Yako (fox)

Yako or nogitsune[2][3] (野狐) is a type of kitsune (fox spirit), as told in Kyūshū.

[4] The appearance of a yako is almost completely consistent among all legends; they are black or white, are slightly larger than a mouse, and smaller than a cat.

[6] In Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, they normally bring along a great crowd that walks with them, and thus there is the phrase "yako's thousand-fox company (ヤコの千匹連れ, yako no senbiki tsure).

It is said that getting a burn or smallpox scar licked by a yako results in death, and those who have been afflicted with smallpox would go inside a net in order not to get close to a yako, and protected themselves from a yako getting in by either scattering ashes from an epaulette tree or leaving a sword.

[5] It is said that the people of families that have a yako could incite the yako to possess those they have bad relations with, and in Kiire, Ibusuki District, Kagoshima Prefecture (now Kagoshima), it is said that becoming possessed by it results in becoming a semi-invalid.