![]() In some stories, kitsune have difficulty hiding their tail - usually the foxes in these stories have only one, which may be an indication that this is a weakness born of inexperience - when they take human form the observant protagonist sees through the fox's disguise when the drunken or careless fox allows its tail to show. Chinese folklore also has fox spirits with many similarities to kitsune, including the possibility of nine tails. Similarly, in Korea, a fox that lives a thousand years is said to turn into a kumiho (literally "nine-tail fox"), but the Korean fox is always depicted as evil, unlike the Japanese fox, which can be either benevolent or malevolent. These kyūbi no kitsune ("nine-tailed foxes") gain the power of infinite vision. When a kitsune gains nine tails, its fur becomes silver, white, or gold. However, the foxes that appear in the tales almost always possess one, five, or nine tails. Generally, an older and more powerful fox will possess a greater number of tails, and some sources say that a fox grows an additional tail for each hundred or thousand years it has lived. Kitsune are often noted for their tails - a fox may possess as many as nine of them. There are two major types of kitsune, the myobu, or celestial fox - those associated with Inari, who are presented as benevolent - and the nogitsune, or wild fox (literally "field fox"), who are often, though not always, presented as malicious. Any fox who lives sufficiently long, therefore, can be a fox spirit. ![]() The word spirit is used in its Eastern sense, reflecting a state of knowledge or enlightenment. However, one should not take this to mean that a kitsune is not a living creature, nor that a kitsune is a different creature than a fox. In the context of folklore, the word kitsune is often translated as fox spirit. The folkloric kitsune is a type of yōkai. Kitsune are connected to both the shinto and Buddhist faiths. Originally kitsune were the messengers of Inari, but now the line between the two has become blurred to the point that Inari is sometimes depicted as a fox. Kitsune are often associated with the deity of rice known as Inari. Occasionally kitsune are ascribed a characteristic reminiscent of vampires - these kitsune feed on the life or spirit of the humans they come in contact with. Some tales go further still, speaking of kitsune with the ability to bend time and space, to drive people mad, or to take such nonhuman and fantastic shapes as a tree of incredible height or a second moon in the sky. Other powers commonly attributed to the kitsune include possession, the ability to breathe or otherwise create fire, the power to manifest in dreams, and the ability to create illusions so elaborate as to be almost indistinguishable from reality. Kitsune usually appear in the shape of a beautiful woman, a pretty young girl, or an old man. Foremost among these is the ability to take the shape of a human a fox is said to learn to do this when it attains a certain age (usually a hundred years, though some tales say fifty). In Japanese folklore, these animals are believed to possess great intelligence, long life, and magical powers. Japan has two kinds of fox: the Japanese Red Fox ( Hondo kitsune living in Honshu Vulpes vulpes japonica) and Hokkaido Fox ( Kita kitsune living in Hokkaido Vulpes vulpes schrencki).
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