The fox spirit has made numerous appearances in modern Japanese media, often as the villain-turned-hero character, she said.
The rock has become a top tourism site and skyrocketed in popularity, but it paled in comparison to the spirit’s fame, Okuyama said. The stone is near multiple volcanoes, so occasional gases that were released may have killed some animals or humans over the years, she said.
There is no proof of the stone’s supernatural abilities, but its unique location may have given substance to the rumors, said Yoshiko Okuyama, professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Legend goes that if you touch the stone, you die, hence the name killing stone, Kapur said. When one of the warriors shot her with an arrow, her physical form was killed, so her spirit transformed into a stone, he said. However, samurai sent after her eventually caught up to the fox spirit, Kapur said. Once her plan was foiled, she fled into the wilderness, changing shapes to try and stay hidden, he said. A court astrologer used divination to determine Tamamo-no-Mae was the culprit, he said. Tamamo-no-Mae was known for her shape-shifting abilities, so she transformed herself into a beautiful woman and caught the eye of the emperor, Kapur said.Īs she grew closer to the emperor, he fell gravely ill, Kapur said. The tales all center around retired Emperor Toba, who reigned in Japan from 1107 to 1123. There are multiple versions of the legend, but it was believed Tamamo-no-Mae, a nine-tailed fox spirit, lay trapped in the rock for nearly 900 years.
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