To-do list:
- Move examples of East Asian fox spirits from Kitsune to Asian Fox Spirit, and move examples of fox spirits from other cultures to Fantastic Foxes. Remove any examples that don't fit either.
- Possibly move parts of the old description to Analysis.Asian Fox Spirit.
Original post
I would like to draft a proposal to rename Kitsune to Nine-Tailed Fox (which it is presently a redirect for), Asian Fox Spirit, or something similar if neither of those proposals work.Japan isn't the only country to have myths, legends, and stories featuring multi-tailed fox-spirits, nor is it the country in which multi-tailed fox-spirits originated. And while Japan may have been — and still be — the most-prominent source of Western-imported media featuring fox-spirits over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, more and more Korean and especially Chinese and Chinese-themed works featuring multi-tailed fox-spirits have been coming out over the last few decades — i.e. Painted Skin, Jiang Ziya, White Snake (2019).
Wick Check
- AFK Arena — Solise, The Floral Wonder — "* Kitsune: She's based on one, being a Fox Folk with nine tails and supernatural abilities even for her own people." — UNCLEAR EXAMPLE
- A New Hope (Danganronpa) — Hora Island — SINKHOLE
- Arknights Nations — Suzuran — "Suzuran and her father are both nine-tailed Vulpos, which obviously point to them being based on the Kitsune." — INSPIRED BY HULI JING note
- Beware of Chicken — Nezan — "* Kitsune: Nezan is one of the Chinese variation, known as a Huli Jing. See Fantastic Foxes for more detail." — EXAMPLE, HULI JING; ZERO CONTEXT
- Buster Keel! — Dakki — "* Kitsune: She's a seven-tailed monster fox whose name and action are based on the infamous huli jing from Fengshen Yanyi." / "* Unusual Eyebrows: Her eyebrows have a peculiar shape, reminding the stylized, spiral-like tuffs of fur drawn on Kitsune in some depictions." — EXAMPLE, HULI JING
- Chinese Mythology — Daji — "* Foul Fox: She is sometimes identified with a malicious fox spirit, and... look at the other tropes attributed to her." — EXAMPLE, HULI JING
- Fushigi Yuugi — Chichiri — "* Kitsune: Chichiri isn't a literal kitsune, but numerous characters remark that his Cool Mask makes him look like one. His celestial powers, mostly based around illusion and shapeshifting, and his trickster-ish personality also line up with kitsune mythology." — MISUSE
- Fuzzy Logic — Musume Uchiha — * Kitsune: The kitsune, in fact. — ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLEnote
- God Eater Aragami — Kyuubi — * Kitsune: As its name indicates, the Kyuubi takes the appearance of one, except with three tails instead of nine. — EXAMPLE, BUT LITTLE CONTEXT
- Gugure! Kokkuri-san — Kokkuri — Zero Context Example; just a link to Kitsune
- Honkai Impact 3rd – Honkai Beasts and Herrschers — Hellmaru — * Multiple-Tailed Beast: In keeping with its kitsune image, it has 4 tails. — INSPIRED BY; UNCLEAR EXAMPLE
- Honkai Impact 3rd – Other NPCs and Historical Characters Higokumaru''' — "* Kitsune: The in-game description of her mentions that she claims to be a human, but notes the 4 tails and the fox ears, and the fact that she likes inari-age (seasoned tofu skin). The description concludes that "she must be a fox". As ch. 12 and a supplementary comic shows, she didn't always look like this; it's implied that after the power of the 12th Herrscher is turned into the sword Jizo Mitama, her leftover body and original consciousness (i.e Rin) merged with that of the fox beast (which likely was a normal fox), causing her to gain fox features." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Juushinki Pandora — "* Eldritch Abomination: It is an ancient force whose power spurred the process of evolution, making it the source of the B.R.A.I., and is hypothesized by Lon to also be the source of humanity's myths about gods and monsters such as the Monkey King and nine-tailed fox as well. In the penultimate episode, it assembles a makeshift body from the amalgamated corpses of Dark Drive-equipped B.R.A.I., and in the final episode attempts to turn Neo Xianglong itself and all the M.O.E.V. into B.R.A.I." — SINKHOLE; EXAMPLE, HULI JINGnote
- Journey To The West - Demons — Nine Tailed Old Vixen/Juweihuli — "* Kitsune: She is a nine-tailed fox, but she's not particularly powerful or pretty, being an old crone in possession of a magic rope." EXAMPLE, HULI JING
