Other than the four-footed animal that one sometimes sees in rural areas, the fox is at least three separate characters in Japanese folklore, one of which is its major trickster figure. The living creature and these three (or more) different personae are frequently interwoven in interesting and confusing ways.

The first fox that the foreign tourist is likely to find in Japan is the messenger of the Shinto deity Inari-Sama. Inari is responsible for many important aspects of Japanese life. He began as the god of the rice harvest, but over time he has been vested with powers over many other related areas and he is today most frequently seen as devoted to prosperity and fertility in general. By extension, he has also become a patron deity of prostitutes as well as modern business.

Even the casual tourist in Japan will come across roadside shrines with a pair of foxes at the gate. These may be elaborate stone carvings several times larger than life-size, or they may be miniature white porcelain statues decorated with gold and red. There are tens of thousands of shrines to Inari throughout the country. In rural Japan nearly every household has a small shrine dedicated to him in the yard, or at least an amulet and a pair of miniature statues on the family shrine to Inari. Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto covers much of a mountain and contains thousands of statues and red torii  (shrine gates) dedicated to the deity. Shrine gates painted red invariably signify a place sacred to Inari.