Here is a VERY nice modern representation. Tamamo is still an incredibly popular character, you find her haunting dozen of modern stories, novels, mangas and video games: But one as to not see that as "coming from true India" but much more a way for Chinese and Japanese to mention something exotic. And buddhism comes from India, so most of the time, you find those creatures (princess Daji, or Tamamo) mentioned as "coming form India" (Note that the Otogizoshi does not, she is Japanese, period). Now Daji story predating Tamamo story there is still a chance this is a port.Īnd here is the thing, all of that is buddhist in nature. Later tradition, not the Otogizochi, will link her to Chinese princess Daji, possessed by a fox spirit, due to the similitude in story. But unfortunately she is in fact a terrible kitsune. The story goes like that (short summary): Tamama-no-mae is the favourite concubine of Emperor Toba-no-in, reputed for her extreme beauty, marvelous scent as well as incredible cleverness. See here some japanese warriors hunting an innocent two-tailed fox (The site I linked give you the Otogizoshi, browse it for the text and marvelous illustrations): I push you first there, where you will find a resume of the original text as well as very beautiful original drawings. Here is now an example of a "true" Kitsune story (I mean by true, from japanese culture, not that you will find a kitsune as your girl next door). The kitsune is more than probably a port of the former, but it evolves quite differently.įinally, there is no connection implied between India and Daji/Kitsune. So don't assume the Chinese Huli jing and the japanese kitsune are strictly speaking the same creature. Notice also the sheaf of rice in his snout! In japan you will find kitsune garding Inari's temple. Notice the kitsune DOES not have nine tails, only one tail on this statue. Here is now a kitsune from a japanese temple: The novel was so popular that foxes are now called renard and no more goupil. In modern French, fox is renard, and the novel is Roman de Renard, where the main character, Renard was a goupil (ancient French word for fox). Tales of Reynard is a Medieval French book telling the adventures of Reynard. The motif of the fox wife wa salso found in Chinese and Japaneseįolklore and accross the Berling Strait among the Eskimos in North tales are found in all countries of Europe, including The fox motif in stories of Reynard and the fables of Aesop haveĪppeared frequently in European paintings and architecture since theġ3th. Here is from the Cult of the Fox by Xiaofei Kang (p234, note 13): Now regarding the Kitsune/ Huli jing( princess Daji). Here is the Japanese Dakini-ten riding her legendary fox (I pick this one because it is a gorgeous one, notice the small rice sheaf in her hand) (Note also it exists a male version of Dakini-ten, carrying a sword/weapon instead of a sheaf of rice):
So the local deity Inari is identified by the Buddhist Indian Dakini to some extend. The blur with mysterious Dakini is quite obvious (Hence why be wary of my claim about one version specifically of the Dakini, or to compare too much the Inari and Dakini, or even Dakini and Dakini-Ten). The Inari also has the particularity to not be well defined, especially if (s)he is male or female. Note also that the Inari appears to be from an old local Japanese tradition, it later been related to fox (around the 12th century) before joining more or then with the Dakini. Jackal being unknown in China and Japan, they translated by another small canine fox. LOTS of (including sex, appeance, attributes, malvolence). Note that the Dakini is present in numerous Indian stories with lots of variants. The text is well known in Japan (as Mahavairocana sutra). It appears in the Mahavairocana Tantra and he (the Dakini) is overwhelmed by Mahavairocana Buddha and (s)he rides a jackal. The Dakini is a Tantric Buddhist monster. Original of Japan’s own Inari, a god of rice cultivation often Interpretatio nipponica to see in the supernatural fox-dakini the Ioromana in the world of late antiquity).
Tantric Buddhism with native deities (rather like the interpret at In medieval Japan, it becameĬustomary to identify figures from the complex Indian pantheon of As we have noted, the Chinese linking of the voraciousĪnd ill-omened dakini-demonesses with the fox was based on their
Tantric sources, identified since at least the eighth century with theįox-phantom. Japanese possession-rites is named is, of course, the dakini of older The “ Dakini” or “Dagini” for which this complex of modern Here is an extract of Chinese Magical Medicine by Michel Strickmann implying the direct connection between the Inari and the Dakini (p.
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