- Journey To The West - Demons — The Spirits of Biqiu Kingdom — "* Kitsune: The White-Faced Vixen is, as the name suggested, a white-faced Hulijing." — EXAMPLE, HULI JING; LACKING CONTEXT
- Characters/Kanokon — Chizuru Minamoto — EXAMPLE, SINKHOLEnote
- Korean Mythology — "Gumiho: Name literally meaning 'nine-tailed fox', they are the Korean version of the Kitsune." — EXAMPLE, KUMIHO
- League Of Legends A — Ahri — "* Kitsune: Although referred to in development as a Gumiho, the Korean equivalent. Hence her vampiric nature. She becomes an actual Kitsune, to the point of being able to shape shift into one, in her Spirit Blossom skin, as the skin-line instead takes inspiration from Japanese folklore for the Ionian Spirit Blossom festival." — INSPIRED BY KUMIHO
- Monster Hunter Fourth Generation Monsters — Mizutsune (Tamamitsune) — "* Kitsune: Its vulpine appearance, its 4GU Gunner headgear describes as smelling of fried tofu, its weapons in Wings of Ruin referencing a man married to a Mizutsune turned into a woman. The list goes on." — NON-EXAMPLE, INSPIRED BY KITSUNE
- Monster Hunter Frontier Monsters — Dyuragaua / Mi Ru — "* Kitsune: They are based on the kitsune of Japanese folklore. Mi Ru takes this further with its ability to change forms." — NON-EXAMPLE, INSPIRED BY KITSUNE
- Naruto - Tailed Beasts — Kurama — "Kitsune: Kurama is a kaiju-sized nine-tailed supernatural fox." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan - Other Yokai Groups — Hagoromo-Gitsune — "* Kitsune: She's a kitsune who survives by possessing the bodies of women. She can manifest fox tails, with the number of tails being equivalent to the number of times she has reincarnated." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Pathfinder Fey — Gumiho — "* Kitsune: Based on the creature of the same name from Korean folklore, gumihos are legendary nine-tailed foxes who, when disguised in humanoid form, use charm and guile to lure prey deep into the forest before revealing their true form, tearing out their victim's throat and feasting on their liver." — EXAMPLE, KUMIHO
- Persona 5: The Phantom Thieves of Hearts — In general — "* Animal Motifs: Akechi, Ann, and Yusuke have bird, cat, and fox Persona masks; Ann and Yusuke's respective Metaverse outfits even have tails attached to them that match their respective animals. This leads to Ann, Yusuke and Akechi have the heist code names Panther, Fox, and Crow, respectively. This also dips into Japanese Mythical Motifs for Akechi and Yusuke, as Akechi's mask is based on a Tengu, a crow based Yōkai known for having red faces and ridiculously long noses, while Yusuke's is a traditional Kitsune style mask." — SINKHOLE
- Raishon — Reika Tsukimori — "%%* Kitsune - Also the assistant of one. " — ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE
- Sengoku Youko — Several examples — ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE
- Summon Night — Hasaha — "%%* Kitsune" — ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime — Tempest Citizens — Kumara — "* Kitsune: All the hallmarks of it, with ancient and modern depictions mixed into both her pre and post evolutions." — ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE; INSPIRED BY NINE-TAILED FOXES
- Teen Wolf Antagonists — The Nogitsune — "* Kitsune: A particularly evil one." — EXAMPLE, BUT ZERO CONTEXT
- The Game of the Gods — Kitsune — "* Kitsune: Not an example. Her name is kitsune "fox" but she is not a fox." — MISUSE
- The Gamers Alliance Five — 'Inari Okami — "* Kitsune: She's one of the mythic shapeshifting foxes." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE; LACKING CONTEXT
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet — Yayoi — No example given, just a link to the page in her bio saying she's similar to one. — NON-EXAMPLE
