Foxy Lady, Foxy “Yōkai”: How Japan’s “Kitsune” Bewitched the World

Shimotsuke no kuni Nasu no hara kinmō hakumen kyūbi no akko taiji no zu (The Defeat of the Evil Nine-Tailed Fox on Nasu Moor in Shimotsuke Province), Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1830. (Courtesy of the Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of History)

Tamamo no Mae, as pictured in Abe no Yasunari chōbuku yōkai zu (Abe no Yasunari Uses a Mirror to Reveal Tamamo no Mae’s True Form as a Nine-tailed Fox). (Courtesy of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies)

Nasu’s tourist ambassador Kyūbī, a name signifying “nine tails.” (Courtesy of the Nasu Municipal Tourist Information Center)

A fox from the late Edo-period Bakemono tsukushi emaki (An Illustrated Scroll of Shape-Shifters). (Courtesy of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies)

Foxes venerated at Toyokawa Inari Betsuin, Akasaka, Tokyo. (© Pixta)

Tokimairi hakarazu mo kitsune no yomeiri o miru zu (Watching a Fox Wedding Procession). (Courtesy of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies)

Foxfire from Kaibutsu ehon (Monsters Illustrated). (Courtesy of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies)

A two-tailed version on the Tamamo no Mae monogatari emaki (Illustrated Scroll of the Tamamo no Mae Tale). (Courtesy of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies)