Kitsune

In this week's episode, we're covering the awe-inspiring Kitsune from Japanese mythology! How many different types are there of this monster? How does this link to the ideal Japanese beauty standard? Find out in this one!

Transcript

INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

We released our 50th episode last week, can you believe it! It’s been a super dreary time in the UK, and has been really cold and miserable - so it’s kind of nice to go somewhere a little warmer during this week’s episode. 

DESCRIPTION:

So for this one, we’re heading back over to wonderful Japan to look into the fantastic Ms Fox, the Kitsune! You have probably heard of this monster, although it’s interesting that we would even call this one a monster in the first place. 

Kitsune are generally described as foxes - it’s literally the japanese word for fox in fact. However, this word has also been used for a spiritual entity from Japanese folklore. The Kitsune is a fox that can shapeshift into human form, and generally cause mayhem and havoc, but occasionally fall in love with humans. They were usually female when in their human shapes, but that was not exclusive - they could sometimes be dudes too. 

They are most famously known for having up to nine tails; the more they had, the older and more powerful the Kitsune would be. The most common was to generally have 2,3 or 5 tails in most of the folklore tales. They were also seen as witch animals, meaning that they could be linked as a familiar to a hag in the forest, and generally symbolised distrust.

If you remember from a few moons ago, we talked about other Japanese monsters, and the term Yokai. Yokai are Japanese spirits, and actually Kitsune counts as one of them! This is not to say that the Kitsune are ghosts or undead in any way - but the term spirit in this case is to indicate enlightenment and intelligence. They were considered so powerful though, that people would even make sacrifices to them - due to their power and influence as a deity. 

What were their weaknesses though? It is said in some folktales that they held a pearl or jewel in their mouths or on their tail, which would kill the fox if separated for too long from it. It’s said that this contains the Kitsune’s soul, and if you do manage to steal this from them - then they owe you a favour.

Now before I continue, it’s important to say that there were three different types of Kitsune, the zenko, ninko and the yako. Zenko Kitsune means good foxes, and were generally pleasant towards people and were considered celestial foxes. They were heavily linked to Inari, the Japanese goddess of foxes, fertility and agriculture. These were white foxes to represent their purity and godliness, and they could also ward off evil omens and act as guardian spirits. 

The Ninko were that of invisible fox spirits and were said to be responsible for the human possessions, so generally not the best of the bunch.

The Yako translates to field foxes, and were generally considered to be trouble - they would be malicious or mischievous around humans. These Kitsune will go after proud or greedy families, and attach themselves to them to cause mischief. But if the family ended up respecting the spirit, it would use its magic to help the family, which is pretty good. 

There are other types depending on where you are, but these were the most common. 

All of them had magic powers such as their shapeshifting, they were also incredibly intelligent and had immensely long lives. If a fox was found to have lived a long life, as they usually have a lifespan of around 1-3 years (which makes me really sad), they automatically are considered a supernatural being, which is pretty cool. But Kitsune were able to live until they were 1000 years old, where they would have their last of their nine tails and turn a beautiful golden colour, then ascend into the heavens.

Not only that, but they got more powerful with age, almost unlocking different powers as they did. They were able to shapeshift after 100 years, where they would be able to take the exact copy of someone else, this was usually a beautiful woman. It was said that if you ever found a woman alone in the woods, with a fox-like face, it was most likely a Kitsune. They could go on and seduce men and even have families with them - this is also why having fox-shaped features, usually in quite sharp chins and elongated brows are considered extremely beautiful in Japanese culture. If the husband found out about her Kitsune self - the Kitsune would have to leave him and their family. The more malicious ones would leave the husband in a far off place, dirty and disorientated, having to find his way back to his abandoned family. 

Other powers include invisibility, flight, elemental and sexual manipulation, and illusion. However, their most powerful skill was possession - this was a major pastime of the yuko kitsune. This happened so frequently that there was even a specific word for it ‘Kitsunetsuki’, which means the state of being possessed by a fox. This would usually affect young women, and the Kitsune would possess her by going beneath her fingernails or through her breasts - which is very invasive. Her features would then become fox-like, and they would be able to write and speak in different languages, and only eat tofu and various beans. 

They would have to be exorcised at a Inari temple in order to banish the fox spirit - but if this failed, the family would be run out of town, as it was said to bring about illness, famine and death, which is sad. What’s even sadder here is that Kitsunetsuki is still known as a mental health issue in Japan to this day, and is characterised as craving rice and sweet beans, and being restless and avoiding eye contact. I’m not a doctor or psychiatrist, but it sounds slightly like a diagnosis for maybe being on the spectrum, which is even more tricky to diagnose in women specifically - so this is a little sad. 

How could you tell that someone was a Kitsune though? They are terrified of dogs - so you could just bring a dog with you if you thought one was about. You could also see in its shadow that it would have a large fluffy tail, or just be a foxy shadow, or the person could be a little hairy. Or possibly the last resort was that of injuring them, when their facade would drop and they would flee in their fox shape.

ORIGIN:

Now onto etymology. As I said at the beginning, the literal translation for this into English means fox, but in Japanese, there are a few other meanings. The word kitsune can be broken down into loads of different words, so here’s a few. It could be ‘always yellow’ from the words tsune and ki, ‘come to bedroom’ from ki, tsu and ne or kitsu meaning fox, and ni meaning loving. Lastly, it might even be onomatopoeia and be the sound of the foxes howl, which we all know is horrendous, so I flat out disagree with this one.

