Nogitsune's are benevolent, celestial foxes associated with the god Inari, sometimes called Inari foxes, or Yako ( meaning, "field foxes", commonly referred to as nogitsune), mischievous or even malicious foxes.
Kitsunetsuki
Kitsunetsuki (also written kitsune-tsuki) literally means the state of being possessed by a fox. The fox was believed to enter the body of its victim, typically a young woman, beneath her fingernails or through her breasts. In some cases, the victim's facial expressions were said to change in such a way that they resembled foxes. Japanese tradition holds that the possession can cause illiterate victims to temporarily gain literacy.Lafcadio Hearn describes the condition in the first volume of his Japanese Fairy Tales:
"Strange is the madness of those into whom demon foxes enter. Sometimes they run naked shouting through the streets. Sometimes they lie down and froth at the mouth, and yelp as a fox yelps. And on some part of the body of the possessed a moving lump appears under the skin, which seems to have a life of its own. Prick it with a needle, and it glides instantly to another place. By no grasp can it be so tightly compressed by a strong hand that it will not slip from under the fingers. Possessed folk are also said to speak and write languages of which they were totally ignorant prior to possession. They eat only what foxes are believed to like--tofu, aburage, azukimeshi, etc.--and they eat a great deal, alleging that not they, but the possessing foxes, are hungry." He goes on to note that, once freed from the possession, the victim will never again be able to eat tofu, azukimeshi, or other foods favored by foxes. Victims of kitsunetsuki were treated cruelly in hopes of forcing the fox to leave. A lot of times they were beaten or burned. Sometimes entire families were shunned by their communities after a member of the family was believed to be possessed. In Japan, kitsunetsuki was a common diagnosis for insanity as recently as the early 20th century. Kitsunetsuki is also an ethnic psychosis in Japanese culture, which causes its victims to believe they are being possessed by a fox. Some of the symptoms of kitsunetsuki are cravings for rice or sweet red beans, listlessness, restlessness, and an aversion to eye contact. It can be considered a form of clinical lycanthropy. Possessions by foxes include violent seizures in which the afflicted speak "in the voice of the fox", deriding humans and making demands of priests and practitioners through the body of the possessed. One story within the religion tells of a girl in Tokyo who was possessed by two hundred and fifty foxes at once... After being possessed by the fox and making demands of the priest for sake and food, the girl's priest ritually banished the fox to the shrine of Inari... It then possessed the girl again and attacked the priest, who "killed" it using okiyome, the practice of a kind of purifying ray from the hands. For months after, the girl would attack the priest, screaming "Attack! Attack!"
The First Nogitsune
The very first kitsune who openly severed his ties with the kitsune pantheon. Before such happened he used to be one of the more blessed members of his kind which manifested in his ability to gain more tails over time, but it was true only up to the 4th one. In order to grow more he resorted to consorting with one 'human wu-jen' who brewed strange if potent concoctions from the blood of the dragons he slew. During his quest arrogance slowly clouded his mind, his behavior shifting over time from merely ambitious to power-hungry and such became the reason of his ultimate defeat later. After growing the 8th tail the fox struggled for ages to get the final one but to his efforts brought no results. Firmly believing in the idea of being in need of achieving a great feat in order to become complete he challenged the kitsune emperor only to be defeated. During the confrontation all of the dormant corruption surfaced, transforming him into a demonic version of himself in the effect. It was revealed that the consort of his was in fact a 'maho-tsukai' (a blood mage) who both seduced him with various promises, power being one of them. Still, the nogitsune menace was far from over as the 'would-be' nine-tail managed to spawn numerous offspring who later manifested similar traits, their corruptive blood calling them to do the same as their progenitor on a much less direct scale.
Inari Ōkami
Inari Ōkami is the Japanesekami of foxes, of fertility, rice, tea and Sake, of agriculture andindustry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths and merchants. Represented as male, female, or androgynous, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual kami. Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 AD, although some scholars believe that worship started in the late 5th century Worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period, and by the 16th century Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors. Inari is a popular figure in both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs in Japan. More than one-third (32,000) of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari. Modern corporations, such as cosmetic company Shiseido, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters. Inari's foxes, or kitsune, are pure white and act as their messengers.