Kitsune Mask

A kitsune mask is a Japanese fox mask. The kitsune mask, kitsune-men, is the mask of the fox. In Japan the fox is the messenger of Inari, one of the most widely worshipped kami, and fox masks are worn at festivals and shrine performances across the country. The mask carries both sides of the fox in Japanese belief: the sacred messenger and the shapeshifter of folklore.

What does a kitsune mask mean?

A kitsune mask stands for the fox as a messenger of the gods, and for its power to change shape. Wearing one at a festival places the wearer, for a night, on the side of the spirits.

The characters: 狐面

狐 (kitsune): fox.
面 (men): mask, face.

The messenger of Inari

Inari is the kami of rice, harvest and prosperity, honoured at tens of thousands of shrines across Japan. The best known is Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, with its long tunnels of vermilion gates.

The foxes at those shrines are Inari’s messengers, not Inari itself. Stone foxes guard the shrine gates in pairs, often with a key to the rice store or a jewel held in their mouths, and the messenger foxes are traditionally white.

Fox masks at Japanese festivals

Fox masks appear at shrine festivals and in sacred dance, and in the processions known as the fox’s wedding, kitsune no yomeiri. The same phrase names a sunshower, rain that falls while the sun is out. The traditional mask is white, with its features picked out in red and black.

The fox of folklore

Outside the shrine, the fox of Japanese folklore is a shapeshifter, often taking human form. Foxes were said to grow extra tails as they aged, up to nine. In the stories they can be tricksters, devoted companions or dangerous spirits, and the same animal is honoured at the shrine gate and wary of in the tale.

The design

The Kitsune Mask Tee draws the fox mask from Edo period sources, with 狐面 set beneath it.