts showing aggression towards its mistress, frightening her. One day, the dog finally attacks her, and in shock, the woman turns into a fox and flees, leaving behind her husband and child. Her husband, however, not minding her being a fox asks her to kitsu ne (come and sleep) and she returns to her family every night. So, a fox is called a kitsune.

Stories of such fox-wifes are common. The mother of legendary sorcerer Abe no Seimei (basically Japan’s Merlin) was supposedly one too, which might have helped him gain his extraordinary powers.

On a historical note: There’s actually a theory stating that “fox” was a term used for indigenous people by the Yamato Imperial Court, the transformation into the animal might have been associated with “powers” these groups supposedly had. This would add another layer to the marriage of a man and a “fox”, who, after being discovered, has to flee to conceal herself.

Yamato: The group of people that established the first dynasty in Japan, most likely descendants of groups migrating from the mainland, now make up ca. 98% of Japanese people; Japan also has indigenous people, most famously the Ainu in the north and the Ryukyuans in the south. 

A Little History of the Fox

The earliest mentions of foxes in Japan are related to them as omens. One tiny example can be found in the Shoku Nihongi: “A black fox appears when a king by his government causes profound peace.” Which already shows us something. A black fox is supposedly a good thing. A normal fox? Mostly a bad omen. There’s even a story that if a fox cries from a specific direction on a specific day, it might mean someone’s death, or general impending doom. So, for the next part, we are going to take a look at the different types of foxes in Japan.

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