great information, Inari! I read sometime ago a japanese short story with foxes. It seems for Japanese foxes are magical animals, fox spirits, actually. I am not sure but I think I read that Japanese foxes have not the "tricky" character as we give them in the West. Must check this. What they do, is to transform themselves into humans. We must keep in mind that Fox spirits are a species separate from animal foxes.

Anyway, I just found out an interesting site:
Kitsune, The Japanese Fox


Check the "That's not what they meant..." link, very very interesting!!!!