Maya Calendar

Yōkai traits

The Nine-Tailed Fox is a spirit-fox said to have grown so old and so rich in spiritual power that its tail finally divided into nine. In Japan it has long been believed that a fox gains strength the longer it lives, and that the number of its tails marks its rank. The fox itself wears two faces: the white fox (good fox) that serves the deity Inari and helps humankind, and the wild fox that bewitches and possesses people. The nine-tailed fox stands at the very summit of this hierarchy, credited with power all but equal to a god. Tracing its origins, the nine-tailed fox is already recorded in [[cite:senkai-kyo]]the Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas)[[/cite]], the oldest Chinese gazetteer, as a beast that dwells in the land of Qingqiu, cries like an infant, and devours people. At the same time it was a propitious creature that appeared in ages of peace, so that from the very beginning it carried two opposing characters: an auspicious omen and a creature that leads people astray. This idea passed from the continent to Japan, where it came to be told as the true form of a beauty who shook royal authority and the court, becoming an emblematic spirit-fox that drew both dread and reverence.