Inugami (犬神, dog spirit) is a Japanese tsukimono, or possession spirit. Unlike many Yōkai, inugami are deliberately created by onmyōji (sorcerers) through a ritual that, traditionally, required burying a dog up to the head, starving it for three days, and then decapitating it. The head is then buried at a crossroads, and consequentially, the dog's spirit becomes a curse. This practice was banned by the Heian period. Alternatively, food is placed in front of the dog after it is buried. When the dog attempts to eat the food, it would be decapitated. The dog's remains are then cremated and deified. Another way inugami were created was to have several dogs fight to the death. The winning dog would be given some fish, and then immediately decapitated. This last ritual was reported to have happened as recent as 1977. In any case, the rituals used to create inugami were always cruel and involved the torture and decapitation of dogs by humans.
The nature of the possession differs on a case-by-case basis. Oftentimes, spiritual possession by an inugami was auspicious. By possessing an individual or even a bloodline, the inugami will serve as their loyal guardian forever, bringing them prosperity and wealth. However, if an inugami is mistreated or abused, it will sometimes turn on its owner and devour them. If the inugami is malicious, or if it's acting on behalf of a malicious onmyōji, it will curse the host with chronic pain and insatiable hunger. If the inugami is not cured by the intervention of an onmyōji, it will eventually kill the host.
It's fairly common among old important Japanese families to have a personal inugami which acts as a Guardian Entity for the family line. In some cases, the original dog's head may be passed down as an important family heirloom.
See also Hellhound, a European malevolent canine. Sub-Trope, in some cases, of Bond Creatures; in others, of Being Tortured Makes You Evil. Tends to overlap with Canis Major.
Examples:
- Amatsuki: Kuchiha is possessed by a wolf-like inugami who acts protective of her, at times manifesting to threaten others into being nice to her. This, unfortunately, causes other people to despise her. The possession manifests as markings on her body. Kuchiha's destiny is to embody the dog god.
- Engaged to the Unidentified: Hakuya Mitsumine and his family hail from the rural mountains and turn out to be inugami. They can switch between human and dog forms, have the power of hypnosis, and have superhuman physical abilities.
- Gachirin Ni Kiri Saku: Men can be possessed by Inugami, transform at night when they eat or even do other malevolent acts on humans, and infect other men if they survive their attack.
- Ga-Rei: Kagura Tsuchimiya's spirit-beast, Byakuei, is revealed to be an inugami infected by a shard of the Bane Stone, mutating him into a four-eyed dragon-like beast.
- Ghost Story Loop: Played with, as it's an inugami in all but shape (wolf instead of dog). Shiragami is a wolf spirit that continues to bless the Fujinuma line by possessing the firstborn son of each generation, bringing them good fortune in turn. However, for unknown reasons, Shiragami at one point turned into a malevolent entity that transforms the possessed son into a man-eating werewolf. As it turns out, "Shiragami" in its current form is a replica of the original deity created by an estranged member of the Fujinuma line.
- Gintama: Sadaharu is implied to be an Inugami. Considering that he's a bull-sized white chihuahua with the strength of a bear and his former owners were a couple of miko, this is plausible.
- Good Luck Girl!: Momo'o Inugami is a shape-shifting dog god who, most of the time, appears as a human with masochistic tendencies, but is actually a tiny chihuahua. He has an enhanced sense of smell, differently-colored eyes, and great fighting capability. He's very obedient and loyal to Momiji, another goddess.
- Gugure! Kokkuri-san: In their past life, Inugami was an abused, abandoned puppy who was subjected to an off-screen horrific ritual that turned them into a youkai upon their death. They cling to Kohina out of a belief that she was the only person to show kindness to them, covering their puppy self with an umbrella during the rain.
- Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East: Yatsufusa is a white canine who possesses the Satomi family's female members and acts as their guarding deity. The sole male Satomi he's bonded with is Rio. Yatsufusa is referred to as a Sacred Beast.
- Inugami (1996) is about a boy who finds an inugami. His appearance is that of an extinct Japanese wolf, but he can grow spikes from his back to fight.
- Inugami Hakase is a one-volume anthology manga by the (in)famous Suehiro Maruo. It centers around an onmyouji who has mastery over an inugami and uses it to enact twisted justice on those who misuse the power of curses. The inugami itself is depicted as a one-eyed man, yet its vessel is an old dog skull.
- Inuyasha: The title character is a half dog-youkai. Inuyasha's father, stepmother, and half-brother Sesshoumaru are full dog-youkai. However, the story distinguishes between what Inuyasha's family is and "inugami" when villagers mistake Inuyasha for one, and the gang is confused about how the mistake could have happened. This is because in Japanese lore, "inugami" are a very specific type of sorcerer whose power comes from a dog they've killed and imbued on their behalf. The logical reason for how they made the mistake is Kagome's magically reinforced control over Inuyasha, which obviously looks similar to an inugami bond to an outsider.
- Natsume's Book of Friends: Madara/Nyanko-sensei, one of the spirits formerly trapped in the eponymous book, has been trapped as a Maneki Neko for a very long time. However, once released, he reverts back to his original form — a dragon-like inugami so big that his head is as tall as a human's entire body. He eats humans and can detect when they are about to die by the change in their taste.
