Kitsune: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
(27 intermediate revisions by 13 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
'''Kitsuné''' (pronounced "
While their mythological origins have them as divine servants and even [[Our Gods Are Greater|gods of a sort]], they're also classic [[Tricksters]] who mess with mortals for giggles. They usually play their pranks on men, while they have a tendency to [[Demonic Possession|possess]] women. (which shows up as an actual psychological disorder in Japan, similar to [[Our Werewolves Are Different|clinical lycanthropy]] elsewhere) This is probably because for some reason they're usually female (or at least [[Bishonen]]), and often end up falling in love with and marrying human men (in fact, female Kitsuné are considered to make devoted wives and doting mothers). The resulting children are usually not kitsuné themselves, but have magical powers.
Modern fiction tends to use these prominently; anime as a familiar staple whenever mythology is in the picture, while
Additional fun fact: Kitsuné are common [[Animal Motifs]] for Japanese character types. In fact, in Japan women are considered to be "[[Tanuki]]-faced" (square/round) or "kitsuné-faced" (inverted triangle / heart-shaped), the latter being considered sexier, so to call a Japanese woman fox-faced is looked upon as paying them a ''very'' sultry compliment.
China and Korea also have variations on the Kitsuné myth, which they call ''Hu Li Jing'' and ''Gumiho'' though of course [[Our Monsters Are Different|they see them a little differently]]- for example, the Korean Gumiho are [[Ax Crazy|murderously]] [[
See also [[Youkai]], [[Little Bit Beastly]], [[Petting Zoo People]], and [[The Fair Folk]]. [[Fantastic Foxes]] is the supertrope.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Naruto]]'' is the [[Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can|living can]] in which the [[Sealed Evil in a Can|evil nine-tailed kitsune]] is sealed. The nine-tails [[Our Monsters Are Different|isn't]] a traditional kitsune; it's essentially a sapient physical mass of malice, hatred, and evil chakra ({{spoiler|and is the largest and most powerful of nine fragments of the Ten-Tailed Daemon's chakra}}) that has taken the form of a ([[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|gigantic]]) nine-tailed kitsune.
* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', Kuruama is a kitsune who was gravely injured, and inhabited his spirit into a female human's womb, where she would eventually give birth to him in Human form while he recovered. Possibly Koto (seems fox-like but meows occasionally in the manga; could just be that the translators didn't know either).
* In ''[[Hell Teacher Nube]]'', Nube gained a rival who was a kitsune in human guise ( {{spoiler|though [[Character Development]] turned him into [[The Lancer]]}}); later, Nube went to confront the ninetails kitsune.
* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' has Shippou, an orphaned child who tags along with Inuyasha and Kagome (who herself was momentarily accused of being one at the beginning of the story). As a child, the group don't entirely take Shippou's abilities seriously, although they do take his heart and will to help seriously. Much later in the story, a small arc focuses entirely on the group's stay at an inn that turns out to be a testing ground for a group of youthful kitsune who are going through examinations (in field testing, as it were). Due to the accidental encounter with the testing grounds, Shippou is forced to sit the exams as well. Despite having made no preparation (and not even known his kind had to take exams on a regular basis) and being one of the youngest examinees, Shippou quickly proves to everyone that when he's compared to his own kind, his abilities are leagues ahead of a child his age, and even far in advance of most of the older students as well.
* Kuon of ''[[Triangle Heart 3 ~sweet songs forever~]]''
* Sakura the ''kyuubi'' in ''[[Hyper Police]]'' — who has eight-and-one-fifth tails.
* [[Digimon Tamers|Renamon, Kyuubimon]], and [[Digimon Savers|Kudamon]] from ''[[Digimon]]''.
* ''[[Yaiba]]'''s Shiro Tokisada Amakusa is a rare male example.
