Pottery statue of tanuki

Wild Tanuki Mt. Ikoma, Nara

Tanuki (狸, Tanuki^? alternatively タヌキ) is the Japanese word for raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times. The legendary tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absent-minded. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1728x2304, 1661 KB) Summary Tanuki (raccoon dog) statue, as commonly seen in Japan as a good luck totem. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1728x2304, 1661 KB) Summary Tanuki (raccoon dog) statue, as commonly seen in Japan as a good luck totem. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1152 × 1728 pixel, file size: 462 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) free use I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1152 × 1728 pixel, file size: 462 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) free use I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... It has been suggested that tanuki be merged into this article or section. ... Mario in his Tanooki Suit The Tanooki suit is a special power up in the video game Super Mario Bros. ... It has been suggested that tanuki be merged into this article or section. ... Japanese folklore is the folklore of Japan. ... Tsarevna Frog by Viktor Vasnetsov: a frog metamorphoses into a princess Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. ...

Tanuki is often mistakenly translated as raccoon or badger. Binomial name (Linnaeus, 1758) Common Raccoon native range in red, feral range in blue. ... Genera  Arctonyx  Melogale  Meles  Mellivora  Taxidea For other uses, see Badger (disambiguation). ...

Folklore

Statues of tanuki can be found outside many Japanese temples and restaurants, especially noodle shops. These statues often wear big, cone-shaped hats and carry bottles of sake in one hand, and a promissory note (a bill it will never pay) or empty purse in the other hand. Tanuki statues always have large bellies. Older depictions of the tanuki show them as having large testicles as well, although this feature is often omitted in contemporary sculpture. Sake barrels at Itsukushima Shrine. ... A promissory note is a contract detailing the terms of a promise by one party (the maker) to pay a sum of money to the other (the payee). ... Look up testes in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The comical image of the tanuki is thought to have developed during the Kamakura era. The actual wild tanuki has unusually large testicles, a feature that has inspired humorous exaggeration in artistic depictions of the creature. Tanuki may be shown with their testicles flung over their backs like travellers' packs, or using them as drums. As tanuki are also typically depicted as having large bellies, they may be depicted as drumming on their bellies instead of their testicles -- particularly in contemporary art. The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article History of Japan#Kamakura Period. ... Bass drum made from wood, rope, and cowskin A drum is a musical instrument in the percussion group that can be large, technically classified as a membranophone. ...

A common schoolyard song in Japan (the tune of which can be heard in the arcade game Ponpoko and a variation of which is sung in the Studio Ghibli film Pom Poko) makes explicit reference to the tanuki's anatomy:
A screenshot of Ponpoko in play. ... Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ; Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko, Heisei-era Raccoon Dog War Pom Poko) (1994) is an anime (Japanese animation) film written and directed by Takahata Isao at Studio Ghibli. ...

Tan Tan Tanuki no kintama wa,

Kaze mo nai no ni,

Bura bura

(Roughly translated, this means "Tan-tan-tanuki's testicles, there isn't even any wind but still go swing-swing-swing".^[1] It then proceeds to continue for several verses, with many regional variations. It is sung to the melody of an American Baptist hymn called Shall We Gather At The River?.^[2]) Shall We Gather At The River? is a traditional Baptist hymn, written by American poet and gospel composer Robert Wadsworth Lowry (1826-1899). ...

A couple of Tanuki statues at a temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan.

