Tanuki (狸? alternatively タヌキ) is the Japanese word for raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times. Japanese folklore is the Folklore of Japan. It is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism, the two primary religions in the country The legendary tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absent-minded. 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. The raccoon ( Procyon lotor) (sometimes spelt as racoon) also known as the common raccoon, North American raccoon, northern raccoon Badger is the Common name for any animal of three subfamilies which belong to the family Mustelidae: the same Mammal family as the
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. A promissory note, also referred to as a note payable in Accounting, is a Contract where one party (the maker or issuer) makes an 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. The testicle (from Latin testiculus, diminutive of testis, meaning "witness" virility plural testes) is the male
The comical image of the tanuki is thought to have developed during the Kamakura era. The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 by the first Kamakura Shogun 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. The drum is a member of the percussion group technically classified as a Membranophone. 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.
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:
- Tan Tan Tanuki no kintama wa,
- Kaze mo nai no ni,
- Bura bura
Roughly translated, this means "Tan-tan-tanuki's/Raccoon-raccoon-raccoon dog's testicles, there isn't even any wind but still go swing-swing-swing". is a 1982 Arcade game released by Sigma Enterprises. It is a Platform game similar to Donkey Kong and Mario Bros is a 1994 Japanese animated film the eighth written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. [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?. Shall We Gather at the River? (or simply At the River) is a Traditional Christian Hymn, written by American [2]
During the Kamakura and Muromachi eras, some stories began to include more sinister tanuki. The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 by the first Kamakura Shogun The Muromachi period ( Japanese: 室町時代 Muromachi-jidai, also known as the Muromachi era, the Muromachi bakufu, the Ashikaga era 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". refers to a group of approximately 350 Japanese prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period (1392-1573 Kachi-Kachi Yama ( Japanese: かちかち山 kachi-kachi being an Onomatopoeia of the sound a fire makes and yama meaning " Mountain 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 tsukumogami, a transformation of the souls of household goods that were used for one hundred years or more. are a type of Japanese Spirit. According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday
A popular tale known as Bunbuku chagama is about a tanuki who fooled a monk by transforming into a tea-kettle. Bunbuku Chagama ( Japanese: ja ぶんぶく茶釜 is a Japanese Folktale about a raccoon-dog or Tanuki, that uses its Shapeshifting 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.
In metalworking, tanuki skins were often used for thinning gold. Metalworking is craft and practice of working with Metals to create individual parts assemblies or large scale structures 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).
Name
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. is an old Japanese term primarily referring to the badger. In some regions the term refers instead to the Japanese raccoon dog (also called Tanuki Kyūjitai (in Shinjitai: ja 旧字体 in Kyūjitai 舊字體 meaning "old character form" is the traditional form of the Japanese Kanji used before 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.
Originally, the characters for tanuki, 狸 (kyujitai: 貍) were used to refer to other mid-sized mammals, mostly wild cats. Kyūjitai (in Shinjitai: ja 旧字体 in Kyūjitai 舊字體 meaning "old character form" is the traditional form of the Japanese Kanji used before The Wildcat ( Felis silvestris) sometimes Wild Cat or Wild-cat, is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia 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. Iriomote (西表島 Iriomote-jima; Yaeyama: Irimutī Okinawan: Iriumuti) is the largest of the Yaeyama Islands and is one of Japan 's southern prefectures, and consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over 1000 km long which extends southwest from Kyūshū The written history of Japan begins with brief references in the 1st century AD Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts 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.
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. The word "tanuki" is sometimes used as a Japanese code. It is a play on ta-nuki. Because "nuki" means "without", the reader must remove the "ta"'s from the message.
In fiction
Tanuki appear in numerous anime, manga and video games. (anime in Japanese, ˈmɑŋgə is the Japanese word for Comics (sometimes called komikku コミック and print Cartoons In their modern form manga date from shortly A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.
All the main characters in Pom Poko are shape-shifting tanuki who are trying to save their habitat from urban development. is a 1994 Japanese animated film the eighth written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. Japanese legends about tanuki and kitsune shapeshifting feature heavily throughout the movie. The tanuki were mis-translated in the film as racoons.
