Osaki

[2][3] There are no legends of this in Tokyo other than in Tama, and this said to be because osaki are unable to cross the Toda river (a part of Warabi-shuku) or because in Kantō Hasshū (eight Edo provinces of Kantō), there was the head of the foxes, the Ōji Inari Jinja, preventing the osaki from entering Edo.

[4] There is also a legend of an osaki that was originally a nine-tailed fox, Tamamo-no-mae, who perished at Nasu field (a field near Nasu), its golden fur flying off in the process, and became a spirit, after which the nine-tailed fox transformed into a sessho-seki (killing stone), and when the monk Gennō Shinshō came to calm this curse by splitting this stone, one of its fragments flew to Kōzuke Province (now Gunma Prefecture) and became an osaki.

[5] Its name is said to come from how it was born from one of the nine-tailed fox's tails, so it was called "osaki" (尾先, "tail-front"),[4] and according to the Toen Shōsetsu (兎園小説) by Kyokutei Bakin and others, the tail split into two, which is why it is "osaki" (尾裂, "tail-split"),[2] and there is also the theory that its name comes from misaki, meaning kin of gods.

In the Kyokutei Zakki by Kyokutei Bakin, it was a beast smaller than a fox and resembled a polecat,[1] and around Nanmoku, Kanra District, Gunma Prefecture, it was something like a mixture between polecat and mouse or between ural owl and mouse and said to be a bit larger than a house mouse, and its color has been variously described to be spotted with mixtures of orange, brown, grey, and so on, and it is also sometimes said to have a solid black line from its head to its tail and with a split tail,[2] and in Shimonita of the same district, there are various theories talked about such as how they have human-like ears and a nose that is white just at its tip, how they have a square mouth, and so on.

[3] Also, in Ueno, Tano District, Gunma Prefecture, stoats are called "yama-osaki" ("mountain osaki") and they often follow people behind them, but it is said that mistreating them would result in a curse.