Board Thread:WARNING ALL USERS False Info\Spoilers/@comment-108.201.172.92-20140204200446/@comment-1409671-20140206054923

Hello there.

As the writer of Foxtrot's Guide to Kitsune Lore, the first web site to mention kitsune in English and provide information about them - I thought I'd speak up here. I wrote that in 1997, when there was perhaps two or three books on kitsune lore (now selling for thousands of dollars), and almost no information to be gained. A lot of the web pages out there about kitsune draw from my page (since it was, as I said, the first), and unfortunately, my research wasn't as in depth then as it is now. So, short form:

13 types. Yes, according to my original source material, there are 13 types of kitsune. What are they? Not necessarily associated with the elements. Some are, in a fashion, but not as clear-cut as I had originally put. I had actually asked someone online to research what the 13 types were, and they told me 'elements' and gave me a list. In my 15+ years since looking into kitsune, I have found no Japanese source material to verify that these 13 kitsune are associated with 'elements'.

What I do know:  There are celestial foxes (also called 'shrine foxes' black and white), there are air foxes, there are 'benevolent' foxes, and 'bad' foxes. There are spirit foxes and ghost foxes. The nogitsune are 'bad foxes'. There is a lot of overlap between these. I wrote an RPG, 'Fox Magic', inspired by my further research, and I completely avoided the 'elemental' aspect because, I felt, unless I was able to find solid evidence that this is true, I shouldn't put it into the game.

That being said? I'm reasonably certain that the information from my page (or a page which has drawn information from my page) was used as source material for Teen Wolf. I'm really happy about this, if it is true. And if some of the information is 'off' (Ocean and Thunder Kitsune?)  so what? Teen Wolf has done an excellent job with the storytelling, and I'm more than happy to sit back and enjoy the show. (They did a much better job than Supernatural did with kitsune... seriously).

Have fun out there! :)