The Tanuki Page

What the hell is a Tanuki?

The Tanuki or Japanese raccoon faced dog is a real creature living in the region of Japan around the Amur river. It is Canis viverriuns, nyctereutes or procionides, that belongs to the dog family.

In Japanese folklore the Tanuki has physical strength far above normal and great supernatural powers. It can change shape at will. As a goblin, the Tanuki is a peculiarly mischievous creature taking all sorts of disguises to waylay, deceive or annoy travelers. Standing by the road side on its hindlegs, it distends its belly (or rather scrotum) and strikes it with its forepaws as a drum (see photos). In a priestly disguise, the Tanuki wraps itself in lotus leaves, with a lotus flower doing duty as hat. The Tanuki is also depicted in a fox like form, playing wonderful, crazy and dangerous pranks with his enormous scrotum, which measures in size exactly eight tatami mats.

Because of its pot belly, the Tanuki is associated with two other figures with large stomachs, the Fugu (blow) fish and Hotei, the fat, hilarious God of Luck. The famous Shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa, was irreverently referred to as Furu Tanuki, old Badger. In present day Japan, a statue of a Tanuki is often stationed outside of a shop or restaurant, beckoning to customers to visit the establishment. Any resemblance between the Tanuki and the proprietor of Tanuki Enterprises is completely coincidental.
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Why do you like the Tanuki so much?

Didn't you read that last answer? The whole folklore behind the Tanuki is just so cool that I've become such a fan of the creature, real or not. I'd love to get my own little pet Tanuki, but I doubt they're all that friendly and the fact that they're all the way over in Japan doesn't help anything either. Also, everyone's favorite anime movie studio, Studio Ghibli, made a movie all around the Tanukis and they're fight against the humans who are taking their land. It's supposedly coming to the US via Disney at the end of the summer, which is very, very cool news. I can't wait to see it since my torrent of the Japanese version just stopped downloading so I had to delete it and wait for the DVD to come out.

What are those pics up there at the top of the page?

Thanks for noticing, the first pic is an avatar that my good friend Moxio from CAG drew for me which he did a very good job on it. The little video there is from a commercial in Japan that used Little Red Riding Hood since the name closely resembled her Japanese name. You can check out the commercial in both its long and short form here. If you're really interested in learning more about the Tanuki, by all means use google as it'll help you find tons of info on the little creatures.