Asian Fox-Spirits in Literature.
Authors
- Mercedes Lackey's works:
- Foxtrot X-Ray and Lady Ako in 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-kitsune/half-dragon daughter also has nine tails in her kitsune form.
- One makes a brief (yet important) appearance in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series in Fortune's Fool, giving the female lead a magic paper crane that comes in handy.
- 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 kitsune, while in the latter it's left ambiguous as to whether any of the characters are literally kitsune, but the trope is at least toyed with.
Specific works
- In American Gods by Neil Gaiman, some background characters are implied to be kitsune; during the battle between the old gods and the American Gods, two Asian women are killed and upon dying they turn into foxes.
- Beyond the Boundary: Ayaka Shindou is revealed to be a very powerful kitsune in disguise.
- Book of Imaginary Beings: Chinese foxes can live for a thousand years, start fires by striking the ground with their tails, see into the future and take human shape. They are sometimes born from the souls of the dead taking on a new form and will cause no end of mischief to those who cross them.
- The Chronicles of the Eight Dogs: In this 19th century Japanese narrative by Kyokutei Bakin, a pregnant kitsune is given shelter by the also-pregnant wife of samurai Kawagoi Moriyuki. When her mate is killed by retainer Kaketa Wanazō, the kitsune gets revenge on him and inadvertently kills his lover Masaki too. As Masaki happened to be the nursemaid of newborn Takatsugu Moriyuki, the kitsune feels guilty and assumes Masaki's form to act as his nursemaid until her cover is blown after two years. Desiring to better herself, the kitsune disguised herself as an old woman and opened a tea shop, changing the lives of 999 people over twenty years. Impressed, the Emperor of Heaven blessed her, causing her to transform into a divine hybrid of kitsune and ryū after attaining her ninth tail.
- Classic of Mountains and Seas: Originally called the Shanhaijing, this compendium — written between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE — marks the first recorded appearance of nine-tailed fox-spirits in Chinese literature and folklore. Fox-spirits are said to live in the Green-Hills north of Tianwu and/or the Sunrise Valley, and be "an auspicious omen that appeared during times of peace", though they are also mentioned to be man-eating carnivores with vocalizations like a crying baby, and consuming their flesh grants immunity to venoms.
- Cradle Series: The Wei clan follows Elder Whisper, a sacred five-tailed fox. Specifically, he is a snow fox who lived long enough and grew powerful enough to gain human intelligence. He is a master of light and dream madra, and the Wei clan follows in his footsteps, practicing the Path of the White Fox. Elder Whisper acts as a Stealth Mentor for Lindon early on, pushing him to improve himself despite the rest of the clan telling him he's worthless.
- A Dearth of Choice: This is the result of repeatedly upgrading a ghost that took an interest in the dungeon's crop fields, while focusing on the idea of it becoming the farm's guardian. It takes on the appearance of a nine-tailed fox, and its species changes to "kami", gaining telekinesis and illusion magic. The dungeon decides to call it Inari.
- The Doctor Who Expanded Universe short story "Ode To Joy" is a conversation between a kitsune and the Fourth Doctor about the changing face of Japan.
- Dragon Pearl stars the Korean variant, gumiho. They're shapeshifters who can use a magic called Charm to manipulate people, and they tend to stay in human form because other species find them untrustworthy. Most of them choose to be female.
- Fengshen Yanyi: One of the main antagonists is a 1000-year-old white fox-spirit who's sent by the goddess Nu Wa (alongside the spirits of a female nine-headed pheasant and that of a jade pipa) to hasten the corruption and downfall of King Zhou, who offended Nu Wa in her own temple. The fox-spirit does so by killing the innocent Su Daji and taking over her body to seduce the emperor of Shang and cause mischief and chaos all around until she's defeated and put to death by Jiang Ziya/Tàigōng Wàng. Unlike popular depictions though, the number of her tails isn't mentioned, just her age.
- Fox Demon Cultivation Manual: The titular fox demons are huli-jing, the Chinese equivalent of kitsune. Rong Bai is a nine-tailed fox spirit, and through drinking his blood Song Ci also becomes a fox spirit (though he has fewer tails than Rong Bai).
- Kij Johnson wrote a 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.- In Fudoki, another novel by Johnson, a male kitsune plays an important role as part of a warband that the main character joins. Despite actually being named Kitsune, no one except the main character seems to realize his true nature.
- In the Goosebumps book "Return to Ghost Camp," the snatcher is a fox-like ghost that murders one camper from Camp Full Moon each year and can shape-shift into a human to fool its victims.
- High School D×D: Kunou and her mother Yasaka are kitsune. The ORC works with Kunou to find Yasaka after she is kidnapped, and Kunou becomes a Love Interest to Issei.
- Impossible Creatures: Kanko are glowing, mouse-sized, two-tailed foxes from Japan who make nests in unusual places.
- Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits: One of the main characters is a nine-tailed fox named Ginji.
- Kanokon:
- Chizuru Minamoto is a 400-year-old kitsune who tries to seduce the protagonist, Kouta Oyamada, and can merge with him by kissing him. She's eventually revealed to also be a reincarnation of the Yamata-no-Orochi, a Draconic Abomination slain by the storm-god Susanoo, who Kouta is the reincarnation of, making both of them the targets of a cult seeking to unleash the Orochi and an organization dedicated to preventing the Orochi's resurgence at all costs.
- Tamamo Minamoto, Chizuru's adoptive mother, is stated to be the Tamamo-no-Mae of ancient Japanese folklore, nine tails and all, and frequently gets into mischief whenever she turns up.
