Welcome to my collection of Kitsune stories. These are some of my favorite stories from various sources I've copied here for your enjoyment. Most of these are old traditional tales which were originally told orally which have been translated and collected in various books. One interesting thing I find about Japanese stories are many are very specific to people's full names, place, and time periods in which they happened. I don't think the folklore I've read from other regions is quite like that. If anyone happens to know the significance of any names or places, or what they mean, please let me know ^_^. 
If you know of any stories you'd like added or have short fiction of your own you want here, just let me know. There is full information on the books these stories are from on the "Books and Comics" page.

Enough is Enough! * The Eviction *  Fox Arson * The Fox's Ball * A Fox in One Bite *  The Fox and the Shrike * The Loving Fox * Not Really a Tree at All * Touched in the Head

  The foxes which infested the house and grounds or Major Counselor Yasumichi's old mansion were always making mischief, but since they never really did any harm Yasumichi let the matter pass. They got naughtier and naughtier as the years went by, though, until one day he angrily decided that enough was enough. Those foxes would have to go. 
  He announced a grand fox hunt to his household, for the next day. The servants were to bring bows and arrows, sticks, or whatever weapons they could devise, and flush out every last one. They would surround the house, and men would be posted not only on the garden wall but on the roof as well, and even in the space between the ceiling of the rooms and the roof. Every fox that showed itself would be killed.
  Near dawn on the fateful day Yasumichi had a dream. A white-haired old man, looking rather like an aged menial, was kneeling under the tangerine tree in the garden, bowing respectfully to him. 
  "Who are you?" asked Yasumichi.
  "Someone who has lived here in this mansion for many years, sir," the old man answered nervously. "My father lived here before me, sir, and by now I have many children and grandchildren. They get into a lot of mischief, I'm afraid, and I'm always after them to stop, but they never listen. And now, sir, you're understandably fed up with us. I gather you're going to kill us all. But I just want you to know, sir, how sorry I am that this is our last night of life. Won't you pardon us, sir, one more time? If we ever make trouble again, then of course you must act as you think best. But the young ones, sir- I'm sure they'll understand when I explain to them why you're so upset. We'll do everything we can to protect you from now on, if only you'll forgive us, and we'll be sure to let you know when anything good is going to happen!"
  The old man bowed again and Yasumichi awoke. When the sky had lightened, he got up and looked outside. Under the tangerine tree sat a hairless old fox which, at the sight of him, slunk under the house. 
  The perplexed Yasumichi gave up his fox hunt. There was no more troublesome mischief, and every happy event around the house was announced by a fox's sharp bark.

