Kyubi no Kitsune

◆ The legend

A great fox yokai with nine tails. Foxes were thought to grow in mystic power as they aged, gaining more tails along the way, and the nine-tailed fox is where that path finally leads. It first appears as a spirit beast in old Chinese writings, where it was sometimes a lucky sign of a well-ruled land, and sometimes an uncanny creature that could bring a kingdom to ruin.

In Japan, the most famous nine-tailed fox is the true form of Tamamo-no-Mae, a beautiful woman said to have appeared at the palace of the Retired Emperor Toba at the end of the Heian period. In later Edo-period novels, the tale grew into an epic: the fox had already bewitched royal courts in India and China before crossing the sea to Japan. As a villain who had troubled three whole countries, the nine-tailed fox became the biggest name among Japan's fox yokai.