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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.
kitsune (狐, きつね, IPA: [kʲi̥t͡sɨne̞] ⓘ) are foxes that possess paranormal abilities that increase as they get older and wiser. According to folklore, the kitsune-foxes (or perhaps the "fox spirits") can bewitch people, just like the tanuki. They have the ability to shapeshift into human or other forms, and to trick or fool human ...
"Supernatural abilities commonly attributed to the kitsune include, in addition to shapeshifting, possession, the generation of fire or lightning from their tails or the ability to breathe fire (known as kitsune-bi, literally fox-fire), manifestation in dreams, flight, the ability to become invisible, and the creation illusions so elaborate as ...
Huli jing (Chinese: 狐狸精) are Chinese mythological creatures usually capable of shapeshifting, who may either be benevolent or malevolent spirits.In Chinese mythology and folklore, the fox spirit takes variant forms with different meanings, powers, characteristics, and shapes, including huxian (Chinese: 狐仙; lit. 'fox immortal'), hushen (狐神; 'fox god'), husheng (狐聖; 'fox saint ...
Inari's foxes, or kitsune, are pure white and act as their messengers but it is more likely that in ancient times the fox itself was revered as the kami of rice. [6] According to myth, Inari, as a megami (female Kami), was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land.
The kitsune-mochi then strikes up a deal with the fox, typically promising food and daily care in return for the fox's magical services. The fox of Japanese folklore is a powerful trickster in and of itself, imbued with powers of shape changing, possession, and illusion.
The fox spirit is an especially prolific shapeshifter, known variously as the húli jīng (fox spirit) in China, the kitsune (fox) in Japan, and the kumiho (nine-tailed fox) in Korea. Although the specifics of the tales vary, these fox spirits can usually shapeshift, often taking the form of beautiful young women who attempt to seduce men ...
Taxidermy of a Japanese raccoon dog, wearing waraji on its feet: This tanuki is displayed in a Buddhist temple in Japan, in the area of the folktale "Bunbuku Chagama".. The earliest appearance of the bake-danuki in literature, in the chapter about Empress Suiko in the Nihon Shoki, written during the Nara period, is the passages "in two months of spring, there are tanuki in the country of Mutsu ...