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  The Minister Miyoshi no Kiyoyuki, a man of extraordinary intelligence and learning, was expert even in yin-yang lore. Having no house of his own, he located a ruinous old mansion that stood near the crossing of Fifth and Horikawa avenues in Kyoto and bought the place, even thought no one would live in it because it was well known to be haunted. Then, over his relatives' strenuous objections, he prepared to move in on an astrologically suitable day.
  The right day turned out to be the twentieth of the sixth moon. Kiyoyuki began his move in an unusual way by setting out in his carriage about six in the evening, taking only a straw mat with him.
  The house was so old that you couldn't even guess its age, while its garden was full of pines, maples, and cherry trees so ancient that they certainly must have had tree spirits living in them. Vines, just now beginning to redden with fall, clambered everywhere, and the moss that covered the ground had not been swept for years. Kiyoyuki had the shutters raised. The interior partitions were all warped and torn. He had a corner of the floor cleaned up and spread out the mat he had brought. Then he had a lamp lit and lay down on the mat facing south. When his carriage had been put away in the carriage house, he dismissed all his servants and ox-drivers with instructions to come back the next day.
  Kiyoyuki dozed off, still facing south. In the middle of the night he was awakened by a sort of rustling in the latticework ceiling and was a face sticking out from each crossing of the lattice. All the faces were different. When he calmly went on looking, they disappeared. Next, forty of fifty riders, each a foot tall, clattered across the floor from west to east. Kiyoyuki kept watching.
  A closet door opened and out came a very distinguished though tiny lady all in dark brown, with her hair down over her shoulders. The delicious scent of musk filled the air as she knelt before him. A red fan hid most of her face, but the forehead that peeped above it was white and the eyes elegantly long. The way just the pupils moved as she glanced to either side was both dignified and sinister. Watching her, he assumed that the rest of her face must be very pretty, but as she prepared to go she moved the fan aside a moment. Lo and behold, her nose was bright red, and crossed pairs of long silver fangs protruded from the corners of her mouth! This did give him a bit of a shock, but she meanwhile had vanished into the closet and closed the door. 
  It was nearly dawn now, but there was a bright moon. Kiyoyuki was lying there as alert and untroubled as ever when an old man in a light-blue robe came in from the dim garden outside, knelt, bowed very low, and respectfully held a letter forth. 
  "What have you got to say to me?" asked Kiyoyuki sharply.
  The old man answered in a little voice, "I'm here to let you know, sir, that we consider it very wrong of you to claim possession of a house which has been ours for many years, and that we wish to register a vigorous protest."
   "You don't know what you're talking about. People often buy houses from one another. It's perfectly normal. But you insist on disrupting this process by frightening away anyone who wants to live here and by occupying the place yourselves. You should be ashamed. Real demons know right from wrong and are perfectly straight about it. That's what makes them frightening. But all you do is invite the punishment of heaven. Why, you're only a tribe of old foxes! Give me a single hawk or dog and I'd have him eat you all. Go tell that to your friends!"
  "You're perfectly right, sir, perfectly right. But we've lived here so long, you see. We wanted you to know how we feel. I'm no in the habit of frightening people. The culprits, I'm afraid, are a couple of youngsters. I try to control them, sir, but they're always up to their tricks. If you're going to move in here, though, sir, I really don't know what we're to do. We've nowhere to go. Or at least, the only place is a vacant lot by the main gate of the Academy. May we have your permission to move there, sir?"
  "That sounds like a very good idea," Kiyoyuki answered. "You might as well get started."
  The old man shouted an order and forty or fifty voices shouted assent.
  After daybreak Kiyoyuki's household came to fetch him home again. He then went about the business of having the house remodeled and made more up-to-date. Nothing special happened while he lived there.

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   A retainer who served the governor of Kai was heading home one sundown from the governor's mansion when se saw a fox, gave chase, and shot at it with the kind of noisemaker arrow used for scaring off dogs. He hit in a back leg.
   The fox yelped in pain, rolled over, and dove limping into the brush. As the retainer went to retrieve his arrow teh fox reappeared in front of him, and he was about to shoot at it again when it vanished. 
   A quarter of a mile from home he saw the fox running ahead of him carrying a flaming brand in its mouth. What could it be up to? He spurred his horse on. On reaching the house, the fox changed into a human being and set the house on fire. The retainer was ready to shoot as soon as he got within range, but the human changed right back into a fox and got away. The house burned down.
   Beings like that exact swift vengeance. It's better to leave them alone.