Hachi from the anime series InuYasha takes the form of a tanuki. This is a list of characters from InuYasha, the Manga and Anime series by Rumiko Takahashi. full title ( romanized as INUYASHA Ranma 1/2, which was written by the same author as Inuyasha (Rumiko Takahashi) also features a tanuki in comical situations; a character will often "body-swap" with one. is a Japanese Manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi with an Anime adaptation is a Japanese Mangaka. Takahashi is one of the wealthiest women in Japan. In Naruto, the one-tailed demon that is sealed inside the body of Gaara, resembles to a badger-type (racoon-dog) animal. is an ongoing Japanese Manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an Anime adaptation is a Fictional character in the Naruto Manga and Anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto. Badger is the Common name for any animal of three subfamilies which belong to the family Mustelidae: the same Mammal family as the In One Piece, the character Tony Tony Chopper has a transformation that greatly resembles a tanuki, and is commonly mistaken for one. is a Japanese Shōnen Manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, that has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine is a fictional character in the Anime and Manga series One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. However, the creature is actually a reindeer.
In the manga Ouran High School Host Club, Mori helps a tanuki. is a Manga series by Bisco Hatori, serialized in Hakusensha 's LaLa magazine since August 5 2003
In the manga of Yu Yu Hakasho, during one of the early chapters during the time Yusuke spends time as a ghost, there is a chapter with a tanuki who takes shape of an old mans dead grandson when he helps take care of him during the night before the old man dies himself. The tanuki can shape shift, but can't hide his tail, which is how the old man knew who he was since the start, admitting he just wanted to believe it was his late grandson and thanked the tanuki for being so kind. Afterwords, the tanuki is seen walking from the house crying.
The tanuki is well represented in videogames as one of Mario's power-up suits in Super Mario Bros. 3, a pair of characters in Super Mario Sunshine, the action stage identifier from The Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Rocky from Pocky & Rocky. is the fifth release in the Super Mario Video game series It was first released for the Famicom in Japan and later on the NES is a Platform game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (known as Ganbare Goemon Yukihime Kyuushutsu Emaki in Japan) is a light-hearted Action-adventure is a Scrolling shooter Video game with action elements licensed by Taito to Natsume, who developed and published the game for release in Tom Nook the shopkeeper in Animal Crossing is a tanuki. Animal Crossing, known as in Japan, is a life simulation Video game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo. However, he is translated as a raccoon. Also, Korean MMORPG Ragnarok Online, there are raccoon-like monsters called "smokey" that wear a leaf on their heads and have the ability to disappear. Ragnarok Online (라그나로크 온라인 often referred to as RO, is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG created by Tanuki statues can also be seen in the video game Okami in front of many shops.
Tanuki (the god) and tanukis (the animal) are both in Tom Robbins' novel Villa Incognito. Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1936 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina) is an American Author. Half of the action in the story takes place in Southeastern Asia. Tanuki is actually the main character of the first chapter of the novel.
In the American animated television show, Kappa Mikey, tanukis are referenced a few times. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U Kappa Mikey is an American animated television series geared toward families and is created by Larry Schwarz. The famous statues of them appear in the pilot episode. There is another episode called The Masked Tanuki, which is the superhero identity of one of the characters, yet his suit appears in the form of a raccoon. A superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a Fictional character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do
Tanuki also appear in the 2005 Seijun Suzuki film Princess Raccoon (aka Operetta tanuki goten). Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. born Seitaro Suzuki (鈴木 清太郎 Suzuki Seitarō) on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese Film director. is a 2005 Japanese film directed by Seijun Suzuki. The " Raccoon " of the English title is actually a translation for the Tanuki.
The tanuki of Japanese folklore is a featured character in Tom Robbins' 2003 novel, Villa Incognito. Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1936 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina) is an American Author. Bantam Doubleday Dell (US and Random House (Australia published Villa Incognito in April and June 2003 respectively
The term Tanuki was also often used in the anime Saiunkoku Monogatari. often rendered Tale of Saiunkoku, is a series of Japanese novels written by Sai Yukino and illustrated by Kairi Yura. Kou Reishin nicknamed Shou Taishi 'Tanuki Spirit' since the latter survived the many assassination attempts sent by the Kou clan. A new character that appeared in the second season of the anime, Shin Suou, bought many tanuki accessories before he went to propose to Kou Shuurei, the main character. One of the most catchy tanuki accessories was a golden tanuki statue that he kept holding. He bought the accessories because he was told that tanuki brought good luck. Later, Suou Shin received the nickname 'Tantan', from the word 'tanuki'.
In the manga/anime Shaman King Tamao Tamamura or Tammy's guardian ghosts are a Kitsune (Conchi) and a Tanuki (Ponchi).
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
- ^ languagehat.com: Global Schoolyard Rhymes
- ^ たんたんたぬきの
- ^ Dictionary entry for "tanuki gao" - the term returns less than 1,000 Google hits
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Dictionary
tanuki
-noun
- the raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides
- (mythology) the tanuki regarded as a shapeshifter, also renowned for its enormous scrotum
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