Tradition / Region: Japanese folklore (Tottori Prefecture)
Alternate Names: Oharu-gitsune, Oharu the Fox
Category: Fox, shapeshifter, household spirit
The Myth
In the port town of Akasaki, there once lived a fox spirit called Harugitsune, known affectionately as Oharu. She made her home in the forest behind Lord Ikeda’s rice storehouse, where a great pine tree stood on a steep cliff. At its roots was a hollow, and there Oharu lived with her children.
To care for them, she often slipped into town disguised as a human maid. She covered her ears with a handkerchief and folded the hem of her kimono to hide her tail. In this form she entered busy homes, helping with chores and quietly taking food back to the forest.
Oharu was mischievous but gentle. While serving tea, she would sometimes scoop ashes from the brazier and drop them into a teacup, smiling to herself. Before long, the townspeople realized she was a fox, yet they did not drive her away. Instead they welcomed her kindly.
Whenever someone teased her by saying, “I saw it, Oharu-san,” she would only laugh softly, “Huff, huff,” even when her tail slipped into view. The people would continue to invite her in, pour tea for her, and watch her playful tricks with fond amusement.
After her work was done, they gave her food to carry home, and she would return to her den in high spirits, smiling as she went back to her waiting children.
It was also said that Oharu kept a lamp burning in her den. She bought oil for it from a local shop at night, paying with coins that turned into camellia leaves by morning. The shopkeeper knew he had been fooled, yet he sold to her willingly, charmed by her gentle nature.
In time, people tied a pole and basket to the great pine tree above her den to use it as a marker for sailors watching the weather. As more people came and went, a path formed through the forest, and eventually the foxes vanished from the hollow at the tree’s base.
Afterward, a shrine to Inari was built on the spot. And though the forest changed, people remembered that once a kindly fox named Oharu had lived there, moving between town and wilderness, laughing softly as she cared for her young.
Gallery
Sources
Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Harugitsune. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1075303216.html.
Interpretive Lenses
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