An excerpt from The Structure of the Unconscious (無意識の構造) by Kawai Hayao. My translation:
The shadow is certainly a dark being. However, its paradoxical character is most directly expressed by the trickster. The trickster is a kind of mischievous being appearing around the world in myths and folklore, for instance in the traditional Japanese stories of Kitchomu and Hikoichi.
The trickster, ever scheming and changing shape, has aspects of both creation and destruction. In African myths, such as stories of origin, the trickster destroys the old and then, through an unexpected synthesis, gives rise to a new world. Beings of such nature are found everywhere. They will join both sides in a conflict between enemies, disclosing the secrets of one side to the other, giving rise to great disorder, and yet through that tumult, unexpectedly, the enemies come together in friendship. The trickster flies furiously in the region between worlds, stirring turmoil. In failure he is a troublemaker, but in success he becomes a hero who brings a new unity.
The trickster expresses in reality the paradoxes of the shadow. He threatens existing structures, but always calls forth an unforeseen synthesis. Against the apparent one-layered character of an existing structure, he suggests abundant possibilities, bringing to light a multi-layered existence. It can be said that the degree to which a system allows the existence of the trickster determines the degree to which it can remake itself and how far it can progress. If a system’s threshold of tolerance is exceeded by the activity of the trickster, the result will be an uncontrollable chaos.