Sleepy Baby Nine-Tails Fox Tea Pet, Kitsune

This fox Tea Pet is hand-crafted with incredible detail by Yixing artists at the Red Spring Studio in Yixing, China. The tea pet is a sleeping fox that looks peaceful, giving you a positive mood while you enjoy your tea. Made from Zhu Ni clay.

Kitsune, Nine-Tails Fox Mythical Creature Tea Pet

The nine-tails fox is a mythical Chinese creature that appears in folklore. According to legends, the fox may join the gods once it spends a millennium on earth. 

During the Qin dynasty, the nine-tailed fox (jiuweihu) was a lucky symbol that stood for peace and prosperity. In the ancient book Ruiying Tupu the fox would appear when the emperor is distracted by beauty. However, in another work called, Furuizhi, the fox would arrive when the emperor is benevolent and wise.

In history, the nine-tail fox has also been considered a sign of love and fertility. In the legend of Yu, the monarch was in his thirties but still not marriage. Once he saw a nine-tail fox in Tushan, he married with a woman from Tushan. 

Nowadays, the fox isn't one of the populair aspicous symbols. This might be due to the fact that a fox isn't one of the 12 zodiac signs. One other cause could be that the nine-tail fox has been demonized in the Song dynasty. Stories from the Song Dynasty often described the fox to turn into a beauty, who bewitch th human soul. This perception is more in line with Western cultures in which the fox is often seen as a crafty animal.

In Japan, the nine tail fox (Kitsune) often appears in modern day anime and manga series. Kitsune symbolizes long life, magical powers and intelligence. In folklore they sometimes appear as messengers of God and can shapeshift in human form. In other stories, they're perceived more negatively as demons, who possess humans (Kitsunetsuki).

Nowadays, foxes are regarded as sacred animals in Japan. Native locals used to live together in harmony with foxes in the past.