Blame the tanuki š¦
Last weekend we headed to the mountains again to ski (which was amazing!), and on our drive back home, as the sun was setting, I finally spotted my first tanuki!
Never heard of a tanuki? We hadnāt eitherā¦ but when we first arrived we saw them right away, in the form of little statues outside peopleās homes and shops. They looked like raccoons, but apparently they are actually the likeness of a wild canine that is native to the area: in English they are simply called a āraccoon dogā.
We quickly learned that tanuki are real, but there is also a lot of folklore surrounding these illusive creatures. In legend, tanuki are known as shapeshifters that can turn into objects, other animals, or even humans (to fool them, or sometimes just to drink and party with them).
Most of the stories about tanuki focus on their mischievous side. Some things that have been known to do:
magically create walls to block peopleās paths at night
disorient hikers and hunters by making sounds with their ābelly drumā
create mirages (some legends of Yashima Tasaburo tanuki say he even transformed into a fleet of Navy ships!)
turn leaves into money
shape-shift into an everyday object (In one of the most famous stories Bunbuku Chagama, a teakettle suddenly sprouts a tail and runs away)
shape-shift into a beautiful woman
But, they can use their trickery for good too:
lend money to people with financial troubles
serve as a protector and guardian angel of business owners
help drunk people get home safely
With all of these tricky tanuki about, Iām sure we have encountered them before, we just didnāt know it! Like last week, when I couldnāt find my car keysā¦ šš¦
It is convenient to have someone to blame when things go wrong. Or be inspired to cause mischief yourself, like doing tanuki ineiri (a tanuki nap), which refers to ātaking a napā (pretending to be asleep) at an inopportune time.
Iām not sure if tanuki can play their tricks outside of the Japan, but you may have encountered them without realizing itā¦ they are commonly depicted in cultural exports, including anime and video games (like Animal Crossing and Super Mario 3)!
Watch out!!
There is another thing that often comes to mind when people think of tanuki: their giant ābagā. In many illustrations and likenesses of tanuki (including those cute little statues) they have disproportionately large scrotums. While this is not exactly anatomically correct, metalworkers did use tanuki scrotum skin to wrap gold when they were pounding it into gold leaf because it was so stretchy. The common estimate for how much a tanuki scrotum skin can stretch is hachijo-jiki (8åø) ā the size of 8 tatami mats (or approx. 12mĀ²) š®
As such, the tanuki became legendary for this reason too, and many more stories exist about the good deeds they did with their mythically massive ābagsā. Hereās a fun video with more info on thatā¦ (PG content ā sorry, Mrs. Bowman!)
P.S. Wile E tries to blame the tanuki for things tooā¦
So cool you spotted one!!
lol that tanuki bag lesson is cracking me up! š