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  A healer and his woman were once called to get rid of the spirit that was making someone ill. The spirit declared through the medium that is was a fox. "I didn't mean to put a curse on anyone," it said. "I only came because I thought you might have something good to eat. You didn't have to shut me up like this!"
  The medium drew from the fold at the breast of her robe a little white ball (foxes often have one), and began tossing it in the air and catching it. The people present thought the ball was pretty enough, but they were sure the medium had hidden it in her robe beforehand to trick them. One among them, a brave young man, waited for the medium to toss the ball into the air again, then quickly stuck out his hand, caught the ball, and popped it into the front of this own robe.
   "Confound you!" snapped the fox. "Give me back my ball!" The man ignored its pleas till finally it said tearfully, "All right, you've got the ball, but you don't know how to keep it. It won't be any good to you. For me, it's a terrible loss. I tell you, if you don't give it back I'll be your enemy forever. If you do give it back, though, I'll stick to you like a protector god."
  The young man decided the whole thing was a waste of time. "So, you'll protect me?" he asked.
  "Of course I will. Creatures like me never tell lies, and we always repay a debt of gratitude."
  "Will the guardian spirit who caught you vouch for you now?"
  "Listen guardian spirit!" cried the fox. "I swear I'll protect him if he gives me back my ball!"
  The man took the ball out and returned it to the woman, which made the fox very happy. Next, the healer dismissed the spirit and the fox left. The people sized the medium immediately, before she could get up, and searched her. The ball was not on her. She really had been possessed.
  Sometime later the man was on his way home after dark from a visit to the great temple at Uzumasa. When he reached the Oten Gate he became afraid, for the neighborhood was well known to be dangerous at night. Visions of all the awful things that could happen to him ran through his head. Then he remembered that the fox had sworn to protect him. All alone in the darkness he called' "Fox! Fox!" A series of sharp barks rang out in answer, adn in a moment the fox was before him.
  "You did keep your work, fox!" he said. "I'm touched. You see, I'm afraid to go through this area and I want you to stay with me."
  The fox seemed to understand. It went ahead, looking carefully all around and avoiding the usual path, while the man followed. Eventually it stopped, arched its back, and moved forward again only with the lightest steps, glancing about even more cautiously than before. The man tiptoed. He soon caught the sound of human voices and a glimpse of human shapes moving just beyond a fence. Through the gloom he spied a large group of armed men. They seemed to be talking something over, and shortly he gathered what it was: they were discussing where to commit their next robbery. The fox had led him this way- a way no ordinary person would know- just because the bandits would not be looking for a traveler to pass so close. The fox disappeared once he was safely by, and he reached home without further difficulty. 
  The fox stayed faithfully with him and often rescued him again. More and more touched by its fidelity, he was very glad indeed that he had had the good sense to return that ball.

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   Long, long ago, deep in the mountain lived a fox who was known far and wide for bewitching people. In the nearby village, many stories were told, for everyone had been tricked at least once by this bad fox. 
   One night, a beautiful woman called at the temple to see the priest. She asked him to come keep watch over a deathbed. All night long he read the prayers. But, when the first rays of the morning sun appeared, what do you think happened? The priest looked around in surprise. Instead of a house, he found himself deep in a lonely wood, reading prayers over a tree stump!
   Another time, the village chief was returning from a neighboring town when he met an old friend, who invited him toto stop by his house for the night. The village chief climbed into the hot bath which his friend has prepared for him. But then, what do you think happened? Suddenly the room was filled with a terrible smell. Instead of bath water, he found he was sitting in slimy mud, filled with rotten leaves and sticks!
   Still another time, a wine merchant set out one day to sell his wares. Walking along the road with his wine jugs on his back, he met a rich man, who bought all his wine, and in return, gave him many gold coins. But when the wine merchant opened his purse later, what do you think happened? Instead of heavy gold coins, out fluttered a handful of leaves!
   Of course, all these people were bewitched by the fox, and there seemed to be no way to put an end to his tricks.
   However, in this village there lived a boy who was very clever. One day, as he was walking in the mountains, the fox jumped out from behind a tree. The child seemed to pay no attention to this, so the fox scurried up to his side and said, "What are you doing here all by yourself, little boy? Don't you know you're going to be bewitched?"
   The child stopped and looked at the fox. "Well, I'm very good at bewitching too. Shall we have a contest to see who is best?"
   The fox thought this was a splendid idea, and quickly agreed. 
   "You go first," said the boy.
   The fox made a little bow, did a quick somersault, and in the wink of an eye, turned into a frog.
       Plop, Plop, Plop- he hopped along the path.
   Oh, it was a fine disguise!
   But the boy shook his head. "It's no good," he said. "You look just like a fox-frog. Try to do a little better next time."
   "All right, if that's what you think-" said the fox. And in the wink of an eye, he changed himself into a snake.
       Sssssss Sssssss- he slithered through the grass.
   Again, the fox had truly disguised himself well.
   But the boy shook his head. "It's no good at all. now you look like a fox-snake. Try again."
   "All right, watch this," said the fox. And he changed himself into a little bird.
       Chirp, Chirp, Chirrup- he sang.
   But the boy didn't say a word. He just shook his head. 
   "Say, aren't you going to change yourself into something?" asked the fox.
   "Oh, I can change myself into anything I wish," said the child.  "But first, I want you to try jus tone more time. See if you can make yourself into a delicious meat dumpling, and jump into my hand."
   "That's easy!" said the fox. And spinning round in a circle, he turned into a juicy dumpling. Then he hopped into the child's hand. 
   The boy smiled.
   "Yum, Yum!"
   And opening his mouth, he swallowed the dumpling in one bite!
       And that was the end of the fox. 