- The Vampire Diaries Book Characters — Shinichi — "* Kitsune: This is Shinichi's species, alongside his twin sister, Misao. Their origin is from Japan. Kitsune are described as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilites that increase with their age and wisdom, every 100 years they get a tail, becoming more powerful, and when they reach nine tails (Kyuubi no Kitsune), they become demi-gods, reaching the omniscience, and almost the omnipotency. Foremost among these is the ability to assume a human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others as foxes in folklore often do other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers and wives. The folklore says they are afraid of dogs, running away every time they see one." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View — Aya Shameimaru — "* Everybody Hates Mathematics: She shows in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red that, while Ran Yakumo may enjoy doing math in her spare time, not everyone in Gensokyo shares her enthusiasm for the subject." — SINKHOLE
- Touken Ranbu — Konnosuke — "* Kitsune " — ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE
- Uma Musume — Inari One — "* Kitsune: Her name and motif are both based on the mythical Fox Youkai. (Makes sense, given the "Inari" present right there in her name)" — INSPIRED BY KITSUNE
- Warriors Orochi — Tamamo — "* Kitsune: As in the legend, Tamamo is a fox spirit. Her real form, Kyūbi, is the famed nine-tailed fox." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Warriors Orochi — Da Ji — "* Red Right Hand: Her feet are actually paws, fitting the legend that a kitsune cannot completely conceal her foxy nature." — ZERO CONTEXT; EXAMPLE, HULI JING note
- We Are Our Avatars — Mara Bjornsen — "* Kitsune: Has nine tails (normally physiologically hidden), power over flame, and can shapeshift into a fox. " — UNCLEAR EXAMPLE
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Kitsune — "Werefoxes native to east Asia, with powerful magic skills and close ties to Luna. They are the youngest of the Changing Breeds, coming into existence following the War of Rage." — UNCLEAR EXAMPLE
- ×××HOLiC — Kudagitsune / Mugetsu — "* Kitsune: Its true form." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE; ZERO CONTEXT
- Beasts of Burden — "* Kitsune: A kitsune is one of the creatures encountered in Occupied Territory." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE; LACKS CONTEXT
- The Sandman — K — "* Kitsune: The Dream Hunters is a fairly traditional kitsune romance, with Morpheus and other Sandman characters making cameos." — UNCLEAR EXAMPLE, LACKING CONTEXT
- Onmyōji — "Mythology Gag: Seimei often looks faintly vulpine; this is a reference to his mythological background where his mother was a kitsune. Specifically referenced by Hiromasa in-universe; upon first being introduced to each other, Seimei playfully teases Hiromasa about the myth." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Bungo Stray Dogs — "Dazai is frequently likened to a fox, and certain merchandise features him as a Kitsune. Not only are these creatures known for being cunning...but they also can be thwarted by the presence of dogs!" — SINKHOLE
- Anime & Manga — "* Kamisama Kiss has Tomoe, a male Little Bit Beastly Kitsune, posing as Nanami, a female human Ordinary High-School Student, a total of three times so far. The first when she was sick, he covered for her at school. The second time when she was attending the conference, he also covered for her at school. The third, well..." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE
- Bluebeard — "* "The White Road" by Neil Gaiman is a version of the "Mr. Fox" variant, with a twist - Mr. Fox may be innocent, having been framed by a kitsune. (That said, it's very ambiguous if you read the story closely.)" — UNCLEAR EXAMPLE
- Mail Fox Tales — "* Kitsune : Eva, as well as the servants and some of the Inari she meets." — EXAMPLE, KITSUNE; ZERO CONTEXT
- Tale of the Nine Tailed — "* Kitsune: The show revolves around the Korean variation, the gumiho." — EXAMPLE, KUMIHO; LACKS CONTEXT
- Elona — "Kitsune: The fox brother, one of his evolution paths allows him to become a nine-tailed fox brother." — UNCLEAR EXAMPLE
- Tally:
- Huli Jing: 8
- Kumiho: 3
- Kitsune: 11
- Unclear: 7 — overlap with other categories note
- Zero Context: 11 — overlap with other categories note
- Sinkhole: 6 — overlap with other categories note
- Misuse: 3 note
- Inspired By: 6 note
~Macron Notes: Added in the OP's wick check from here
Edited by GastonRabbit on May 17th 2022 at 11:35:18 AM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Nor do you need to tell us your complaints more than once. Enough people voted in favor of renaming the trope to Asian Fox Spirit, so that's what we're calling it now.
