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Kitsune have become closely associated with Inari, a Shinto kami or spirit, and serve as its messengers. This role has reinforced the fox's supernatural significance. The more tails a kitsune has, up to nine, the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their potential power and influence, some people make sacrifices to them as to a deity.
The earliest mention of the nine-tailed fox is the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), compiled from the Warring States period (475 BC–221 BC) to the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD; 25 AD –220 AD) period. The work states: The Land of Green-Hills lies north of Tianwu. The foxes there have four legs and nine tails.
A prominent feature that separates the kumiho from its two counterparts (although, both Japanese Kitsune and Chinese Huli Jing having their own versions of “knowledge beads”, in the form of Kitsune’s starball and Huli Jing’s “golden elixir” neidan) is the existence of a 'yeowoo guseul' (여우구슬, literally meaning fox marble) which is said to consist of knowledge.
Tamamo-no-Mae (玉藻前, 玉藻の前, also 玉藻御前) is a legendary figure in Japanese mythology. One of the stories explaining the legend comes from Muromachi period (1336 to 1573) genre fiction called otogizōshi. In the otogizōshi Tamamo-no-Mae was a courtesan under the Japanese Emperor Konoe (who reigned from 1142 through 1155).
Yako or nogitsune [2] [3] (野狐) is a type of kitsune , as told in Kyūshū. To be possessed by it is called "yako-tsuki" (野狐憑き). The word 野狐, lit. ' field fox ' or ' wild fox ', is also used for foxes in the wild in general. [4]
A Japanese chimera with the features of the beasts from the Chinese Zodiac: a rat's head, rabbit ears, ox horns, a horse's mane, a rooster's comb, a sheep's beard, a dragon's neck, a back like that of a boar, a tiger's shoulders and belly, monkey arms, a dog's hindquarters, and a snake's tail.
In return, he is awarded a suit of armor, and also the great honor of Yoshitsune's name, "Genkurō", meaning Minamoto (源, gen) ninth son (九郎, ku-rō). As a kitsune, with no other name of his own revealed throughout the play, he is known only as "Tadanobu" and as "Genkurō".
The kitsune Kuzunoha. Note the shadow of a fox cast on the screen. Print by Kuniyoshi. Kuzunoha (葛の葉, Kuzunoha), also written Kuzu-no-Ha, is the name of a popular kitsune character in Japanese folklore. Her name means leaf of arrowroot. Legend states that she is the mother of Abe no Seimei, the famous onmyōji.