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Kitsune's Real Name: Inari fox, kyūbi no kitsune; famous individual Tamamo-no-Mae
folklore
Kitsune (狐) 本名: Inari fox, kyūbi no kitsune; famous individual Tamamo-no-Mae (稲荷狐・九尾の狐・玉藻前)
Answer: Kitsune (狐) are fox spirits. Good foxes serve Inari as messengers, while the nine-tailed fox (九尾の狐) is a famous evil form, best known as the legendary court lady Tamamo-no-Mae (玉藻前).
Folklore label: legend, not history.
In Japanese folklore foxes gain power and extra tails with age, up to nine. They are said to be shape-shifters who often take the form of beautiful women. Folklore divides them loosely into 善狐 (zenko), good foxes linked to the rice god Inari, whose shrines are guarded by fox statues, and 野狐 (yako), wild or mischievous foxes.
The most famous fox legend is 玉藻前 (Tamamo-no-Mae), a court beauty in the time of Emperor Toba who was revealed as a nine-tailed fox and fled. In the legend she was killed and turned into the poison stone 殺生石 (Sesshō-seki) in Nasu, Tochigi. The real stone at Nasu cracked in 2022, which made news in Japan.
Fox imagery appears in Naruto's Nine-Tails and in the Pokémon Ninetales.
FAQ
Who is Tamamo-no-Mae? A legendary court lady said to be a nine-tailed fox.
Why are there foxes at Inari shrines? In folklore foxes are the messengers of the god Inari.