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   Long, long ago, a fox and a shrike happened to meet one day by the roadside.
   "Say, Mr. Fox." said the shrike, "have you had anything really good to eat lately?"
   The fox shook his head. "Not a thing. Just once, wouldn't I love to have a good dinner!"
   "Well then," said the shrike. "why don't we get together? In a little while, a fish merchant will be passing by. I'll play a trick on him, while you, Mr. Fox-" here the shrike's voice dropped to a whisper as he explained the plan.
   "That's a good idea!" cried the fox. he nodded his head and disappeared into a nearby grove of bamboo.
   "Fish for sale... Fish for sale... Good fresh fish..."
   Down the road came the fish merchant. His buckets were swinging from the ends of a pole which he carried over his shoulders.
   Quickly the shrike went to work. He flew down right in front of the fish merchant, and settled on a low branch within easy reach. 
   "Hey, look at that stilly bird! I'm going to catch him!"
   The fish merchant put down his buckets and took a deep breath. Then slowly, slowly, he reached out his hand toward the shrike.
   Just a little farther... a little farther... a little...
       Hyoito
the shrike hopped to the next branch.
   "I missed! Well, I'll catch him this time!"
   Again, the fish merchant reached out his hand, slowly, slowly.
   Just a little farther...a little farther... a little...
       Hyoito
the shrike hopped to the next branch.
   "Missed again. But he won't get away this time!"
   Just a little farther... a little farther... a little...
   The fish merchant was beside himself. He forgot all about selling his fish. He left his buckets in the middle of the read and went after the shrike, who hopped on from branch to branch, leading the fish merchant farther and farther away.
   When the fox saw this, he laughed to himself.
   "It worked! Just as we planned!"
   He scurried out of the grove and took a fish from the pail.
   "Ummm. Delicious! I haven't tasted anything so good in a long time. I think I'll have another... and another... and another!"
   The fox chewed greedily, stuffing the fish into his mouth. He ate and ate until all the fish were gone, and only the bones were left. 
   Meanwhile, the fish merchant remembered his buckets. He came running back down the road. The buckets were there, just as he had left them. But, they were empty!
   "Where are my fish? They're all gone! Oh, how could I have been so stupid?"
   He picked up his buckets, and went off to buy more fish grumbling over the money he had lost.
   Just then, the shrike returned.
   "Well Mr. Fox, we really fooled him, didn't we? Now give me my share of the fish."
   But the fox said, "Thank you very much for the delicious dinner, Mr. Shrike. Unfortunately, there are only bones left for you."
   And with that, he turned away.
   The shrike looked all around. And indeed there wasn't one fish left. The greedy fox had eaten them all up. The shrike was very angry, but without saying a word, he thought of a way to teach the fox a lesson.
   "Say Mr. Fox. That fish merchant has gone to guy more fish, but I'm sure he'll be back soon. Shall we trick him again the same as we did the last time?" 
   The greedy fox answered, "Oh, yes, let's do that. I'm still hungry!:
   "Then this time, Mr. Fox, you must change yourself into a big stick lying by the roadside. I'll sit on top of it, and when the fish merchant comes, I'll play the same trick on him."
   The fox did not suspect a thing. All he could think of were those buckets of fish. So with a magic word, he turned himself into a big stick.
   Soon, the fish merchant came trudging down the road.
   "Fish for sale... fish for sale... Good fresh fish..."
   he looked down, and what did he see? The shrike again, sitting right on top of a stick on the roadside! He dropped his buckets and reached out for the shrike. But quickly the bird flew up to the branch of a nearby tree. The fish merchant grabbed the fox-stick and raised it high over his head.
   "I'll get you this time, you bad, sneaky, detestable bird!" And he slammed the stick down as hard as he could. But the shrike hopped away, and instead, the stick came smashing down on the branch. 
       WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
   "OUCH!" cried the stick. "Oh, help! Ouch!"
   And to the fish merchant's astonishment, from out of the stick came a long tail! Then out came a head and four feet! And crying loudly, the fox ran off into the mountains.
   As for the shrike, he just went to look somewhere else for his dinner. 

