化

Shapeshifters

Japan's best-loved yokai are the henge — animals and spirits that slip into human shape to trick, seduce, or serve. A fox grows tails and wisdom with age; a cat or a tanuki learns to walk as a person; and the oldest of them weave illusions no human eye can catch.

Henge (変化) is an old word for shape-changing spirits. It means "a thing that changes." Most of the yokai here are animals: foxes, tanuki and cats. They learn to take a human shape, often a beautiful woman or a monk.

The fox is the most famous. In the medieval tale of Tamamo-no-Mae, the fox has two tails. Her nine tails came later, from the Chinese tale of Daji. A bestseller of 1803 made them stick.

The fox was everywhere for a reason. Foxes are the messengers of Inari, the kami of rice. Inari shrines are said to number about 30,000. Many villages had one, with stone foxes at the gate.

The tanuki is the fox's rival. Its tricks are often told as funnier and more clumsy. Some famous tanuki even have names and a home. Gyōbu-danuki led 808 tanuki and guarded Matsuyama Castle.

Cats come last. An old cat may learn to walk on two legs. Its tail may split in two, and then it is a nekomata. One fiery cat-beast, the kasha, steals corpses from funerals.

Each page below lists its sources.

Mujina

狢

A shapeshifting badger blamed for roadside tricks nationwide, though the same name has also meant the tanuki or the civet depending on where and when you ask.

cunning

Futtachi

経立

An animal that has lived far too long and has stopped being an animal.

fierce

Kinchō

金長狸

The tanuki whose quarrel with Rokuemon became a war, and then a kōdan performance, and then a film.

proud

Great Pipe

大煙管

A shapeshifting tanuki that holds out a giant tobacco pipe and demands a toll from river boats.

playful

Osan Fox

おさん狐

A fox that takes the shape of a beautiful woman and goes after men who are already spoken for.

cunning

Kyūmō Tanuki

キュウモウ狸

A tanuki enshrined as a guardian of cattle and horses—worshipped, not hunted.

benevolent

Keizōbō

桂蔵坊

A fox that served Tottori castle as a courier, and ran the road faster than any man.

swift

Gyobu-danuki

隠神刑部

The tanuki who commanded eight hundred and eight others guarding Matsuyama castle, until a retainers' quarrel ended with the whole clan sealed in a cave.

proud