>>88133785Not Oni, though they look it, so perfectly fair if that's the case. And thank you for reminding me.
>>88137791Busy as always.
Not elements per se, Japan didn't relate creatures to elements. That's more of a Western alchemy thing. And I do have to specify Westernz because Taoist alchemy is it's own issue.
That said, Oni do have three broad origin stories. People so evil they become Oni, descendants of Yamata-no-Orochi (the most famous of all Oni, Shuten-Doji is his descendant, often his son, but he also turned into an Oni for being evil), or as guards of Jigoku. Jigoku is Hell. I'd say fire works for that, ice if you consider that an element. Water, since there's plenty of rivers to cross. But that's more an association with Hell than Oni themselves. And of course Raijin and Fujin, so wind, lightning, thunder, which anon reminded me of, that look like Oni but are not. It's the same as saying Anubis is a jackal or Zeus a human. They're not. They're still gods, they just looks like that.
People have been mentioning a lot of good stuff. Maybe the different stages of divine Kitsune, Kiko, Kuko, and Tenko, though that comes from Shinto-Buddhist syncretism.
Kitsune-bi? It's pretty much exactly the same as the Western Will-o-wisps. Maybe that they can possess people, which is called Kitsune tsuki, and a similar concept called Tanuki tsuki for Tanuki.
There's interesting stories. The Kitsune wedding. The stone, which everyone is familiar with. Okon Kitsune. There's the Inaba five Kitsune. There's more than a few plays about them, be they good or bad characters.
And that's just Kitsune. Go to China with the Huli Jing, Korea with the Kumiho, or the Vietnamese ones whose name I cannot remember but I'm sure is on Wikipedia, and you get so much more. And the Native American fox spirits, or even Renard (which you might know from Disney's Robin Hood). You could make foxes into practically anything and it would fit. From seducers to holy the world's your oyster.
