Who is kitsune

As a character goes up in rank, their vulpine forms grow additional tails, generally up to five the games' level cap , but the legendary Bai Mianxi got up to nine tails. In Chronicles of Darkness , the kitsune are a type of fox-spirit. Due to Father Wolf coercing their progenitor Inari to reign them in during the ancient times they're divided into two factions, benign Inari Seha obedient foxes of Inari and malevolent Inari Kihar foxes who abandoned Inari.

They are most commonly encountered as allies or enemies of werewolves depending on faction , but kitsune bonded to human hosts are playable. The Tsukiuta stage plays feature Hajime and Shun as Kurotenko and Shirotenko, majestic four-tailed Little Bit Beastly figures who seem to act as rulers of the ayakashi realm. However, with the movie's cancellation, she was unable to properly join either franchise. Video Games. AdventureQuest Worlds : The fourth lord of Chaos, the Chaos Shogun appropriately named Kitsune, can shapeshift into a giant purple seven-tailed kitsune.

Animal Crossing : The fox Crazy Redd is a traveling merchant and conman who occasionally sets up a tent in town and sells not only both rare and common furniture, always at disgustingly inflated prices, but also artwork that has a high chance of being forged.

In the most recent main series installment, New Leaf , he instead sells four pieces of artwork, at least one of which is legitimate the rest being forgeries. This contrasts Tom Nook, the reliable tanuki shopkeeper who sells an ever-changing selection of common goods with the occasional rarity. Arena of Valor : Liliana is an elegant magical-attuned nine-tailed fox that either throws fox fire blasts or becomes a literal fox that claws her way through her enemies.

Perhaps as a Shout-Out to Ahri the game was made by Tencent, which acquired Riot Games in , Liliana gets a Gumiho skin, despite being overall not at all malicious or conflicted, she's more of a curious type. Toichiro Yuri from Ayakashi: Romance Reborn. He has the typical trickster attitude.

She's portrayed as a Shrinking Violet guardian spirit who the player encounters after accidentally destroying her shrine. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance introduces Nine-tailed Foxes into the series. Party member Izuna is one of these, and recruiting her unlocks the class for regular use.

Dragon Quest : Dragon Quest IV : You come across one early on in Chapter 3, along with some of his other vulpine cohorts who are keeping the King of Ballymoral's personal architect hostage. The various platypus enemies in Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime are obvious parodies of this, as the more powerful they are, the more tails they have. It turns out she is an incarnation of Amaterasu , with her malevolent original divine form being known as Konjiki Hakumen.

After Tamamo underwent a millennium of training to attain divinity, she cut off eight of her tails, returning to her original single-tailed form. Each of her tails was left a portion of her divinity, turning them into Heroic Spirit kitsune like herself, with each a different class.

Collectively, the original Tamamo and her tails are known as the Tamamo Nine; they don't get on, either with the original or each other. She goes with the bat motif instead so she won't overlap with Tamamo , both as a favor to a friend and so she won't piss Tamamo off. The "Lady Foxy" Craft Essence shows her in her true form, with a fox's ears and tail. Fire Emblem Fates : The Kitsune are fox folk obviously living within the kingdom of Hoshido who normally look like rather pretty humans who happen to have a tail and fox ears, but are capable of transforming into full-fledged giant foxes, with the promoted form bearing nine tails.

Because humans have a bad habit of killing Kitsune for their fur, the Kitsune have largely isolated themselves to a small hamlet deep within Hoshido's southern mountains, and will kill any trespassers on sight.

Apart from the shapeshifting, enemy kitsune can create illusions that prevent the player's army from attacking them. Forest Shadow from Jade Empire is a semi-Chinese fox spirit of this type.

They later reprise their role in Kirby Star Allies , though they are befriended after defeating the duo. In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask , a complicated sidequest earns you the "Keaton Mask", which is the face of a kitsune; wearing it at the right time and place means you can meet a kitsune who quizzes you about the world in which you live. The same mask also played a minor role in Ocarina of Time , though no actual kitsune appeared in that game.

Of course, being female, she includes sex appeal in her trickery. Her dance animations and alternate skins reflect this. Unlike other Gumiho, however, Ahri isn't overly malicious but a bit more conflicted.

Her backstory says that she used to kill people by devouring their life essence, but eventually Ahri became human enough to feel guilty about it. She has nine tails, and the item descriptions describe her as a shapeshifter. Poppy Fox is also a fox spirit. He can materialize nine purple-flaming discs that trace you and can turn into fire or move around the battle arena.

A group of thieves who were locked away because of their powers. You start off fighting 1-Tail, then 2, 3, and so on. Monster Hunter : The Mizutsune, debuting in Generations , is a fox-like leviathan heavily inspired by the Kitsune.

