Yako (fox)

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title: "Yako (fox)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["japanese-folklore", "kitsune-(fox)", "foxes-in-culture"] description: "Type of fox spirit in Japanese mythology/folklore" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yako_(fox)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Type of fox spirit in Japanese mythology/folklore ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/ShunsenNogitsune.jpg" caption="pages=158}}"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/31.Yako.jpg" caption=""Yako やこ" from [[Bakemono no e]] scroll, Brigham Young University"] ::

Yako or nogitsune (野狐) is a type of kitsune (fox spirit), as told in Kyūshū. To be possessed by it is called "yako-tsuki" (野狐憑き). The word 野狐, , is also used for foxes in the wild in general.

The appearance of a yako is almost completely consistent among all legends; they are black or white, are slightly larger than a mouse, and smaller than a cat. The original yako is said to be invisible to the eye. In Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, they normally bring along a great crowd that walks with them, and thus there is the phrase "yako's thousand-fox company."

In Nagasaki Prefecture, Saga Prefecture, and other places in Northern Kyūshū, those who are possessed by a yako show symptoms like an illness. On Iki Island, they are also called yako, and since they resemble weasels, it is said that when one of them conceals themselves under a person's armpits, that person would become possessed by a yako. It is said that getting a burn or smallpox scar licked by a yako results in death, and those who have been afflicted with smallpox would go inside a net in order not to get close to a yako, and protected themselves from a yako getting in by either scattering ashes from an epaulette tree or leaving a sword.

In Southern Kyūshū, family lines would get possessed by a yako, and family lines that raised yako (possessed by a yako) would have their progeny possessed, and if they were no longer able to support it, it would possess its cattle and horses. It is said that the people of families that have a yako could incite the yako to possess those they have bad relations with, and in Kiire, Ibusuki District, Kagoshima Prefecture (now Kagoshima), it is said that becoming possessed by it results in becoming a semi-invalid.

Notes

References

1. 多田克己編. (1997). 国書刊行会
2. ''Yōkai no hon'' written by Prof. Abe Masaji & Prof. Ishikawa Junichiro
3. "広辞苑".
4. "スーパー大辞林".
5. 石塚尊俊. (1977). 未來社
6. 民俗学研究所編著. (1956). 平凡社
7. 宮本袈裟雄他. (1980). 東京堂出版

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