Kitsune in contemporary Japanese yokai studies

Record summary

Kitsune are fox beings in Japanese tradition, often portrayed as capable of transforming into humans, especially women, and as either benevolent, mischievous, or dangerous. Their stories connect animal agency, marriage narratives, possession, Inari worship, and changing ideas about the boundary between human and nonhuman. Michael Dylan Foster’s The Book of Yokai (2015) offers an identifiable modern synthesis. The tradition is not evidence for literal shapeshifting; individual motifs vary by region, genre, and period, and modern popular culture frequently simplifies older religious and folkloric contexts.