Drop it before I have to start thumping posts.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 27th 2022 at 11:49:21 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
As a starting point, I've set up a sandbox for the page's description—although at time of writing I've done nothing more than copy in the contents of the page.
You should find it here:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Sandbox/AsianFoxSpirit
I've also set up a sandbox for a potential Analysis page; this contains a portion of the contents of the "Asian Fox Spirit" page. However, that portion is should not be considered a solid base—it's more a matter of having something there to make a page.
You should find that sandbox here:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Sandbox/AsianFoxSpiritAnalysis
Update: I've performed a bit of a rewrite in the first sandbox linked-to above. Thoughts?
[edit] I would also appreciate it if others looked over the text for factual errors on my part, if feasible.
[edit 2] Oh, and let me note that I decided, for now at least, to not include the previously-mentioned Vietnamese fox as I wasn't confident of our sources there.
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Apr 28th 2022 at 8:59:15 PM
My Games & Writing
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I'll look over it soon. I haven't been awake very long and I'm currently multitasking between setting up my new phone and using the computer on top of that (since the last time I replaced my phone was 2018 or earlier).
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
That's very fair, and there's no hurry on my end. ^_^
But... Would your new phone not work better without a computer atop it? :P
My Games & Writing
I like it. Perhaps a mention as to how benevolent kitsune became associated with the Shinto kami Inari could be made, since it's a big part of their portrayal in Japan.
Thank you, and noted!
Argh, it looks like someone edited the sandbox while I wasn't looking, and without saying anything! >_<
Now I'm torn: I don't like most of the changes that they made, and would prefer to go back to my version—but I fear that to do so would be edit-warring... >_<;
[edit] I've added mention of Inari. It's perhaps not my best writing—it feels somewhat wedged in where I've put it—but in my defence I'm tired, and somewhat thrown by the above-mentioned changes.
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 1st 2022 at 9:45:30 PM
My Games & Writing
I've reconstructed my original version, I believe, and post it here below:
[edit] And re-added to it the addition regarding Inari, which I had forgotten about in the reconstruction. [/edit]
[edit2] I do note that they added a bullet-point for the Vietnamese version, so I've incorporated it into the version below. That bullet-point, then, I do not claim to be my work. [/edit2]
in the Trope Repair Shop.
In East Asia, Fantastic Foxes are prominently featured in folklore.
Broadly speaking, these East-Asian foxes have a number of similarities: they're often intelligent, shapeshifters, and possessed of multiple tails.
However, the different cultures of East Asia have within them different names for these supernatural foxes:
- In Japan they are called Kitsune—which is both simply the word for "fox" and specifically the term of these particular foxes.note
- In Korea, they are known as Gumiho/Kumiho ("Nine-Tailed Fox").
- In China, they are called Huli Jing ("Fox Spirit") or Jiuweihu ("Nine-Tailed Fox").
- In Vietnam, they are referred to as hồ ly tinh (a direct transliteration of huli jing) or yêu hồ ("demon fox").
And likewise, differences exist in the depictions of such beings—for example, the Korean Gumiho/Kumiho is more often presented as outright malevolent than is the Japanese Kitsune—often killing humans in order to eat their hearts and/or livers. The Kitsune, on the other hand, is depicted as sometimes marrying with humans, in which capacity they prove to be devoted spouses and parents.
Indeed, Kitsune, when benevolent, have come to be closely associated with a Shinto kami, Inari.
Nevertheless, when the stories of such foxes cross borders, the local word is simply applied: that is, when a story of a Huli Jing is imported to Japan, it is told as a story of a Kitsune. For example, the Chinese Huli Jing Daji is usually considered to be the same entity as the Japanese Kitsune Tamamo-no-Mae.
But it should not be thought that these foxes begin their lives as supernatural beings. Instead, in many depictions they start as normal foxes. As they grow older, they grow too in power (and number of tails). Eventually they gain human-level intelligence (or greater), as well as various powers: Shapeshifting (in particular to human form), possession, enchantment, supernatural wisdom, and more.
A fully nine-tailed fox may be depicted as being incredibly powerful, and dangerous even if they're not malevolent.
Physically, they have a few distinguishing features: as already mentioned, they have multiple tails (up to nine). They may also have squinted eyes or Eyes Always Shut (which is called "kitsune no me", meaning "fox eyes" or "shifty eyes").
