The most famous kitsune (fox spirit) in Japanese legend is Tamamo-no-Mae (玉藻前), a nine-tailed fox who took the form of the most beautiful and learned woman in Japan and became the favourite of an emperor. As she stayed by his side, the emperor fell mysteriously ill. When a court astrologer unmasked her, she fled to the plain of Nasu, where she was hunted down by warriors — and turned into a poisonous stone that killed anyone who touched it.
The legend of Tamamo-no-Mae was told in medieval stories, Noh drama, kabuki, puppet plays, and woodblock prints. Remarkably, the stone itself — the Sesshō-seki, the “Killing Stone” — can still be visited on a volcanic hillside at Nasu in Tochigi Prefecture. In 2022, it split in two, sparking headlines around the world about the release of the fox.
The Nine-Tailed Fox
In Japanese and Chinese belief, foxes grow more powerful with age. A fox that lives for a thousand years grows nine tails and gains immense supernatural power, the ability to take human form, and a golden or white coat (see Types of Kitsune). Such a fox could be benevolent, like the messengers of the rice god Inari, or a terrible force of evil.
Tamamo-no-Mae was the second kind.
A Fox Across Three Kingdoms
According to the legend as developed in the Edo period, the same nine-tailed fox had already destroyed dynasties in India and China before coming to Japan:
- In China, she was Daji, the wicked consort of King Zhou, the last king of the Shang dynasty (c. eleventh century BCE). Her cruelty — she invented tortures and delighted in suffering — led to the fall of the dynasty. This version draws on the Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi (“Investiture of the Gods”).
- In India, she was Lady Kayō, consort of the crown prince of Magadha, who persuaded him to behead a thousand men.
- Back in China, she was Bao Si, the consort of King You of Zhou, whose foolish attempts to make her laugh led to the fall of the Western Zhou dynasty in 771 BCE.
Each time she was exposed, she fled. At last, she took the form of a young girl named Wakamo and slipped aboard a Japanese envoy’s ship returning from China, reaching Japan.
At the Imperial Court
In Japan, she was taken in and raised, and grew into a woman of breathtaking beauty and extraordinary learning. She was said to be perfect in every art: she could answer any question on religion, history, astronomy, poetry, or music. She entered the court of the retired emperor Toba (1103–1156) and became his favourite. She was named Tamamo-no-Mae, “Lady Duckweed” or “Jewel Seaweed.”
One night, at a poetry gathering in the palace, a sudden wind blew out all the lamps. In the darkness, a radiant light was seen shining from Tamamo-no-Mae’s body. The courtiers were amazed and took it as a sign of her extraordinary nature.
The Emperor’s Illness
Soon after, the emperor fell seriously ill. The court doctors could find no cause and no cure. The illness grew worse.
The court astrologer Abe no Yasunari (or, in some versions, his ancestor, the legendary onmyōji Abe no Seimei) was summoned to find the cause. After divination, he declared that the emperor’s illness was caused by Tamamo-no-Mae — and that she was a nine-tailed fox who intended to kill him and seize the throne.
The Unmasking
Abe no Yasunari performed a great ritual of exorcism. During the ceremony, Tamamo-no-Mae was ordered to hold the ritual wand (gohei). As the chants grew stronger, she could no longer keep her human form. She revealed herself as a golden nine-tailed fox and fled from the palace, vanishing into the sky.
The Hunt on the Nasu Plain
Some time later, reports reached the capital of a fox killing people and animals on the plain of Nasu in Shimotsuke Province (modern Tochigi). The emperor ordered two great warriors, Kazusa-no-suke and Miura-no-suke, to hunt her down with an army of 80,000 soldiers.
The fox was too clever for them at first. The warriors practised by shooting at dogs with padded arrows — a practice said to be the origin of the martial art inuoumono (dog-shooting). When they finally found the fox, Miura-no-suke shot two arrows into her side and neck, and Kazusa-no-suke finished her with his sword.
In some versions, the fox appeared to Miura-no-suke in a dream the night before, as a beautiful woman begging for her life. He refused.
The Killing Stone
As she died, the fox’s body turned into a large stone — the Sesshō-seki (殺生石), “Killing Stone.” It released a deadly poisonous gas, and anyone who touched it — human, bird, or animal — died. Birds flying overhead fell dead from the sky.
Gennō and the Breaking of the Stone
Two centuries later, a Buddhist monk named Gennō Shinshō (1329–1400) passed through Nasu. He saw the stone surrounded by the corpses of animals and learned its story. He performed Buddhist rites to pacify the spirit of the fox, and the spirit of Tamamo-no-Mae appeared, repented of her evil, and was released into salvation.
Gennō then struck the stone with his staff (or a hammer), and it shattered into pieces, which flew across Japan. The heavy stonemason’s hammer in Japanese is called a gennō after him.
This episode is dramatized in the Noh play Sesshōseki, in which a travelling monk encounters the spirit of the stone at Nasu.
The Stone Today
The Sesshō-seki can still be seen at Nasu Yumoto Onsen, in Tochigi Prefecture, a volcanic area with hot springs. It sits on a barren hillside where volcanic gases — hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide — seep from the ground, and where, in the past, birds and small animals really were found dead nearby. The deadly legend almost certainly grew from these real natural phenomena.
The haiku poet Matsuo Bashō visited the stone in 1689 on the journey recorded in Oku no Hosomichi (“The Narrow Road to the Deep North”). He noted that the poisonous vapours still rose and that the ground was covered with dead bees and butterflies.
In March 2022, visitors discovered that the stone had split in two. The rope (shimenawa) tied around it had fallen. Experts explained that the stone had probably cracked from weathering, but social media filled with jokes and fears that the fox had been released. Priests held a ceremony to pacify her spirit.
Tamamo-no-Mae in Culture
Tamamo-no-Mae is one of the most famous villains of Japanese tradition, and one of the models for the dangerous beautiful woman in Japanese storytelling. She appears in kabuki plays, woodblock prints by artists such as Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and modern anime and video games, including Fate/Grand Order, Naruto (the nine-tailed fox Kurama), and Inuyasha. She is the ultimate expression of the kitsune’s power: beauty, intelligence, deception, and the danger that hides behind a perfect face.
Last reviewed: September 2026.