What is the Japanese word for a fox spirit?

The Japanese word for a fox spirit is kitsune.

In Japanese folklore, kitsune are foxes—or supernatural fox beings—known for intelligence, shapeshifting, illusion, and bewitchment. Long-lived foxes are often portrayed as especially powerful, and stories may depict them as mischievous, dangerous, benevolent, or capable of possessing people.

Kitsune are closely associated with Inari, the Shinto kami of rice, prosperity, and industry. Inari’s foxes are usually treated as messengers rather than the deity itself, a distinction that popular culture often blurs. Other fox spirits, called nogitsune, may act independently and cause trouble.

Kitsune are sometimes confused with tanuki, another Japanese shapeshifting creature, while tengu are birdlike or mountain-associated yōkai and kappa are aquatic beings. The word also appears in terms such as kitsunetsuki, meaning fox possession, and kitsunebi, or fox-fire.