In behaviour, their activities vary from divine servants (or even gods of a sort), through Shapeshifting -Tricksters and -Seducers—to bringers of ruin and eaters of men. Or, as mentioned above, they might fall in love and marry, and live happily that way. (And in that last case, their children—while not foxes themselves—will inherit magical powers.)
One particular variety, the small, weasel-like kuda-gitsune or "pipefox" (sometimes known as kanko, izuna or osaki) is employed as a Familiar by human families. In most depictions they follow commands faithfully, but are capable of slowly bringing their masters to ruin (most often by multiplying until they run out of food).
In modern fiction, such foxes turn up often: anime in particular has them as a staple whenever mythology appears, while Western writers note the similarities between them as The Fair Folk, and use them thusly.
Additional fun fact: Kitsune are common Animal Motifs for Japanese character types, and are often portrayed as foils and rivals to Tanuki. In fact, in Japan women are considered to be "tanuki-faced" (square/round) or "kitsune-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.
Fortunately, all of these fox-spirit types can be cowed by the presence of dogs.
See also Youkai, Little Bit Beastly, Beast Man, The Fair Folk and Ghostly Animals. Compare Tanuki. Fantastic Foxes is the Super-Trope. See Fox Folk for other fox people. The Femme Fatale kitsune is automatically a Foxy Vixen, and evil examples fall under Foul Fox.
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 1st 2022 at 11:27:54 AM
My Games & Writing
Hmm... I don't think it's absolutely necessery to capitalize kitsune, huli jing, and kumiho every single time they're mentioned.
Perhaps. I'm looking at them as being trope-titles in this context (they are, after all, redirects to the page).
(I do now realise that I missed such capitalisation in the entry for the Vietnamese version.)
However, looking at another page, it seems that so capitalising trope-titles on their own page may not be the standard, so I'm happy to concede on that point.
(I won't make another version just yet—I'd rather wait for any further input (including on other points), and so consolidate suggested changes into a single (or at least fewer) posts.)
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 2nd 2022 at 6:26:04 PM
My Games & Writing
Okay, lacking further input, here's an updated version—specifically, I have now un-capitalised the various terms for such foxes, I believe.
in the Trope Repair Shop.In East Asia, Fantastic Foxes are prominently featured in folklore.
Broadly speaking, these East-Asian foxes have a number of similarities: they're often intelligent, shapeshifters, and possessed of multiple tails.
However, the different cultures of East Asia have within them different names for these supernatural foxes:
- In Japan they are called kitsune—which is both simply the word for "fox" and specifically the term of these particular foxes.note
- In Korea, they are known as gumiho/kumiho ("nine-tailed fox").
- In China, they are called huli jing ("fox spirit") or jiuweihu ("Nine-Tailed Fox").
- In Vietnam, they are referred to as hồ ly tinh (a direct transliteration of huli jing) or yêu hồ ("demon fox").
And likewise, differences exist in the depictions of such beings—for example, the Korean gumiho/kumiho is more often presented as outright malevolent than is the Japanese kitsune—often killing humans in order to eat their hearts and/or livers. The kitsune, on the other hand, is depicted as sometimes marrying with humans, in which capacity they prove to be devoted spouses and parents.
Indeed, kitsune, when benevolent, have come to be closely associated with a Shinto kami, Inari.
Nevertheless, when the stories of such foxes cross borders, the local word is simply applied: that is, when a story of a huli jing is imported to Japan, it is told as a story of a kitsune. For example, the Chinese huli jing Daji is usually considered to be the same entity as the Japanese kitsune Tamamo-no-Mae.
But it should not be thought that these foxes begin their lives as supernatural beings. Instead, in many depictions they start as normal foxes. As they grow older, they grow too in power (and number of tails). Eventually they gain human-level intelligence (or greater), as well as various powers: Shapeshifting (in particular to human form), possession, enchantment, supernatural wisdom, and more.
A fully nine-tailed fox may be depicted as being incredibly powerful, and dangerous even if they're not malevolent.
Physically, they have a few distinguishing features: as already mentioned, they have multiple tails (up to nine). They may also have squinted eyes or Eyes Always Shut (which is called "kitsune no me", meaning "fox eyes" or "shifty eyes").