- Nikubami Honegishimi: In chapter 5, Asama and Inubousaki travel to a rural town rumored to have strange man-faced dogs inhabiting an abandoned property. After confirming these dogs' existence to be true and nearly being killed by them, Inubousaki speculates that the dogs exist because of the property owners being possessed by a tsukimono lineage. The duo meets with the property's heir, who tells them that his late father was obsessed with creating a tsukimono, or rather an inugami, to bring him wealth. To that end, he starved dozens of dogs, buried them alive up to their heads, and then decapitated them in order to turn their heads into inugami. His son took pity on the dogs, however, and created doll heads for the dogs to wear instead. Some unknown malicious spirit possessed the dogs' bodies, yet it decided that it wanted human heads instead of dolls and would hunt down and decapitate anyone who ventures onto the property.
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Inugami's ancestors botched the ritual to control an inugami. As a result, the family got possessed by the inugami, granting them the dog spirit's powers (their real form is that of giant dogs) and Little Bit Beastly mannerisms (panting with the tongue out). Inugami, in particular, is vicious and has a tendency to bite people's throats on orders of his villain boss.
- This Monster Wants to Eat Me: Inugami Gyoubu is a legendary inugami youkai who has slayed 888 tanukis and was mistreated by humans, yet she still loves them.
- Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest: While Akira Inugami's animal motif is the wolf, his backstory has more ties to the youkai he's named after. His healing factor allows him to come back to life from pretty much anything, which is reminiscent of how inugami youkai are created. He's also a harbinger of misery and bad luck. Even the fact that he's a werewolf can be interpreted as the possession aspect of inugami (he's possessed by a wolf).
- X/1999: The Nekoi family bond with inugami that they've raised since infancy and are spiritually attuned to. The inugami take the form of guard dogs that act mostly like dogs but provide great protection. Nobody but a Nekoi can see their youkai companions.
- Bakemono no e: Inugami is depicted as a red-eyed, vaguely shapeless monstrosity with a dog's head that is covered by a brown blanket. Its inner garments appear to be a little bit more colorful, and its teeth are black.
- A Game of Cat and Cat: In "Prelude to Pandemonium", Soma, Mina, and Kazuya find a murder victim's severed head far away from the body and ponder on the significance. Such a deliberate desecration points toward a ritual to create an Inugami. Kazuya then rants how that proves pure evil exists in the world, as it requires pointlessly torturing a dog for personal gain.
- Inugami 2001: Miki Bonomiya's family is said to be under the curse of the inugami, contained in an urn Miki looks after. It's implied the Bonomiyas are descended from the inugami.
- Twiceborn: After Satoru obtains the power to see demons and evil spirits following the visit of Nikkou's spirit, he passes by a female coworker on his way to the bathroom and notices a dog-like demon coming out of her back, snarling at him.
- The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village: Toujou's Blood Magic allows him, at one point, to forcefully bind an inugaminote to himself so he could fuse with it and gain its powers. This manifests as a vicious, vaguely dog-shaped beast he sics on his enemies.
- Tsukiuta: In the Youkai AU, Kannaduki Iku used to be a yama-inu (Japanese mountain dog) who was killed and then became an inugami in Tsukino Hyakkiyakou due to being brought back from the dead. He acts as Shun's guard dog.
- Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools: The Wise Inugami is one of the Ally cards that playable kitsune can summon.
- The Darkness: Inugami (a human) is symbolically associated with the youkai that gives him his name. He's hellbent on revenge against the Brotherhood for killing his family, wields a sword cursed to shaft years of its user's life unless it's fed wicked souls, and can enter a brief berserker state. At times, he even howls.
- Fate/Grand Order: Serizawa Kamo sacrifices the negative feelings of the deceased Dark Shinsengumi troops and Yamatai-koku creatures, corrupted with Dark Blight, to summon a monstrous Inugami. While the ritual employed doesn't fit the folklore, it shares the same themes. The beast-god, however, doesn't even look like a dog.
- Muramasa: The Demon Blade: Inugami is an incredibly powerful and nightmarish dog youkai who is full of hatred due to having been imprisoned in the Kuzuryu Muramasa for centuries.
- Onmyōji (2016): Inugami is an SR-rarity shikigami who looks like a humanoid Shiba Inu (a Japanese dog breed). He's a master swordsman who fights against spirits, by his words, only using violence to solve problems. Despite his Heroic Self-Deprecation, he's very loyal. Inugami used to be a feral dog who attacked people out of instinct, until he met Sparrow, from whom he learned kindness. Throughout the game, he also appears as a mob and an NPC.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Inugami are a recurrent dog demon capable of resisting fire. Under the right circumstances, they can grow into their more powerful Makami counterparts. They have elongated white bodies with a black dog's head and a red tattoo on top. Their flavor text in the "Nocturne" compendium succintly recounts their legend in Japanese folklore.
- Yo-kai Watch: Inugami is a Rare, malevolent Yo-kai in the series, named "Frostail" in English, who was sealed away for some unknown crime. He's a recolor of Kyubi, so he's actually a Palette Swap of an Asian Fox Spirit with nine tails. However, Yo-kai Watch Blasters reveals he really is a dog. In a Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble event, he reincarnates as a dog that finally actually looks like a dog.
- Dancing Blade: Katte ni Momotenshi!: Oinu is a dog-youkai in the form of a young human girl. The only dog-like physical features she has are her ears, which are hidden in her hair and only seldom pop up. She's a benevolent, meek, and loyal girl who loves dog-related items, and in Tears of Eden, the power-amplifying artefact she gets is a dog collar that belonged to a legendary and almighty demon dog. The intro movie of the same game also hints that her true form is a giant, grey-coated dog.