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  A man was once walking at twilight along Suzaku Avenue in Kyoto when he met an extraordinarily beautiful woman. She seemed happy enough to let him strike up a conversation with her, adn from close up he found her even more alluring. Unable even to imagine letting the opportunity pass, he filled her hears with so many sweet nothings that he soon very nearly had what he burned for.
  The woman tried to hold him off. "Now that we've gotten this far," she said, "I'd like so much to go all the way! But you see, if we do you'll die."
  Much too excited to listen, the man kept pressing himself on her until she gave in. "I really can't refuse you," she said, "since you insist so urgently. Very well then, I'll do whatever you wish and die in your place. If you want to show me gratitude, copy the Lotus Sutra and dedicate it for me."
 The man seemed not to take her seriously, and he finally consummated his desire. They lay in each other's arms all night long, chatting like old lovers. At dawn the woman got up and asked the man for his fan. "I meant what I said, you know," she told him, "I'm going to die instead of you. If you want proof, go into the palace grounds and look around the Butoku Hall. You'll see." Then she left.
  At daylight the man went to the Butoku Hall and found there a fox lying dead with his fan over its face. He was very sorry. Every seven days after that he finished a copy of the Lotus Sutra and dedicated it for the fox's soul. On the night following the forty-ninth day he dreamed that she came to him, surrounded by angels, and told him that thanks to the power of the Teaching she was to be born into the Tori Heaven.

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  Chudaifu lived in Nara since his uncle was the high priest of the Kasuga Shrine. Late one afternoon Chudaifu's horse disappeared while out grazing. Chudaifu and a servant set out eastward toward the mountains to look for it, armed with bows.
  They had not gotten far when the sun set and night fell. There was only the dimmest light from a veiled moon. As they walked on, still hoping to find the stray animal, Chudaifu glimpsed through the gathering shadows a colossal cryptomeria tree, twelve feet thick and a good two hundred feet tall. He stopped dead in his tracks. "Am I seeing things?" he exclaimed. "Has some spirit addled our brains? Do you see that cryptomeria too?" The servant answered that he did. "Then its not my imagniation," said Chudaifu. "We must have met one of those gods who get you lost, and he's led us off goodness knows where. Where in the whole province of Yamato are you going to find a cryptomeria like that?"
  "I've no idea sir," the servant replied. "I've seen a few cryptomerias here and there, of course, but they've all been quite small."
  "That's it, then. We've been bewitched and now we're lost. What are we going to do? I'm frightened, you know. I think we'd better get on back. I wonder how far we've come. This is terrible!"
  "It's a strange business we've run into, sir, but it would be too bad just to go home again without trying anything ourselves. I suggest, sir, that you shoot an arrow into that tree, then come back tomorrow morning and check it."
  Chudaifu heartily approved adn said they should both shoot the tree. When their arrows hit the tree it suddenly vanished. "Sure enough," said Chudaifu, "we've met a spirit! Let's get away from here!" They pratically ran home.
  Early the next morning Chudaifu and his servant returned to the scene. They found a bald old fox lying dead with a cryptomeria branch in his jaws and pierced through the belly by two arrows. "Aha!" they exclaimed. "Here's the fellow who had us so confused!"
  Before leaving, they retrieved their arrows from the corpse.