In behaviour, their activities vary from divine servants (or even gods of a sort), through Shapeshifting -Tricksters and -Seducers—to bringers of ruin and eaters of men. Or, as mentioned above, they might fall in love and marry, and live happily that way. (And in that last case, their children—while not foxes themselves—will inherit magical powers.)
One particular variety, the small, weasel-like kuda-gitsune or "pipefox" (sometimes known as kanko, izuna or osaki) is employed as a Familiar by human families. In most depictions they follow commands faithfully, but are capable of slowly bringing their masters to ruin (most often by multiplying until they run out of food).
In modern fiction, such foxes turn up often: anime in particular has them as a staple whenever mythology appears, while Western writers note the similarities between them as The Fair Folk, and use them thusly.
Additional fun fact: kitsune are common Animal Motifs for Japanese character types, and are often portrayed as foils and rivals to Tanuki. In fact, in Japan women are considered to be "tanuki-faced" (square/round) or "kitsune-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.
Fortunately, all of these fox-spirit types can be cowed by the presence of dogs.
See also Youkai, Little Bit Beastly, Beast Man, The Fair Folk and Ghostly Animals. Compare Tanuki. Fantastic Foxes is the Super-Trope. See Fox Folk for other fox people. The Femme Fatale kitsune is automatically a Foxy Vixen, and evil examples fall under Foul Fox.
Thoughts?
To be clear, if others prefer the sandbox version, then I'll bow to consensus.
Either way, are there any other changes to be made before we swap in the preferred version?
My Games & Writing
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Both the post and the sandbox are "good enough", I think, although I see a number of improvements that could be made. I'd prefer the bulleted list to be alphabetical by country or creature. The paragraphs following that could be made to flow better by having the Chinese and Vietnamese described first, then the Korean, and ending with the Japanese version. I would rewrite the first three paragraphs into a single paragraph. Small tweaks like that. I think the animal names should be in lowercase because we aren't treating them as an Internal Subtrope and will not be splitting the page by the fox type.
Editing here to clarify that I was responding to the post from May 1, and we happened to do so at the same time.
Edited by crazysamaritan on May 5th 2022 at 12:14:58 PM
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
A good point—I'll rectify that in a subsequent draft, I think.
Hmm... I'm not sure of which sections on the Chinese and Vietnamese foxes you're referring to—we don't seem to have text on how they differ in this draft. (Unless there was something in the sandbox draft that you want to bring in?)
As it stands, the remainder—covering the Korean and Japanese foxes—is in the order that you suggest, I believe.
On this I'm inclined to disagree: there are three ideas there, and thus three paragraphs, and I think that I like having a short, to-the-point stand-alone sentence to introduce the topic rather than a single larger paragraph.
That is fair, indeed.
My Games & Writing
Okay, here's a version with the bullet-list alphabetised. Specifically, I've elected to alphabetise by country, as the country-names appear first. (Not to mention, come to think of it, that there are multiple names by which I could alphabetise in all but one of the entries.)
I haven't taken on the other points, as per my arguments above and no further argument to them.
in the Trope Repair Shop.In East Asia, Fantastic Foxes are prominently featured in folklore.
Broadly speaking, these East-Asian foxes have a number of similarities: they're often intelligent, shapeshifters, and possessed of multiple tails.
However, the different cultures of East Asia have within them different names for these supernatural foxes:
- In China, they are called huli jing ("fox spirit") or jiuweihu ("Nine-Tailed Fox").
- In Japan they are called kitsune—which is both simply the word for "fox" and specifically the term of these particular foxes.note
- In Korea, they are known as gumiho/kumiho ("nine-tailed fox").
- In Vietnam, they are referred to as hồ ly tinh (a direct transliteration of huli jing) or yêu hồ ("demon fox").
And likewise, differences exist in the depictions of such beings—for example, the Korean gumiho/kumiho is more often presented as outright malevolent than is the Japanese kitsune—often killing humans in order to eat their hearts and/or livers. The kitsune, on the other hand, is depicted as sometimes marrying with humans, in which capacity they prove to be devoted spouses and parents.
Indeed, kitsune, when benevolent, have come to be closely associated with a Shinto kami, Inari.
