Tamamo Kamiki

Tamamo Kamiki
Kanji	神木玉雲
Rōmaji	Kamiki Tamamo
Characteristics
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Purple White (possessed by Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit)
Eye Color	Red
Professional Status
Previous Affiliation	Inari Shrine
Previous Occupation	Chief Priestess of the Inari Shrine
Base of Operations	Inari Shrine
Personal Status
Status	Deceased
Relative(s)	Soji Inami (Lover; deceased) Izumo Kamiki (Daughter) Tsukumo Kamiki (Daughter)
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 6 (flashback) Chapter 50 (actual)
Anime Debut	Episode 8 (flashback) Episode 42 (actual)
Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Sayaka Ohara
English Voice	Allegra Clark
Tamamo Kamiki Images

Tamamo Kamiki (神木玉雲 Kamiki Tamamo) was the chief priestess of the Inari Shrine before her capture and experimentation at the hands of the Illuminati.

Appearance[]

Tamamo appears in the present as an extremely emaciated woman; her face and body are wrapped in bandages, through which pulsating veins and diseased flecks of skin can be seen. Underneath her tired, squinted eyes are deep, dark bags, which only add to her aging appearance. Her hair, which was once long, lush and dark, has become white and withered. Tamamo wears a patient gown with an ID card attached to the left breast that reads "0910"; around her neck is a band that reads the same thing.^[1]

Years ago, when Izumo and Tsukumo were very young, Tamamo looked very similar to her eldest daughter in the present: she had long purple hair, cut in hime-, large, red eyes and the trademark eyebrows of the Kamiki family. For the attire, Tamamo often wore a hakama and a white nagajuban.^[2] When performing her Divine Summoning dance, Tamamo accompanied this outfit with a fox mask and a flower-printed haori coat.^[3]

After being possessed by the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit, Tamamo's hair and skin became white and her pupils slits, whilst her irises became light and piercing. Additionally, her sclera became pitch-black.^[4] Before long, Tamamo eventually gained long, pointed fox ears sprouting from atop her head, incredibly sharp fingernails and teeth, and grew nine tails, which popped out from beneath her kimono.^[5]

Personality[]

When her daughters were children, Tamamo came off as a very attached, caring mother who would cry over the littlest things, though she was very attached to Soji Inami, her lover. She was also very lazy, and made the Fox Gods that she had control over do all the housework for her, though she did express her gratitude towards them. She was described as being unreliable and undisciplined, as well as being a person that everyone should've hated, but could not hate. She was also very attached to Izumo and Tsukumo and referred to them as her "treasures", often hugging them and crying when they had to part.^[6]

After her talk with Sōji regarding her daughters, Tamamo became cold and uncaring, preferring to stay with Sōji rather than her daughters and left them to fend for themselves, as well as neglecting her duties as the chief priestess. On the rare occasions that she saw her daughters, she scorned them and blamed all her troubles on them.^[7] When possessed by the nine-tailed fox spirit of the Life-Taking Stone, Tamamo became bloodthirsty and apathetic; she admitted to Izumo that she believes her and Tsukumo's births to be mistakes and that they are the reason why Sōji grew tired of her.^[5]

Years after her capture, Tamamo became a shell of her former self and consistently begs Izumo to help her.^[1]

History[]

Tamamo was born to the Kamiki family: a family that interbred with Demons;^[8] she was born as the sixty-fourth generation's head priestess and was, like the others born before her,^[9] named "Tamamo" due to her being born with extremely strong divine powers that she could use to appease the spirit of the Life-Taking Stone.^[10] Many years later, Tamamo gave birth to Izumo, and later Tsukumo, at a small shrine in which they lived which, itself, was located near the main shrine in Inari.^[9]