- In Journey to the West there are a few notable fox demons, and one of them is even a nine-tailed vixen. The uncle and mother of the two demon kings Silver Horned King and Golden Horned King, making them half-huli jing demons (though they're usually depicted as massive oni-like monsters and are actually two of Lao Tzu's celestial apprentices). In a case perhaps of Unbuilt Trope, the mother is actually an old crone, while the uncle Hu Aqi isn't much of a trickster but rather a ferocious warrior who fights with a halberd. A more classical vixen demon reappears later as the mistress of Niumowang, the Ox Demon King. Additionally, another fox spirit appears near the end in the form of the concubine of a human king secretly making him sick and then manipulating him to order the creation of a fake medicine using the hearts of children.
- One of the Judge Dee stories has a Huli Jing show up (sort of): a priest explains that he was always sort of shunned because his father had been tricked into marrying a fox-woman, who turned back into a fox some time after he (the priest) was born. The judge (and everyone else) stare at him in silence for a while, because it's blindingly obvious that the wife ran off with another man, the father passing it off as the fox spirit going back to the wild.
- In Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, one of the figures on the carousel. Celia persuades Poppet to ride it, rather than the gryphon, by telling its story.
- Ito guruma kyūbi no kitsune is an early 19th-century Japanese novel written by Santō Kyōden, wherein the evil kitsune Tamamo-no-Mae's vengeful spirit repudiates her redemption and conversion to Buddhism, making a pact with the oni hag from the noh play Adachigahara to seek revenge on their enemies.
- In The Machineries of Empire, a nine-tailed fox - called a ninefox or an eyefoxnote - is the symbol of the Shuos faction, comprised of assassins, spies and saboteurs with love of games.
- Eva Mayer, the titular 'Mail Fox' of Mail Fox Tales being turned into a Kitsune through the gift of a dying goddess is the start of many headaches for her.
- In The Night Mothers Heir Ink Drop is a Kitsune, he has the ability to transform in to different things depending on how many tails he has.
- One of the main characters in "No Need for a Core?" is a kitsune, as are several of the major deities, and an entire clan of them lives nearby.
- Red Winter Trilogy: Shiro is a kitsune whose powers are sealed by strands of magical beads. With each band removed, he regains his tails, and thus more of his powers. Upon the removal of the last strand, he regains all nine of his tails and reaches his full power as Inari, patron kami of the kitsune.
- A Kitsune appears in Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.
- Kuugen Tenkou and Gyokuyou from Our Home's Fox Deity.
- Neil Gaiman's novella collaboration with Yoshitaka Amano, The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, centers around a kitsune who falls in love with a monk. She spends most of her time in fox form and has illusion powers.
- In Julie Kagawa's Shadow of the Fox series, the main character, Yumeko, is a young kitsune. Technically she's half human, but she has the same powers and abilities as a full-blood kitsune and is treated as one by everyone else.
- In Paul Kidd's series Spirit Hunters Sura is a kitsune. However she has only one tail, nine-tailed fox-spirits are mythological in that world though at one point she casts a shadow that seems to have multiple tails, and can only assume three specific forms: a Talking Animal fox, a "fur" form halfway between fox and human, and a third that looks almost human save for her pointed ears and tail. Other animal spirits seen can assume similar forms.
- Brandon Sanderson's Starsight has the kitsen, talking foxlike aliens that were the origin of Earth's kitsune myths, when some of them with the ability to teleport between planets ended up in medieval Japan.
- Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio contains 86 tales of Chinese fox spirits, most of whom assume female form to deceive humans. Though there's also a few stories with wise elder foxes, and one where a male fox seduces a magistrate.
- Tamamizu Monogatari is a Muromachi period otogizōshi about a male kitsune who falls in love with a human girl and transforms into a girl in order to become her servant, ultimately deciding to reveal the ruse and return to the forest.
- Tamamo no Mae monogatari, a 15th century Japanese otogizōshi prose narrative, marks the first known appearance of Tamamo-no-Mae, a wicked kitsune who seduces the retired emperor Toba and tries to assassinate him. Upon her identity being revealed, she flees but is hunted down and killed after 108 days by the archers Miura-no-suke and Kazusa-no-suke. Her corpse is brought back to the capital and found to contain sacred treasures, though her actions contribute to the downfall of the Imperial court and the rise of the samurai shogunate.
- Tamamo no sōshi tells much the same story as prior versions of Tamamo-no-Mae's story, but alters the ending so that her body is petrified into a cursed boulder called the Sesshōseki or "Killing Stone" — which is haunted by her vengeful spirit and emits a noxious miasma that kills anyone who comes too close. After many years, a Buddhist monk named Genno comes across Tamamo's ghost, who repents her sins and converts to Buddhism, allowing him to exorcize her.
- Under Heaven: The characters discuss daiji- "fox women"- several times on the way back to the capital. Shen Tai especially suspects that Wei Song appears to believe they exist, more than he does. In one case, he ends up asking a governor's daughter if she has a daiji within her, after an attempted seduction to convince him to assign his horses to her father. (She does acknowledge, "I am flattered you think me fair enough to be a daiji spirit, but it is an error.")
- Wearing the Cape: Officially, Japanese superspy Kitsune is a Breakthrough with powers that perfectly mimic the mythological kitsune. Or maybe he's a delusional Breakthrough who truly believes he's a kitsune. Or maybe he's a projection produced by another Breakthrough, a self-sustaining supernatural entity that sprung out of a dying man's wish for a guardian kitsune. Or maybe he really is a kitsune, centuries old and only returned to the world recently, and magic is real after all. The one thing that's clear is that he finds it hilarious to keep people guessing.