Nevertheless, when the stories of such foxes cross borders, the local word is simply applied: that is, when a story of a huli jing is imported to Japan, it is told as a story of a kitsune. For example, the Chinese huli jing Daji is usually considered to be the same entity as the Japanese kitsune Tamamo-no-Mae.
But it should not be thought that these foxes begin their lives as supernatural beings. Instead, in many depictions they start as normal foxes. As they grow older, they grow too in power (and number of tails). Eventually they gain human-level intelligence (or greater), as well as various powers: Shapeshifting (in particular to human form), possession, enchantment, supernatural wisdom, and more.
A fully nine-tailed fox may be depicted as being incredibly powerful, and dangerous even if they're not malevolent.
Physically, they have a few distinguishing features: as already mentioned, they have multiple tails (up to nine). They may also have squinted eyes or Eyes Always Shut (which is called "kitsune no me", meaning "fox eyes" or "shifty eyes").
In behaviour, their activities vary from divine servants (or even gods of a sort), through Shapeshifting -Tricksters and -Seducers—to bringers of ruin and eaters of men. Or, as mentioned above, they might fall in love and marry, and live happily that way. (And in that last case, their children—while not foxes themselves—will inherit magical powers.)
One particular variety, the small, weasel-like kuda-gitsune or "pipefox" (sometimes known as kanko, izuna or osaki) is employed as a Familiar by human families. In most depictions they follow commands faithfully, but are capable of slowly bringing their masters to ruin (most often by multiplying until they run out of food).
In modern fiction, such foxes turn up often: anime in particular has them as a staple whenever mythology appears, while Western writers note the similarities between them as The Fair Folk, and use them thusly.
Additional fun fact: kitsune are common Animal Motifs for Japanese character types, and are often portrayed as foils and rivals to Tanuki. In fact, in Japan women are considered to be "tanuki-faced" (square/round) or "kitsune-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.
Fortunately, all of these fox-spirit types can be cowed by the presence of dogs.
See also Youkai, Little Bit Beastly, Beast Man, The Fair Folk and Ghostly Animals. Compare Tanuki. Fantastic Foxes is the Super-Trope. See Fox Folk for other fox people. The Femme Fatale kitsune is automatically a Foxy Vixen, and evil examples fall under Foul Fox.
Thoughts?
To be clear, if others prefer the sandbox version, then I'll bow to consensus.
Either way, are there any other changes to be made before we swap in the preferred version?
My Games & Writing
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I added a to-do list to the opening post and pinned it.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Ah, thank you for doing that. I do want to get around to finding the motivation to start work on so moving wicks.
Should the to-do list not also have an item for the trope-description?
My Games & Writing
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I actually forgot about the description rewrite earlier, so I added it.
(she/her)
I think the latest description rewrite looks fine. Don't have anything to add.
Macron's notes
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Same here.
, Thank you both. ^_^
If there are no objections before I return to the thread tomorrow, I'll swap in the new description, then.
Looking at the to-do list, I'd forgotten about the "analysis" page! That's another thing to think about.
My Games & Writing
Okay, as there have been no further objections, I've swapped in the new description. ^_^
I'm pretty tired tonight, but I do mean to approach some of the other work on the to-do list in due course.
My Games & Writing
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I revised the to-do list now that the description's been updated. Making an Analysis page isn't necessary for this thread to close; it was just an idea I had regarding where some of the stuff from the old description could go. Only the wick cleanup is needed for this thread to close.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Okay, noted; I'll leave thought of the analysis aside, then, and keep the wick-cleanup in mind.
I intend to start in on the on-page examples from Fantastic Foxes a little later—based on an initial look at the first few folders, it looks like it should be fairly straightforward. I'll post an update once I've made some progress, I intend.
I realised, by the way, that the description for Fantastic Foxes, under "Specific Fox Myths", still linked to Kitsune but not to other East-Asian foxes; the entries for Gumiho and Huli Jing were un-linked. To that end, I've moved the link to the larger heading of "Nine-Tailed Foxes" under which the page lists all three types.
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 21st 2022 at 7:11:57 PM
My Games & Writing
Crown Description:
Consensus was to rename Kitsune because it covers Asian fox spirits other than the Japanese kitsune. What should its new name be?
You don't need to tell me twice.