Kitsunebi

Every year, on the night of Ōmisoka, the foxes of Kanhasshū (all of the Kantō region) would gather below the tree, put on uniforms, call on their ranks, and visit the palace of Ōji Inari.

[16] As this area was part of a larger development plan, in 1993, on the evening of the annual Ōmisoka, an event was held called the "Ōji Kitsune's Procession".

[21][22] Different from the average kitsunebi, they float at relatively low altitudes, and thus in Toyohara village, Oku District of Okayama, it is said that an old fox shapeshifted into a chūko.

[22] Similarly, on Ryūgūjima, Tamatsu village, Oku District, the atmospheric ghost lights that appear at night with signs of coming rain that are about as big as paper lanterns are called chūko.

[26] In the Genroku period book about herbalism, the Honchō Shokkan, there is a statement about how foxes would use withered trees on the ground to make fires.

[27] Also in the Honchō Shokkan, there are statements about how foxes would make light using human skulls and horse bones, and the Meiwa period Kunmō Tenchiben by the yomihon author Takai Ranzan and the late Edo Period Shōzan Chomon Kishū by the essayist Miyoshi Shōzan also state that foxes would hold horse bones in their mouth to light a fire.

[12] However, the kitsunebi in legends is said to be visible even from a distance of several kilometers away, which would be hard to square with the idea that they are actually sources of light as weak as hypha or phosphorus.

[27][28] In 1977, the folkloricist Yoshiharu Tsunda's detailed research gave the explanation that almost all kitsunebi can be explained by a large refraction of light that often occurs in alluvial fans that go between mountainous and plain regions.