Yako (fox)

{{Short description|Type of fox spirit in Japanese mythology/folklore}}

File:ShunsenNogitsune.jpg by Shunsen Takehara. It is the "yako" of this article, as well as the yaken.{{Cite book|author=多田克己編|script-title=ja:竹原春泉 絵本百物語 -桃山人夜話-|year=1997|publisher=国書刊行会|isbn=978-4-336-03948-4|pages=158}}]]

File:31.Yako.jpg scroll, Brigham Young University]]

Yako or nogitsuneYōkai no hon written by Prof. Abe Masaji & Prof. Ishikawa Junichiro{{cite book|title=広辞苑|trans-title=Kōjien}} ({{lang|ja|野狐}}) is a type of kitsune (fox spirit), as told in Kyūshū. To be possessed by it is called "yako-tsuki" ({{lang|ja|野狐憑き}}). The word {{lang|ja|野狐}}, {{literal translation|field fox|wild fox}}, is also used for foxes in the wild in general.{{cite book|title=スーパー大辞林|trans-title=Super Daijirin}}

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.{{Cite book|author=石塚尊俊|script-title=ja:日本の憑きもの 俗信は今も生きている|year=1977|publisher=未來社|pages=62–66}} The original yako is said to be invisible to the eye.{{Cite book|author=民俗学研究所編著|editor=柳田國男監修|script-title=ja:綜合日本民俗語彙|year=1956|publisher=平凡社|volume=第4巻|pages=1619–1620}} In Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, they normally bring along a great crowd that walks with them, and thus there is the phrase "{{nihongo|yako's thousand-fox company|ヤコの千匹連れ|yako no senbiki tsure}}."

In Nagasaki Prefecture, Saga Prefecture, and other places in Northern Kyūshū, those who are possessed by a yako show symptoms like an illness.{{Cite book|author=宮本袈裟雄他|editor=桜井徳太郎編|script-title=ja:民間信仰辞典|year=1980|publisher=東京堂出版|isbn=978-4-490-10137-9|pages=294}} 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.