Kuda-gitsune
The kuda-gitsune or kuda-kitsune (管狐, クダ狐), also pronounced kanko, is a type of spirit possession in legends around various parts of Japan.
It was believed to assume the guise of a small mammal and able to fit inside a pipe or bamboo tube, but normally only its keeper or user (kitsune-tsukai) was able to see it.
The kuda-gitsune or kuda-kitsune (管狐, クダ狐), which in Chinese fashion (onyomi) can also be read as kanko (old romanization kwanko), derives its name from being small enough to fit inside a tube, according to one explanation.
[9][10] The izuna (飯綱) is a kindred sort of spirit, employed by the "fox-user" or kitsune-tsukai (狐遣い),[d][13] (although in modern standard Japanese, the word is pronounced īzuna and denotes the least weasel).
[8][4] As for its size, the Edo Period essay collection Kasshi yawa [ja] (1841) by Matsura Seizan has an entry on the kuda-gitsune,[19][22] including an illustration (above) of the fox said to have been brought from a bucolic area in Osaka and exhibited[h] in Edo in the year Bunsei 5 (1822),[i][23] reporting the full length of the specimen (excluding the tail) at 1.2–1.3 shaku (36–39 cm).
[25] The Shōzan chomon kishū (想山著聞奇集) (1850) also provided visual illustration of a specific anecdotal example,[l] which reportedly had a catlike face, otter-like body, gray-colored fur, and was about the size of a squirrel, with a thick tail.
[42][n] The kuda-tsuki is spiritual possession much like the hebi-tsuki (serpent-possession), inugami-tsuki (hound deity), or even tanuki-tsuki (racoon dog) of other communities, and ultimately derive from serpent-god worship, according to geography and history scholar Shōjirō Kobayashi.
From the caption, its length without the tail is calculable to "1 shaku and 2 or 3 sun (approx. 1.2–1.3 feet). [ b ] [ c ]