Several years later, Tamamo was seen crying to Izumo, asking her daughter to help her as everyone had been extremely cold towards her by avoiding her. When she was told by her eldest daughter that it's because she's bad at being a decent person, Tamamo's eyes lit up, with her saying that she and Sōji are in love and that they have nothing to be ashamed of. She was quickly asked to silence herself by Izumo, but Tamamo retorted that because of their relation, it only makes sense for Izumo to help her. Exasperated, she told Izumo that Sōji is basically her father, but Izumo denies him as being such, which caused Tamamo to state that Sō is busy with work, all the while thanking the Fox Gods that are around the house for doing her housework for her. After having praised her friends for their help, Tamamo ate breakfast in preparation to do her appeasement dance, the Divine Summoning, for the Life-Taking Stone spirit. After all was said and done, Tamamo hugged Izumo (for she was to go to work that day) and asked her to take Tsukumo to the Inami shrine before school.^[11] After seeing her daughter arrive home from school, Tamamo told Izumo that she has a date with Sōji to attend and that Izumo needs to watch Tsukumo. After hugging her daughters, she left to be with her beloved.^[12]

She soon arrived at Sōji's house, and during their time together, Tamamo learned of Sōji's plan to turn Inari into a tourist destination, unaware that the funding came from the Illuminati. Unable to comprehend the entire situation, she merely told Sōji that if he's happy, then she's happy, all before asking him if he wanted to come and meet her children. Tamamo's heart was then broken by Sōji, who tells her that he doesn't want to meet her children and that if she keeps pressuring him to do so, then he will break off their relationship. Soon after, she attempted to perform the Divine Summoning with her weakened heart, which earned her a reprimanding from Ukemochi and Miketsu, though she brushed off their concerns. Before long, Tamamo eventually avoided performing the Divine Summoning altogether and spent her days at the Inami Shrine with Sōji, neglecting her daughters and treating them with scorn since then. She eventually stopped coming home and lived at the Inami Shrine with Sōji.^[13]

One day, the spirit of the Life-Taking Stone took Tamamo over and she killed every single person who was inside the Inami Shrine, including her beloved Sōji. As the Inami Priests entered the room where they were, Tamamo was crying over Sōji's body, affectionately caressing his corpse. Having seen the priests enter, Tamamo, now having taken on the visage of the fox spirit, glared at them with menacing eyes and viciously attacked them, spilling their blood all throughout the hallways as she mercilessly slaughtered the priests.^[14]

During her killing spree, Tamamo made a considerable amount of noise, which caused her daughter, Izumo, to open the door; Tamamo was feasting on the corpses of the priests she killed. After spying her daughter, Tamamo asked her if she planned on getting in her way again before blaming her and Tsukumo for Sōji growing tired of her, before calling her birth a mistake. Tamamo then lunged at her daughter, tearing through the walls of the shrine; she then spied Tsukumo and tried to kill her, but her attempts were thwarted by Uke, who grabbed Tsukumo at the last second, which prompted Tamamo to curse her former servants. She was then attacked by Mike, but sidestepped his assault; in the wake of her daughter escaping her clutches, Tamamo stood in the shrine and laughed at the top of her voice, having completely assimilated with the spirit of the Life-Taking Stone.^[15]

She was later captured by the Illuminati and experimented upon by Michael Gedōin.^[16]

Synopsis[]

Shimane Illuminati arc[]

Five years later, in the care of the Illuminati, Tamamo is wheeled into her daughter's current quarters following her capture, whereupon she begs Izumo to save her.^[17] Eyeing her daughter, she once more begs her for assistance in being saved, but is interrupted by Gedōin, who proceeds to degrade the emaciated woman. Unable to do anything, Tamamo merely listens to the man's drawl; before being wheeled away, she once again asks her daughter to save her.^[18]

When Izumo herself is possessed by the spirit of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Tamamo fights her daughter, easily avoiding her attacks in spite of her damaged body, and absorbs the spirit back inside herself to save her daughter's life. Crying, she calls the also crying Izumo her treasure before succumbing to death, as Izumo and her friends mourn Tamamo's death.

Blue Night Remembrance arc[]

Powers & Abilities[]

Divine Summoning (神降ろし Kamioroshi): As the chief priestess of the Inari Shrine, Tamamo has the ability to perform the sacred Divine Summoning, which is a dance that is used to appease the spirit of the Life-Taking Stone.^[19] If Tamamo performs the Divine Summoning with a weak heart or neglects doing it, she risks being taken over by the spirit.^[20]

Trivia[]

• "Tamamo" (玉雲) means "jade cloud". "Kamiki" (神木) means "sacred tree".
  • Tamamo takes her name from Tamamo-no-Mae, the Nine-Tailed Fox of Japanese legend.

Quotes[]

References[]