To further this, it returns in the very Japanese-themed Monster Hunter: Rise alongside a cast of other Yokai-inspired monsters. Kongiku and Yuzuruha from Muramasa: The Demon Blade are a pair of kitsune who help the protagonists on their quests. In The Night of the Rabbit Kitsune is one of the characters that you encounter during your travels.

You meet her in several forms: a fox, a statue, a woman, and a girl. Fennekin and its line from Generation VI are based on fennec foxes rather than red foxes, but their typing and abilities are very similar to Vulpix and Ninetales. Especially in its evolved forms Braixen and Delphox, who represent the kistune's humanoid form.

Of course, the king of all of them is the SSR Tamamo-no-Mae given a Gender Flip from how she is normally portrayed from a woman to a cross-dressing man , a nine -tailed kitsune capable of unleashing destructive power akin to that of a Physical God.

Also, protagonist Abe-no-Seimei, being the child of the kitsune Kuzunoha. The protagonist of Psycho Fox , who can use shinto sticks to shapeshift into three different animals and has to save the world from the evil Madfox Daimyojin.

Riki and the Lummox race from SaGa Frontier are pretty clearly based on them. With vulpine appearances in their true form, shape shifting, multiple tails seeming to designate age or senority, and even a trademark attack, "Elfshot", resembling Kitsune-bi. Sengoku 2 combines the kitsune myth with that of the tale of Fusehime and Yatsufusa.

It reinterprets Fusehime as a kitsune and Yatsufusa as her hellhound partner-in-crime. Played with in Shin Megami Tensei if The boss of the World of Greed is one of these, but whose power is directly tied to the traveler's own greed - Suspicious Videogame Generosity will provide a massive trove of treasure just before you reach him.

Ignore the treasure and go straight to him, and he will be nothing but a pathetic fox that can be easily kicked into oblivion. Take all of the treasure and you will be facing a titanic Eldritch Abomination of fog. There's a kitsune as boss fight in Shinrei Jusatsushi Taroumaru.

They look like a pretty woman when the room is entered, then turn into a huge kitsune with laser-shooting tails, and after that body horror kicks in. This leads to the kitsune shedding their body except for their and four of their tails to form a giant furry shuriken. Upon defeat, the head serves as the mode of transportation to the next area. Except true to her origins, Da Ji here isn't even conflicted, she's an evil Torture Technician dedicated to make the enemies burn and bleed. Sonic the Hedgehog : Miles 'Tails' Prower has mechanical abilities rather than magical ones, but his two tails are a clear reference.

In the Archie comics , he did have a mystical destiny to him and was briefly trained in magic by his sorcerer uncle. His Evil Counterpart was more adept at magic and at one point called him out on his abandoning his training. Splatoon features a large statue of a kitsune in Inkopolis Plaza, right across from one of a Tanuki. Both statues are decorated during Splatfest celebrations, with the kitsune being decorated in the color of Callie's team.

This played into the second Japanese Splatfest, whose theme was Red Fox vs. Green Tanuki. Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns features a Kitsune named Inari named after the god that commands Kitsune that can be married.

Their gender is always opposite of the player character, similar to how they could take any form in the original mythology. S he is a keeper of a shrine and loves keeping her shrine clean. The fact that she's the shikigami of Yukari Yakumo demonstrates how powerful Yukari is, while the fact that Ran has her own shikigami, Chen , demonstrates how powerful she is.

She's also incredibly good at math, being able to calculate the width of the Sanzu River The spirit offers to pay Reimu back and does so by encouraging the villagers to visit the shrine, making her prosper Kasen catches it and explains that kudagitsune eventually eat their owners' health and prosperity. In a later chapter Reimu thinks she's found a kitsune artifact called a foxball, and the Marisa-Fox returns to give some exposition After Reimu makes some failed attempts at repelling it, Kosuzu uses her Omniglot skills to figure out what's going on: it's repeating the day's lessons, meaning that the kitsune is a child that's trying to learn.

She ends up resolving the situation by giving Reimu some special Paper Talismans When the kitsune-child comes to the store, Kosuzu gives it a blank book to write in and offers to give new blank books in exchange for trading in the old ones when they fill up, meaning she gets a steady supply of youma books. Unlike the pipe fox in Wild and Horned Hermit who's depicted as a small fox, she's depicted as a girl with a fox's ears and tail.

Tales of Symphonia : Corrine, a small, rainbow man-made summon spirit who resembles a three-tailed fox. Verius, the summon spirit of heart. It is rainbow like Corrine, but much larger. Toukiden has Mitama based on the legendary Tamamo-no-mae and Kuzunoha that the player can equip to gain special powers. Interestingly, they are Healing type instead of Deceit.

He is usually considered That One Boss. Warriors Orochi : Orochi's right-hand woman is Daji, the infamous consort of the last Shang emperor who was vilified as a huli jing malevolent fox spirit in Chinese folklore.

