Kitsune onna: the cunning seductress
- Cri
- Nov 19
- 3 min read
Previously published on Minkai.art
Today I would like to talk to you all about one of the most famous characters in pop culture, the kitsune onna.
During Edo period (1603 / 1868) foxes (狐, キツネ, kitsune) were often thought to be magical creatures. If you’re familiar with Japanese culture, you may have seen them represented as the celestial spirits zenko (善狐, ぜんこ, lit. “good foxes”), emissaries of the rice and fertility god Inari. Usually white in color, they ward off evil forces and bring good fortune.
On the other hand, not all these foxes were benevolent in nature. The yako (野狐, やこ, lit. “field foxes”), in fact, tended to be mischievous and malevolent creatures. Like their racoon-like counterpart, the tanuki (狸, たぬき), they were capable of shapeshifting, so much that the word for deceiver (狐狸, こり, kori) is composed of the kanji of the two animals. Foxes were thought to be able to take human form when they reached a certain age (50 or 100 years depending on the legends) just by placing reeds, a leaf or a skull on their heads. They usually took the form of young boys and girls, specific persons, elderly men, and especially beautiful women. With this appearance they usually tried to ensnare men with their beauty and music, hence the name kitsune onna (狐女, きつねおんな, lit. “fox women”).
Kitsune onna in folk paintings
As I said before, kitsune legends became widespread from the XVII century onward, being represented in folk art, especially in the lake Biwa area. In those folk paintings, known as Ōtsue (大津絵) from the name of the city they originated in, the kitsune onna is drawn with a narrow face and high cheekbones. Interestingly, women with those attractive facial features were often called kitsunegao (狐顔, きつねがお), literally “fox-faced”. In both legends and art, we can see both tail and paws peeking out of the elegant kimono, betraying their monstrous nature.
In some Ōtsue examples, like this Woman playing the shamisen (三味線弾きの女, しゃみせんひきのおんな, shamisen hiki no onna) from the Minneapolis Institute of Art dated at first half of the XVIII century, we can read some moral verses reciting:
If you are not fooled
you will see hers
if you are fooled
you’ll show your tail
ばけされぬ とき は
あち の を が みゆる
ばかされりゃ
また こち の を が でる
bakesarenu toki ha
achi no wo ga miyuru
bakasarerya
mata kochi no wo ga deru
Those poems serve as a warning against being fooled by one woman’s good look. Other readings interpret those writings as a critic of human nature, evil like that of those creatures.
Kitsune onna in pop culture
Evil or not, the seductive kitsune onna became quite a famous character in Japanese pop culture.
Golden Kamuy, a manga and anime about a Russo-Japanese veteran and his search for the mythical Ainu gold, depicts an Ainu woman who can very much be based on this trope. In Chapter 60, titled “Trickster Fox” (誑かす狐, たかぶらかすきつね, Taburakasu kitsune), we get acquainted with Inkarmat, a sly and cunning fox-faced fortune-teller that wears a full animal’s skin around her neck.
References
FOSTER Michael Dylan, The Book of Yokai. Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore, University of California Press, 2015 Berkley
HEARN Lafcadio, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Project Gutenberg, 2005
NOZAKI Kiyoshi, Kitsune. Japan’s Fox of Mystery, Romance, and Humor, The Hokuseidô Press, 1961 Tokyo
WELCH Matthew, Otsu-e. Japanese Folk Paintings from Harriet and Edson Spencer Collection, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1994 Minneapolis
