The kitsune (狐, きつね) in popular Japanese tradition, are foxes or fox spirits that possess paranormal abilities such as shapeshifting, and capable of bewitching people. Kitsune, though literally a “fox”, becomes in folklore a “fox spirit”, or perhaps a type of yōkai. They are ascribed with intelligence, magical or supernatural powers, especially so with long-living foxes. The kitsune exhibit the ability of bakeru or transforming its shape and appearance, like the tanuki as well as the ability to bakasu, i.e. beguile or bewitch; these terms are related to the generic term bakemono meaning “spectre” or “goblin”. Another scholar ascribes the kitsune with being a “disorienting deity” (that makes the traveler lose his way) and such capabilities were also ascribed to badgers (actually tanuki or raccoon dog) and occasionally to cats (cf. bakeneko). About the image: “This image on the plain of Musashi, from Yoshitoshi’s famous series, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (Tsuki hyakushi), recalls a traditional Japanese belief that the wide plain near Edo was inhabited by foxes who gathered on New Year’s Eve at a tree near the Oji Inari Shrine, where they served as messengers to its deity, the protector of rice cultivation. Farmers looked for the flames emitted by the foxes to judge the probability of good harvests in the coming year.” ~ Smithsonian
Description The kitsune (狐, きつね) in popular Japanese tradition, are foxes or fox spirits that possess paranormal abilities such as shapeshifting, and capable of bewitching people. Kitsune, though literally a “fox”, becomes in folklore a “fox spirit”, or perhaps a type of yōkai. They are ascribed with intelligence, magical or supernatural powers, especially so with long-living foxes. The kitsune exhibit the ability of bakeru or transforming its shape and appearance, like the tanuki as well as the ability to bakasu, i.e. beguile or bewitch; these terms are related to the generic term bakemono meaning “spectre” or “goblin”. Another scholar ascribes the kitsune with being a “disorienting deity” (that makes the traveler lose his way) and such capabilities were also ascribed to badgers (actually tanuki or raccoon dog) and occasionally to cats (cf. bakeneko). About the image: “This image on the plain of Musashi, from Yoshitoshi’s famous series, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (Tsuki hyakushi), recalls a traditional Japanese belief that the wide plain near Edo was inhabited by foxes who gathered on New Year’s Eve at a tree near the Oji Inari Shrine, where they served as messengers to its deity, the protector of rice cultivation. Farmers looked for the flames emitted by the foxes to judge the probability of good harvests in the coming year.” ~ Smithsonian
