53 - Golden-furred Nine-tailed Fox

【金毛九尾の狐、kinmou kyuubi no kitsune】

The legendary fox with a white face, golden fur, and nine tails. The most famous legend featuring this Golden-furred Nine-tailed Fox is that of "Tamamo-no-Mae".

Legend has it that the Nine-tailed Fox first became the favored concubine of Shang dynasty King Zhou, and after seducing him with her beauty and leading the Shang to ruin, it took on the role of Consort Kayo, the queen of King Hansoku of the Kingdom of Magadha, in an attempt to destroy the country.

However, the doctor Giba discovered her true identity and she fled, only to re-emerge in China as the favored concubine of King You, who seduced him and is said to have been responsible for the fall of the Zhou dynasty.

Since then, the nine-tailed fox had been in hiding, but this time it showed itself to Japan. In the Nara period (710-794), a group of Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty led by Kibi-no-Makibi was accompanied on their way home by a beautiful girl, who is said to have been the Nine-Tailed Fox.

After arriving in Japan, the Nine-tailed Fox remained dormant for a while, but during the Heian period (794-1185), she emerged as "Tamamo-no-Mae," the favorite courtesan of the emperor of the time. Using her bewitching charm as a weapon, Tamamo-no-Mae entered the court and made the emperor fall ill, but her true identity was discovered by the onmyouji Abe-no-Yasuchika, and she escaped to Nasunogahara in Shimotsuke-no-kuni.

However, the Nine-tailed Fox was eventually hunted down and ruthlessly slain by a strike force led by two famous warriors, Miura-no-suke Yoshiaki and Kazusa-no-suke Hirotsune, but even in death, it is said to have turned into a poison-spewing stone that harmed anyone who came near it.

In the ancient Chinese geography book "Classic of Mountains and Seas", it was written that a fox-like beast with nine tails would devour people, and conversely, if you ate this beast, you would not fall victim to evil thoughts. Further down the ages, it was said that this fox would appear when a king would unify or rule well under the heavens, indicating it didn't always have a bad image.

Eventually, folklore began to tell of old foxes possessing magical powers and disguising themselves as people to deceive them, and legends began to emerge of fox spirits appearing when the country was in turmoil, and these attributes were combined to create the Golden-furred Nine-tailed Fox as a demonic beast that bewitched the rulers of the time.