During the Kamakura and Muromachi eras, some stories began to include more sinister tanuki. The Otogizoshi story of "Kachi-kachi Yama" features a tanuki that clubs an old lady to death and serves her to her unknowing husband as "old lady soup," an ironic twist on the folkloric recipe known as "tanuki soup". Other stories report tanuki as being harmless and productive members of society. Several shrines have stories of past priests who were tanuki in disguise. Shapeshifting tanuki are sometimes believed to be a transformation of the souls of household goods that were used for one hundred years or more. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 768 pixel, file size: 189 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) A photo of a couple of Tanuki statues (taken 2003-07) in a temple in Kamakura. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 768 pixel, file size: 189 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) A photo of a couple of Tanuki statues (taken 2003-07) in a temple in Kamakura. ... Kamakuras location in Japan Crowds of visitors in Kamakura (Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine) Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in Kamakura (Japanese: 鎌倉市; -shi) is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo (to which it is linked by the railway line to Yokosuka). ... Kamakura can refer to: Kamakura, Kanagawa, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan The Kamakura Shogunate The Kamakura period in the History of Japan The Kamakura family name in Japan Kamakura Great Buddha, the Great Buddha of Kamakura Kamakura, a fictional character from the G.I. Joe series Category: ... History of Japan Paleolithic Jomon Yayoi Yamato period ---Kofun period ---Asuka period Nara period Heian period Kamakura period Muromachi period Azuchi-Momoyama period ---Nanban period Edo period Meiji period Taisho period Showa period ---Japanese expansionism ---Occupied Japan ---Post-Occupation Japan Heisei The Muromachi period (室町時代, also known... Illustration from otogizōshi tale, published c. ... Kachi-Kachi Yama (Japanese: kachi-kachi is a onomonopaeia of the sound a fire makes; -yama is a suffix, meaning mountain), roughly translates to Fire-Crackle Mountain, is one of the few Japanese folktales in which a tanuki is the villain, rather than the boisterous and well-endowed alcoholic. ...

A popular tale known as Bunbuku chagama is about a tanuki who fooled a monk by transforming into a tea-kettle. Another is about a tanuki who tricked a hunter by disguising his arms as tree boughs, until he spread both arms at the same time and fell off the tree. Tanuki are said to cheat merchants with leaves they have magically disguised as paper money. Some stories describe tanuki as using leaves as part of their own shape-shifting magic. Bubuku Chagama is a Japanese folktale about a raccoon-dog, or tanuki, that uses its shapeshifting powers to reward its rescuer for his kindness. ...

In metalworking, tanuki skins were often used for thinning gold. As a result, tanuki became associated with precious metals and metalwork. Small tanuki statues were marketed as front yard decoration and good luck charm for bringing in prosperity. Also, this is why tanuki is described as having large kintama (金玉 lit. gold ball, means a testicle in Japanese slang). Turned chess pieces Metalworking is the craft and practice of working with metals to create structures or machine parts. ...

The tanuki of Japanese folklore is a featured character in Tom Robbins' 2003 novel, Villa Incognito.

Name

Tanuki with typically enlarged scrotum, in a print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

While tanuki are prominent in Japanese folklore and proverbs, they were not always distinguished from other animals. In local dialects, tanuki and mujina (狢, kyujitai: 貉) can refer to raccoon dogs or badgers. An animal known as tanuki in one region may be known as mujina in another region. In modern Tokyo standard dialect, tanuki refers to raccoon dogs and anaguma refers to badgers. Regional dishes known as tanuki-jiru ("tanuki soup") may contain either raccoon dog or badger, although the taste of the latter is often preferred. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... In some male mammals, the scrotum is a protuberance of skin and muscle containing the testicles. ... Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 - June 9, 1892) (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi) was the last great master - and one of the great innovative and creative geniuses - of the Japanese woodblock print. ... Mujina ) is an old Japanese term for a tanuki (Raccoon dog). ... Look up Kyujitai in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Originally, the characters for tanuki, 狸 (kyujitai: 貍) were used to refer to other mid-sized mammals, mostly wild cats. ^{[citation needed]} Since wild cats live only in limited regions of Japan (e.g. Iriomote, Okinawa), it is believed that the characters began to be used to mean "tanuki" instead starting around the Japanese feudal era. This shift in meaning, along with the rarity of the raccoon dog outside Japan, may have contributed to confusion over the proper translation of "tanuki" into other languages. Look up Kyujitai in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other meanings of Wild Cat and wildcat, see wildcat. ... Map of Irimote Island and the other Yaeyama Islands Iriomote from space, August 1991 Iriomote (西表島 Iriomote-jima) is the largest of the Yaeyama Islands and the second largest in Okinawa Prefecture after Okinawa Island itself. ... “Okinawa” redirects here. ... The written history of Japan began with brief appearances in Chinese history texts from the first century AD. However, archaeological research indicates that people were living on the islands of Japan as early as the upper paleolithic period. ...

In Japanese slang, tanuki gao ("tanuki face") can refer to a face that looks like that of the animal, or a person's facial expression of feigned ignorance^[3]. Kitsune gao ("fox face") refers to women with narrow faces, close-set eyes, thin eyebrows, and high cheekbones. Prince Hanzoku terrorized by a nine-tailed fox. ...