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  Kaya no Yoshifuji lived in the village of Ashimori in Bitchu province. He had made a fortune trading in imported Chinese coins.
  In the fall of 896, Yoshifuji's wife went up to the  Capital, leaving him all alone. He was far too randy a fellow to stand this for long. One evening at twilight, he was out for a stroll when he spotted a lovely young girl he had not seen before, and wanted her right away. She tried to run when he grabbed at her, but he caught her and asked who she was. Very sweetly, she answered, "Nobody."
  "Come on to my place," said Yoshifuji.
  "Oh no, sir, I couldn't!" She tried again to pull away.
  "Then where do you live? I'll go home with you."
  "Over there." She set off with Yoshifuji beside her, keeping a good hold on her. It was not far, and the house was lovely. What a surprise to find a place like this so close by! Male and female servants clustered round to greet their mistress, and Yoshifuji realized that the girl was the daughter of the house. 
  The two slept together that night, to Yoshifuji's delight. The next morning a man whom Yoshifuji understood to be the girl's father came in. "You were always meant to come here, " he said, " and now you must stay!" The girl was ever so nice to him, and he was so taken with her that he forgot all about his wife. As for his house and children, he never gave them a thought. He and the girl pledged each other eternal love.
  Yosjifuji's household assumed, when he first disappeared, that he was just catting around as usual; but as the hours passed and he failed to return, they began to worry. "What a lunatic!" the grumbled. "We'll have to look for him!" Servants send in the middle of the night to comb the neighborhood turned up nothing. Yet Yoshifuji could no have gone far since he had been dressed only casually and all his clothes were still at home. By daybreak every likely place had been searched in vain. The household was at a loss. If he were young, he might have become a monk in a moment of folly, or even killed himself, but surely not at his age. It was very strange.
  Meanwhile Yoshifuji was comfortably installed in his new home and his lady was pregnant. After she had an easy delivery, the two grew closer than ever. Time flew by. Yoshifuji had not a care in the world. 
  Back at his old home, the never found him. His brothers and his only son Tadasada, affluent men all, were very upset, and wanting at least to find his body they banded together, felled a tree, carved an image Eleven-Headed Kannon just Yosjifuji's height. When the statue was done, the prostrated themselves before it and prayed to find the corpse. Be it noted, too, that from the day of Yosjifuji's disappearance they had been calling the Buddha's Name and reading sutras to guide Yoshifuji's soul toward the next life. 
  Suddenly a man with a stick arrived at Yoshifuji's new house. While the whole household fled in terror, the man poked his stick into Yoshifuji's back and drove him through a tight passageway to the outside. 
  This was the thirteenth evening after Yoshifuji's disappearance. The people at his old home were still shaking their heads over what had happened when a strangely dark, monkeylike creature crawled out from under the storehouse nearby. What could it be? Through the jabber of the excited onlookers came a voice saying "It's me!" It was Yoshifuji. Even Tadasada found it hard to believe, but there was no doubt about the voice. Tadasada jumped down from teh veranda and brought his father up into the house. 
  Yoshifuji explained how desperate he had been for a woman while his wife was gone and how he had married a fine gentleman's daughter. Now he had a little boy. "He's so pretty I carry him in my arms all the time!" Yoshifuji declared. "He's my heir, you know. You're only number two from now on Tadasada. That's because I think so much of his mother."
  "Where is this little boy?" asked Tadasada.
  "Why, over there," Yoshifuji answered, pointing at the storehouse.
  This was strange news. Yoshifuji looked terribly thin and sick, and he had on the same clothes as when he had vanished. A servant set to look under the storehouse found lots of foxes, which fled in all directions. That was where Yoshifuji had been. Obviously a fox had tricked him. He had married the fox and was no longer in his right mind. 
  A holy monk and a yin-yang diviner were called immediately to purify Yoshifuji, but after repeated ablutions he still was not the man he had been. It was only later that he finally came back to himself, and he was horribly embarassed. The thirteen days he had spent under the storehouse had seemed to him like thirteen years, and the few inches of clearance between the ground and the floor of the building had looked to him like a stately home. The foxes had done all this. The man with the stick was an emanation of the Kannon Yosjifuji's brothers and son had carved. 
  Yoshifuji lived on in good health another decade and died in his sixty-first year.

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