For 10 points, name this animal whose form is taken by the kitsune demons and the kami Inari.
In the kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbonzakura, Minamoto no Yoshitsune relinquishes a magic drum to one of these animals on a quest to honor its parents. Another of these beings invents the paolao torture method, involving a slowly-heating metal bar, as the consort to King Zhou of Shang in The Investiture of the Gods. The Korean kumiho and the Chinese huli jing are examples of these creatures, which store power in white-gold "star balls" that hover around their faces. A tunnel of ten thousand (*) torii gates snakes up a mountain to a shrine for a god of these animals, an androgynous kami of rice. In East Asian myth systems, demonic spirits of these animals possess human women. For 10 points, name this animal whose form is taken by the kitsune demons and the kami Inari.
In the kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbonzakura, Minamoto no Yoshitsune relinquishes a magic drum to one of these animals on a quest to honor its parents.
foxes [or specific examples, such as kitsune]