* Kuugen Tenkou and Gyokuyou from ''[[
* Meirin (three tails) and Tamamonomae (full nine tails) in ''[[Yami to Boushi
* In ''[[
** Her
* Kudakitsuné, the pipe fox from ''[[
* ''[[Wagaya no
* Akari from ''[[
* Youko in ''[[Tactics]]'' is a
* In ''[[Love Hina]]'', while she's not a true
* ''[[Natsume Yuujinchou]]'' features a small
* ''[[Kekkaishi]]'' features an ailing
* ''[[Nurarihyon no Mago]]''{{'}}s current{{when}} [[Big Bad]] is Haguromo Gitsune, a nine-tailed fox, who is about to give birth to a monster (I doubt they'd try [[SCP Foundation
* Tomoe from ''[[
* The heroines of [[Otome Youkai Zakuro]] are artificially-created half-
* The Ninja-themed ''[[Gundam]]'' manga ''Hidden Shadow of G'' features the Bound Fox, a
* ''[[
* ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' features a
* The foxes {{spoiler|who chose to live among humans}} from [[Studio Ghibli]]'s ''[[Pom Poko]]''.
* ''[[Omamori Himari]]'' has the
* Shiro Amakusa in ''[[Yaiba]]''. Even when he's in human form, he sports whiskers, ears and sometimes the tail.
* The protagonist in ''[[Kitsune no Yomeiri]]'' is married to a
* In ''[[Rosario
* ''[[Sengoku Youko]]'' features two
* Soushi Miketsukami is a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] variant ''[[Inu
* {{spoiler|Makoto}} in ''[[Kanon]]'' is a fox.
* Megumi of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' is often compared to a kitsune, and can be seen [[Sprouting Ears]] in reaction to this, or when she feels particularly mischievous.
* Kuzunoha Shuuhei and his compatriots from ''[[Black Bird]]'' which, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|as the title suggests]], is focused primarily on [[Youkai|Tengu]] rather than kitsune.
== Film ==
* [[Akira Kurosawa|Akira Kurosawa's]] ''[[Ran]]'' is an adaptation of ''[[King Lear]]'' for Japanese audiences. One of the three sons of the [[Expy|elderly Great Lord]] has a wife who is [[Honey Trap|clearly manipulating him to his downfall]]. She has her husband send his right hand man off to kill a rival woman and return with her head encased in salt. The would-be assassin [[The Thirty
** Kurosawa's ''Dreams'', a collection of short segments (based on actual dreams he'd had), included one of a young boy accidentally seeing a kitsuné wedding, which means he's now under a curse and has to either commit suicide or [[Walk the Earth]] to find the kitsuné and beg forgiveness.
== Literature ==
Line 95 ⟶ 60:
* The ''[[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' short story "Ode To Joy" is a conversation between a kitsuné and the Fourth Doctor about the changing face of Japan.
* Foxtrot X-Ray and Lady Ako in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''Chrome Circle''. FX has three tails and is pretty weak (though he eventually earns a two-tail upgrade for extreme valor). Ako has nine tails. She's also "the bearer of some of the most noble blood Under- or Above- Hill." Her half-kitsuné/half-dragon daughter also has nine tails in her kitsuné form.
** One of Lackey's [[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]] has a portion in which the female lead visits her world's Japan-analog and helps a kitsuné who's the shogun's lover defeat an evil sorceress. She's rewarded with an origami bird that proves '''very''' useful later on.
* Kij Johnson wrote a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130918173007/http://www.kijjohnson.com/fox-magic.html short story about a Japanese fox spirit] and it was so popular that she later expanded it into a full novel, Fox Woman, after doing extensive research to make it historically accurate.
* [[Andre Norton]] used fox spirits in both ''Imperial Lady'' (co-written with Susan Shwartz) and '' The White Jade Fox.'' In the former, Silver Snow's maid is a kitsuné, while in the latter it's left ambiguous as to whether any of the characters are literally kitsuné, but the trope is at least toyed with. Well, these are '''Chinese''' fox spirits, so calling them by the Japanese term isn't quite accurate.
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s novella collaboration with [[Yoshitaka Amano]], ''[[The Sandman]]: The Dream Hunters'', centers around a kitsuné who falls in love with a monk.
* In ''[[Journey to
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The Korean tv dramas ''[[My Girlfriend Is a Nine-Tailed Fox]]'', ''Forbidden Love'', and ''Gumiho: Tales Of A Fox Child'' feature the Korean variant, Gumiho.
== Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends ==
* According to popular legend, the mother of the astronomer/onmyouji Abe no Seimei was a kistune named Kuzunoha.
* Warring States period warlord Shingen Takeda is said to have caused the downfall of his clan by forcibly marrying a kitsuné in human form. Their son, Katsuyori, was defeated at the Battle of Nagashino by Nobunaga Oda and Ieyasu Tokugawa, leading to the effective end of the Takeda clan.
* From Wikipedia:
{{quote|One of the oldest surviving kitsuné tales provides a widely known folk etymology of the word kitsuné. Unlike most tales of kitsuné who become human and marry human males, this one does not end tragically:
'''Ono, an inhabitant of Mino (says an ancient Japanese legend of A.D. 545), spent the seasons longing for his ideal of female beauty. He met her one evening on a vast moor and married her. Simultaneously with the birth of their son, Ono's dog was delivered of a pup which as it grew up became more and more hostile to the lady of the moors. She begged her husband to kill it, but he refused. At last one day the dog attacked her so furiously that she lost courage, resumed vulpine shape, leaped over a fence and fled.''
''"You may be a fox," Ono called after her, "but you are the mother of my son and I love you. Come back when you please; you will always be welcome."''
''So every evening she stole back and slept in his arms.''
Because the fox returns to her husband each night as a woman but leaves each morning as a fox, she is called Kitsuné. In classical Japanese, kitsu-ne means come and sleep, and ki-tsune means always comes.}}
* Another story from Wikipedia:
{{quote|Kitsuné keep their promises and strive to repay any favor. Occasionally a kitsuné attaches itself to a person or household, where they can cause all sorts of mischief. In one story from the 12th century, only the homeowner's threat to exterminate the foxes convinces them to behave. The kitsuné patriarch appears in the man's dreams:
''"My father lived here before me, sir, and by now I have many children and grandchildren. They get into a lot of mischief, I'm afraid, and I'm always after them to stop, but they never listen. And now, sir, you're understandably fed up with us. I gather that you're going to kill us all. But I just want you to know, sir, how sorry I am that this is our last night of life. Won't you pardon us, one more time? If we ever make trouble again, then of course you must act as you think best. But the young ones, sir — I'm sure they'll understand when I explain to them why you're so upset. We'll do everything we can to protect you from now on, if only you'll forgive us, and we'll be sure to let you know when anything good is going to happen!"''}}
* [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] once even wrote a personal letter, directly addressed to the Japanese deity, Inari, regarding Kitsune.
{{quote|''To Inari Daimyojin,''
''My lord, I have the honor to inform you that one of the foxes under your jurisdiction has bewitched one of my servants, causing her and others a great deal of trouble. I have to request that you make minute inquiries into the matter, and endeavor to find out the reason of your subject misbehaving in this way, and let me know the result.''
''If it turns out that the fox has no adequate reason to give for his behavior, you are to arrest and punish him at once. If you hesitate to take action in this matter I shall issue orders for the destruction of every fox in the land. Any other particulars that you may wish to be informed of in reference to what has occurred, you can learn from the high priest of Yoshida.''}}
== Tabletop Games ==
=== Card Games ===
* The Kitsuné Fox tribe of Kamigawa in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is patterned off of this. Their leader is known as "Eight-and-a-half-Tails".
** [[Word of God|In fact]] it was [[What Could Have Been|originally intended]] for the sets to have a wide variety of Kitsuné types. Such as blue to represent tricksters, and white for shrine foxes. However the plans were scrapped and they became the purely white-aligned clan seen in the final version.
=== Tabletop RPGs ===
* In the ''Hengeyokai'' variant of ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', one can play a kitsune. They even grow tails when they go up in rank. Most max out at five (which just so happens to be the usual level cap in the game), but the legendary Bai Mianxi got up to nine. They're also the youngest of the Fera (Changing Breeds), maybe the weakest physically, but somewhat skilled in sorcery.