External links

• Entry on "tanuki" at The Obakemono Project
• Tanuki at The Portal of Transformation
• Japanese commercial featuring Little Red Riding Hood and a Tanuki
• Entry on "tanuki" at The A-Z Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Statuary
• "How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished" a folktale collected by Andrew Lang.

For the former National Basketball Association player, see Andrew Lang (basketball). ...

References

1. ^ http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001101.php
2. ^ http://www.mahoroba.ne.jp/~gonbe007/hog/shouka/tantantanuki.html
3. ^ Dictionary entry for "tanuki gao" - the term returns less than 1,000 Google hits

	Japanese mythology and folklore Image File history File linksMetadata Amaterasu_cave_crop. ... Japanese mythology is a very complex system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculture-based folk religion. ... Japanese folklore is the folklore of Japan. ...
	Mythic texts and folktales: Kojiki | Nihon Shoki | Otogizōshi | Yotsuya Kaidan Urashima Tarō | Kintarō | Momotarō | Tamamo-no-Mae Divinities: Izanami | Izanagi | Amaterasu Susanoo | Ama-no-Uzume | Inari List of divinities | Kami | Seven Lucky Gods Legendary creatures: Oni | Kappa | Tengu | Tanuki | Fox | Yōkai | Dragon Mythical and sacred locations: Mt. Hiei | Mt. Fuji | Izumo | Ryūgū-jō | Takamagahara | Yomi Kojiki or Furukotofumi (古事記), also known in English as the Records of Ancient Matters, is the oldest surviving historical book recounting events of ancient earth in the Japanese language. ... Nihonshoki (日本書紀) is the second oldest history book about the ancient history of Japan. ... Illustration from otogizōshi tale, published c. ... Yotsuya Kaidan (四つ谷怪談) is a Japanese ghost story. ... Urashima Tarō ) is a Japanese fairy tale about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded with a visit to the RyÅ«gÅ«-jō, the Dragon Palace. ... This article is about the Japanese folklore hero; for the Mortal Kombat character, see Kintaro (Mortal Kombat character). ... Bisque doll of Momotarō Momotarō (桃太郎) is a hero from Japanese folklore. ... Tamamo-no-Mae (玉藻前) is a legendary figure in Japanese mythology. ... In Japanese mythology, Izanami (Katakana: イザナミ; Kanji: 伊弉冉尊 or 伊邪那美命, meaning She who invites) is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi. ... 天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図. Painting by Eitaku Kobayashi (Meiji period). ... The Sun goddess emerging out of a cave, bringing sunlight back to the universe. ... Susanoo, (Japanese: 須佐之男命, Susa-no-O-no-Mikoto; also romanized as Susanoo, Susa-no-O, and Susanowo) in Shinto is the god of the sea and storms. ... Categories: Stub | Japanese goddesses ... Inari and her fox spirits help the blacksmith Munechika forge the blade ko-kitsune-maru (Little Fox) in the late 10th century. ... This is a list of divinities native to Japanese beliefs and religious traditions. ... “Megami” redirects here. ... The seven fortune gods (七福神, shichi fukujin) in Japan refer to the seven gods of good fortune in Japanese folklore: ; . They are often the subject of netsuke carvings and other representations. ... This article is about the creatures of Japanese folklore. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Tengu and a Buddhist monk, by Kawanabe Kyōsai. ... Prince Hanzoku terrorized by a nine-tailed fox. ... ukiyo-e print of yōkai, by Aotoshi Matsui Yōkai apparitions, spirits, or demons, also romanized youkai, yokai, or yookai) are a class of obake, creatures in Japanese folklore (many with Chinese origins) ranging from the evil oni to the mischievous kitsune or snow woman Yuki-onna. ... Japanese Dragon water fountain in Fujiyoshida. ... Mount Hiei (Jp. ... Mount Fuji Mount Fuji , IPA: )  , or Fuji-yama, is the highest mountain in Japan. ... Izumo (Japanese: 出雲国; Izumo no kuni) was an old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane prefecture in the Chugoku region. ... In Japanese mythology, RyÅ«gÅ«-jō (竜宮城) is the undersea palace of RyÅ«jin, the dragon god of the sea. ... Takama-ga-hara (Japanese: 高天原), or The High Plain of Heaven, is a place in Japanese mythology. ... This article is about the location in japanese mythology. ...
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