#32. Yumiko

Lore

The Kitsune

"Hattori, do you remember the tale of the wise fox spirit and her giant magical hammer? Yeah, ME NEITHER!"

– Koji after a beat down from a newcomer to the Grand Tournament


"Let me tell you the tale of the blind seamstress and the thousand wolves."

– Yumiko

As the story goes...

Any Valkyrie could see that the blind seamstress was a centuries old fox spirit in disguise. Only the half-Valkyrie saw a great Valhallan.

From time immemorial the Japanese village of Aoku sat at peace on the edge of the edge of the great northern forest. Then the forest changed. The winters grew bitter, and the cold seemed to flow out of the forest itself. From the forest too came great wolves - first in ones and twos and then in great packs. The forest came to be called Kiba, The Fang, and the villagers feared.

To villagers, Yumiko, the blind seamstress, was a happy soul - afraid of dogs, and roused to anger only by shoddy needlework. None ever knew that, at the age of 537, she picked up a bow for the first time and went to war with the monsters of the Kiba.

The first winter, she rescued a toddler from a wandering wolf, the second winter she slew a pack of wolves to protect the hibernating Tororu. Year after year, the assault grew, and so did her skill. By the twenty-fifth year, she had defeated a Tengu army, slain a dragon, and realized she must confront this mystery at its source.

Weary but determined, she traveled deep into the woods. There she fought the witch Ukionna and broke the bond between Yumiko's world and the twisted forest corrupting her land. In the final moments of the battle, a valkyrie appeared. Without a word, Yumiko leapt on the flying horse and went happily to sleep.

Yumiko is happy to fight in the tournament, while she senses that she has one more great deed to accomplish, but waits patiently. Yumiko recoils at the sight of Mordex, tinkers with Scarlet in her workshop, and has a quiet bond with the enigmatic Asuri.

Connections

• Jaeyun once lost four wishes in a game of poker against a fox spirit (which could have been Yumiko).

Context

Yumiko seems to be modeled as the "kitsune," or the "magical girl," if you prefer. "Kitsune" is the Japanese word for "fox," and there are many well-known tales of fox spirits or nine-tailed foxes (so much so, that the legends have found their way into pop culture), and that's just what Yumiko is.

There are a couple different kinds of kitsune in traditional Japanese folklore. There are the servants of celestial beings who act as benevolent messengers, protectors, and guides to humans (this fits Yumiko perfectly). Then, there are the evil, nasty tricksters who delight in mischief and pranks. They are all powerful shape-shifters that can pull of being a human very well. Some kitsune, like Yumiko, even decide to live among humans for a long time, adopting the names, customs, and jobs of human culture.

There seems to be no well-known folklore about a kitsune taking on a pack of wolves, but it is only natural that a kitsune should see wolves as its enemies, as the wolf is a natural predator to the fox.

I hoped to be able to pin down a time for Yumiko's nearly 600-year life in Japan, but I've come up just about empty. The yuki-onna (see the page on Ukionna) probably originates from the Muromachi period (about 1336–1573 AD). The first recorded mention of tengu in Japan is considered to be 720 AD. Really, Yumiko could have lived just about anytime in pre-modern Japan.

Would a kitsune use a hammer and bow? Well, humans would, so a kitsune in disguise would as well. Yumiko's standard hammer has a distinct rectangular shape at the striking end. This seems to be inspired by the genno. No known connection between kitsunes and bows, however.

WAIT!!! Yumi...ko...Those two Japanese words may not seem to mean much when put together (I use Google Translate, sorry. It's the best I got for now), but separate them and what do you have? Bow...child. Yumi...ko. Yumiko.

BMG, you brilliant pachyderms...