** In the [[New World of Darkness]], the kitsune are a type of fox-spirit. It's possible to play a human who's bonded with one, sharing in their powers in return for acting as spiritual shelter for the kitsuné.
* The [[Tabletop RPG]] ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' 1st edition supplement ''Oriental Adventures'' had a fox spirit creature called a "hu hsien".
* ''Kitsunémori'', a 3rd edition supplement for D&D, was a campaign setting with kitsuné as a playable race.
* The ''Shapeshifters'' supplement for ''[[GURPS]]'' includes a detailed template for
* Seven Devils Clever, a young Lunar Exalt of the Changing Moon caste in ''[[Exalted]]'', a tabletop RPG from [[White Wolf]].
* The ''[[Pathfinder]] Campaign Setting Dragon Empires Gazetteer'' introduced kitsune as a playable race. They can [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shift]] between [[Petting Zoo People|their true vulpine form]] and a [[Humanshifting|human semblance]], have the option of also being able to outright change into [[Cunning Like a Fox|foxes]], have [[Witch Species|some degree of innate magical ability]], and tend to be neutrally-aligned [[Trickster Archetype|tricksters]]. However, only nogitsune (kitsune women who have been [[Demonic Possession|possessed by spirit oni]] and corrupted into [[The Vamp|murderous vamps]]) have been confirmed to have [[Multiple
== Video Games ==
* The [[Pokémon]] Vulpix and Ninetales are quite explicitly based on kitsuné, complete with the supernatural powers and tendency to curse people who tick them off. The [[Pokémon Black and White|Generation V]] Pokémon Zorua and Zoroark are based on the darker side of kitsuné legends.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'': Miles 'Tails' Prower has [[Gadgeteer Genius|mechanical abilities]] rather than magical ones, but his two tails are a clear reference to the kitsuné having multiple tails.
** In [[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* In ''[[Majoras Mask]]'', a complicated sidequest earns you the "Keaton's Mask", which is the face of a kitsuné; wearing it at the right time and place means you can meet a kitsuné who quizzes you about the world in which you live.
* Ran Yakumo from ''[[Touhou]]''.
* The Forest Shadow from ''[[Jade Empire]]''
* Demon Lord Nine-Tails in ''[[Okami]]''
* Xiaomu in ''[[
* The "Mage Fox" boss in ''[[Wild
* The various platypus enemies in ''[[Dragon Quest Heroes
* Kongiku and Yuzuruha from ''[[Muramasa:
* A series of optional bosses at the end of ''[[
* Cubit Foxtar in ''[[
* The [[The World Ends With You
* Crazy Redd from the ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' series.
* Tamamo no Mae appears as a Caster-class Servant in both ''[[Fate Extra]]'' and ''[[Fate Nuovo Guerra]]''. {{spoiler|It turns out in the former she is an aspect of [[Japanese Mythology|Amaterasu]]}}.
* ''[[
** Verius, the summon spirit of heart. It is rainbow like Corrine, but much larger.
* The [[Exactly What It Says
* The fourth lord of Chaos in ''
* [[Kid Hero|Riki]] and the Lummox race from ''[[
* 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.
* ''[[League of Legends]]''' Ahri the Nine-tailed fox is based on the Korean Gumiho. Her dance animations and alternate-skins reflect this.
* Played with in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei:
* Kitsunes are a race of monsters in ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]''. They have two to nine tails, gaining more tails as they increase in power. Earth magic is their specialty, {{spoiler|though their leader Tamamo shows an affinity for fire when she is in her true form}}. Most of them only have fox ears and tails, though a few also have the lower bodies of foxes, centaur-style.
* The main villain of the third ''[[Violated Hero]]'' game is the nine-tailed kitsune Fan Mei.
== Web Original ==
* Firefox-ko, an unofficial mascot for Mozilla Firefox, and Foxkeh, the official one.
* David Kintobor has the ability to morph into one in ''[[David Gonterman|American Kitsuné]]''.
* From ''[[SCP Foundation]]'',
== Western Animation ==
Line 154 ⟶ 137:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Canine Tropes]]
[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
[[Category:Japanese Media Tropes]]
[[Category:The Trickster]]
[[Category:
|