Tamamo-no-Mae

The same fox as the Chinese Daji, in the late medieval versions: the story has her destroy a king in India, then the Shang in China, then flee east to Japan and start again — which makes her a single continuous nine-hundred-year career of state-wrecking across three civilisations, and connects her directly to the record this programme ingested in the Chinese lane a few days ago. The identification is the late tale-cycle's rather than either court's, and the census carries it as a cross-tradition row instead of merging the two records.

Domains

• shapeshifting
• seduction

Relations

• companion: Shuten-dōjiGrouped by the tradition, not by any shared story.Reference treatment of the three greatest yōkai of Japanese folklore. (secondary)
• enemy: Abe no SeimeiThe attribution is disputed between Seimei and his successor Yasunari and the record carries the dispute rather than settling it.Reference treatment: according to some accounts Abe no Seimei detected her and she flew away to Nasu Field, other accounts naming Abe no Yasunari as the diviner. (secondary)

Sources

• Tamamo-no-Mae is the nine-tailed fox who took the form of a court lady, became the emperor's consort and nearly killed him, was exposed by an onmyōji — Seimei in some accounts, Yasunari in others — and fled to Nasu; she is one of the three greatest yōkai.: Reference treatments of Tamamo-no-Mae and of the three great yōkai. (secondary)