This version turns to how the Yako was spoken of in the Buddhist world, and in Zen in particular. Zen has the term yako-zen, "wild-fox Zen." It is a word of admonition for a half-finished state in which one has not truly attained enlightenment yet believes oneself enlightened.
Its source is the famous tale "Hyakujō and the Wild Fox," recorded in the Song-dynasty Zen collection of dialogues, the Mumonkan[4]. An old man came to listen each time the Tang Zen master Baizhang Huaihai (Hyakujō Ekai) preached. One day the old man revealed his story. Long ago, when he had been abbot of this very temple, he was asked whether one who has attained enlightenment still falls subject to cause and effect (karmic retribution), and he answered, "He does not fall (into cause and effect)." For that single mistaken word he had been cast into the body of a wild fox through five hundred rebirths. The old man begged Hyakujō for the correct answer. When Hyakujō rephrased it as "He does not obscure cause and effect," the old man was freed of his delusion on the spot, shed the wild-fox body, and attained buddhahood.
Here the wild fox becomes a symbol of admonition—the form into which one who has fallen into half-baked enlightenment is transformed. Quite apart from the village field fox that deceives people, the Yako has lived on at length within the language of Zen as well, as "where shallow cleverness ends up."
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Yokai Type - Traditional Yokai
Category - Animal Shapeshifters
Rarity - Uncommon
Personality - Close to the human world, it delights in near-at-hand mischief such as deception and possession. It moves in packs and holds a grudge.
Compatibility - In conflict with people in general; weak against exorcists and shrine attendants
Abilities - transforming into people and objectsglamours such as losing travelers, phantom money, and ghostly firespossessing people, family lines, and livestockmoving in large packs and causing an uproar
Weaknesses - Prayer and esoteric rites
- wards of bladed weapons
- the ash of hemp stalks
- pure flame and Shinto invocations
Habitat - Around shrines in the hills and fields, the satoyama and footpath ridges, the legendary sites near Shinoda in Izumi, and villages of northern Kyushu, Iki, and southern Kyushu
🔮Yokai Compatibility Test
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