The most popular and antiquated, I will add, is that of come and sleep from the words ki and tsune. This was popularised by one of the longest surviving folktales, between a man and a kitsune and thankfully, does not end in tragedy. 

It’s said that Ono, who lived in Mino, in central Japan back in 545AD, longed for a wife who met his ideal beauty standards, as you do - and one day he met a beautiful woman on the moors and married her. They went on to have a son, who was born as a pup - and an aggressive one at that. As the son grew up, he got more and more violent with his mother, and she begged her husband to kill the son, to which he refused. One day, the son attacked the woman so violently, she transformed back into her fox form and fled. Ono shouted after her that ‘You may be a fox, but you are the mother of my son and I will always love you. Come back when you please, you will always be welcome.’ And so every night, she would crawl into his arms and sleep curled up as a little fox - so this backs up the come and sleep definition of the word, and it’s very cute.

The history of the Kitsune is from the Edo period, where most of our Japanese monsters seem to derive from, this is between 1603 and 1867 when Japanese folklore was at its peak - and the most superstitious tales were going around such as our previous Japanese monsters like the Jorogumo, Kappa or Oni. However, the first mention of Kitsune was actually in Chinese folklore - these were fox spirits and were adopted by Japan during trade with merchants, who talked of the nine-tailed foxes. The longest surviving text is that of the 11th century Konjaku Monogatarishu, which is a collection of Japanese, Chinese and Indian folk stories. 

There are actually examples of Korean and Chinese versions of this monster though, in the Kumiho or the Huli jing. So this story has definitely got across to other Asian countries and folklore too. Kitsune are also connected to Buddhism through the Dakini, who were goddesses who made up Inari's physical avatar. Dakini is shown as a female Buddist on the path to nirvana, wielding a sword and riding a flying white fox.

In real life comparisons though, we have the Hokkaido fox, which is exclusive to Japan - and they are fluffy and beautiful. They do tend to hang around temples too, but this hasn’t really been explained - although apparently they are fed from them, so that might help. Due to the link to Inari, foxes are a revered animal in Japanese culture - and they are common, so it might just be that they wanted to link them to some supernatural and mystical existence too.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

For art, you can mostly see these represented in beautiful prints from the Edo period - such as many of the ones by artists Yoshitoshi and Kuniyoshi. There is a beautiful one by Hiroshige, from this same period called Kitsunebi on New Year’s Night under the Enoki Tree near Oji - which is in an amazing print collection called One Hundred Famous Views of Edo - which I highly recommend looking at, it’s just stunning.

We don’t have many movies this week, but there are a few such as; Hotel Transylvania 3, 47 Ronin, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, White Snake, Painted Skin and Jiang Ziya.

In TV, there are ones such as Hellboy the Animated series, Love, Death & Robots, Miraculous Ladybug, Grimm, Lovecraft County, Teen Wolf, Super Sentai, Supernatural, Lost Girl and Ultraman Taro.

For video games, we have; Yo-Kai Watch, Final Fantasy, Wario Land, Warriors Orochi, Touhou Project, Tales of Symphonia, Super Mario 3D World, Splatoon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Okami, Smite, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Megaman, Genshin Impact, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Dragon Quest, Animal Crossing, Disgaea 5, Fate. 

However, my favourite two in this are Pokemon, where at least 3 Pokemon are based on Kitsune, including the original Ninetales and Vulpix. The other is League of Legends, with the champion Ahri, who is actually based on the Korean version of this monster - but I’ll take it.

My book recommendation this week is one I believe I’ve mentioned before and that’s The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore by Michael Dylan Foster - as it’s a fantastic book and its beautifully illustrated, so I will always recommend this one. 

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? I totally believe that foxes exist, they’re one of my favourite animals of all time - especially as we have so many out here in the UK. Certainly not as cute as the Hokkaido foxes, but they’re pretty cute. I petted a fox once when I was about 17, and it was very cool. But to get close to a fox is so so rare - and that’s why I’m a bit sceptical on this one. 

I just can’t imagine ever being able to see this creature change, as they are just so secretive and skittish - however, a lot of our shapeshifting monsters have been linked to this too. Whilst I love the idea of these cute little forest canines turning into beautiful women, I’m just not sure how far this one can go. I kind of hold them to the same view as something like Selkies or the Adlet - they’re just a bit wild, and when you start having half-human, half-creature babies, it starts to get really weird and a little disturbing. Not even mentioning the thought of consent within these relationships - like you can hide that you’re allergic to nuts, but you can’t really hide that you’re secretly a fox. That’s my two pennies anyway.

OUTRO: 

I love looking at Japanese monsters, they’re so different, with so much folklore and belief behind them - it makes me so happy. And I’ve loved this creature for a long time, as a life-long lover of foxes and League of Legends, quite honestly.

Next week, we’re going back to the African plains and looking at a Zulu monster, the Tokoloshe! This has been a suggested one for a little while, so I’m happy to get this one done! Join us next Thursday and keep your toes tucked into your blankets!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast, ya know if you feel like it.

Come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.