She appears mostly human, but has pointed ears, animal feet, and six ornamental ribbons which symbolize her tails. Like the mythological kitsune, Daji is unable to outright lie, though she loves to skirt around truths. The third game introduces Abe no Seimei, who carries a kitsune on his shoulder, and Tamamo no Mae. The latter is later revealed to be Kyubi, the nine-tailed fox herself, who shapeshifts into a beautiful woman to trick people to help her.

Notably, she was the one who set the dragon god Yinglong into a path of darkness, turning him into Orochi. Most notably, the Progfox. She has nine lives and one point sacrifices all remaining lives to rewind time for the party, though a loophole allows you to bring her back and doing so is part of the requirements for the game's true ending.

Her name is a reference to the hoshi no tama , a magical ball that the kitsune keeps in its mouth or carries it on its tail, and the legendary kitsune Tamamo-no-Mae. There's also an ice-based variant, Frostail called Inugami in Japanese , a dark-themed one named Darkyubi starting from Yo-kai Watch 2 Psychic Specters , a robotic counterpart dubbed Kyubot from Yo-kai Watch 3 Sukiyaki , and a rain-and-frog themed variant named Tsuyu Kyubi only appearing in the japanese Yo-kai Watch Puni Puni in an event.

Visual Novels. Miyabi in Enchanted in the Moonlight is a kitsune, with the usual shapeshifting powers, ghostly blue fox-fire, and trickster attitude. A different type of Kitsune are the Inari. They are completely different fox-type creature that are known as spiritual messengers of Japanese gods and protectors of shrines.

Legends tell of such celestial foxes providing wisdom or service to good and pious humans as they act as mediums between the celestial and human worlds. These foxes can often protect humans or places, providing good luck and warding evil spirits away. These heavenly foxes are often represented by statues in Shinto shrines. As kitsune are one of the more well-known Japanese creatures, they are found in many forms of media. They are also popular in Japanese animated series.

Myths and Folklore Wiki Explore. Top Content. Forum Blog posts. For their own entertainment, these kitsune can bring down even the most devout priest. They rarely attack women but prefer to possess them instead. Then, using their fox fire kitsune ability, they lure unsuspecting men to their doom.

Not every non-divine Japanese kitsune is a trickster. There are many stories in Japanese folklore of kitsune falling in love with a human man and choosing to live out their lives in the human world. She proves to be a very loyal and good wife. But once the man discovers mostly by accident that his wife is a fox, she must flee to escape from the villagers. The most famous Japanese fox wife is Kuzunoha , the mother of strong magic user Abe no Seimei.

When rain is falling on a clear sky, Japanese people say two kitsune are getting married. Of course, this is considered to be a good omen. Maybe the idea of having a Japanese kitsune near you is not appealing at all. Or perhaps someone you know is possessed by a Japanese kitsune. Here is a handy step-by-step guide to recognize and expel an unwanted kitsune, according to Japanese folklore.

If none of these steps seem to work, bring your friend to your local Inari shrine, and they will take care of it. There are not many tips on how to attract a Japanese kitsune in case you want a devoted kitsune wife. However, to attract a kitsune, try leaving some fried tofu on your doorstep. Another tactic is for the kitsune to confuse its target with illusions or visions. Other common goals of trickster kitsune include seduction, theft of food, humiliation of the prideful, or vengeance for a perceived slight.

Kitsune keep their promises and strive to repay any favor. Occasionally a kitsune attaches itself to a person or household, where they can cause all sorts of mischief. Other kitsune use their magic for the benefit of their companion or hosts as long as the human beings treat them with respect.

Accordingly, common households thought to harbor kitsune are treated with suspicion. Oddly, samurai families were often reputed to share similar arrangements with kitsune, but these foxes were considered zenko and the use of their magic a sign of prestige. Abandoned homes were common haunts for kitsune. One 12th-century story tells of a minister moving into an old mansion only to discover a family of foxes living there. They first try to scare him away, then claim that the house "has been ours for many years, and.

Tales distinguish kitsune gifts from kitsune payments. If a kitsune offers a payment or reward that includes money or material wealth, part or all of the sum will consist of old paper, leaves, twigs, stones, or similar valueless items under a magical illusion.

True kitsune gifts are usually intangibles, such as protection, knowledge, or long life. Kitsune are commonly portrayed as lovers, usually in stories involving a young human male and a kitsune who takes the form of a human woman. The kitsune may be a seductress, but these stories are more often romantic in nature. Typically, the young man unknowingly marries the fox, who proves a devoted wife.

The man eventually discovers the fox's true nature, and the fox-wife is forced to leave him. In some cases, the husband wakes as if from a dream, filthy, disoriented, and far from home.

He must then return to confront his abandoned family in shame. Many stories tell of fox-wives bearing children. When such progeny are human, they possess special physical or supernatural qualities that often pass to their own children. The astrologer -magician Abe no Seimei was reputed to have inherited such extraordinary powers. Other stories tell of kitsune marrying one another.