Tanuki
Spend a little time walking around any Japanese city and soon you’ll recognize the ubiquity of these little fellows:
“Tanuki” are easy to spot in front of restaurants, bars, various shops, and even homes. They come in many varieties, from the roughly half-human height of the old-style statue above, to tiny childlike Tanuki, to full human-sized statues like this one spotted in Tenri, Japan:
According to The Japanese and Buddhist Photo Dictionary, the town of Shiragaki is home to Tanuki statues as large as homes. A friend of mine who visited the town mentioned eating at a coffee shop inside a giant Tanuki statue. (Another site has a great page on the “tanuki’s day off”, a celebration of Tanuki started in Shiragaki.)
So why are these critters so common? I asked a few friends whether they knew anything about the statues and found them completely at a loss. “I think it’s an owl,” one girl said, while another said he has “something to do with fertility,” and one more person suggested that the size of his testicles (which are always depicted very large) has a direct relation to the amount of wealth he is supposed to bring to the shop he stands near. One person referenced the Tanuki’s having magical powers of transformation whenever it places a leaf on its head. One Japanese student, about 20, said he’s encountered the real animal, but has no idea why there are so many Tanuki statues in front of homes and shops. Another Japanese student said he thinks they “help prevent bad things like disease,” and that young Japanese people don’t clearly know what a Tanuki is. I guess that having grown up with them all around, Japanese are not so shocked and curious about the bizarre and explicitly-anatomical statues that strike foreigners as very strange.
The Japanese and Buddhist Photo Dictionary says “Tanuki appear often in Japanese folklore as shape-shifters with supernatural powers and mischievous tendencies.” And in complete agreement with what I’ve seen, it goes on to note, “The beckoning Tanuki is most often depicted with a big round tummy, gigantic testicles, a flask of sake, a promissory note, and a straw hat.” The page later mentions that the Tanuki never pays the promissory note, going along with the mythical creature’s supposed trickster attitude.
Every Tanuki statue I’ve seen is clearly a Tanuki statue. There’s definitely a lot of variation, but I agree with Pink Tentacle that they all appear to share these traits:
“The eight traits are: (1) a bamboo hat that protects against trouble, (2) big eyes to perceive the environment and help make good decisions, (3) a sake bottle that represents virtue, (4) a big tail that provides steadiness and strength until success is achieved, (5) over-sized testicles (referred to as “blob” in the illustration above) that symbolize financial luck, (6) a promissory note that represents trust, (7) a big belly that symbolizes bold decisiveness, and (8) a friendly smile.”
The common Tanuki statue is in many ways an exaggeration of the real animal, which shares the name, that inspired it:
(image from: http://pettalestogo.com/TheRaccoonDog_ProtectIt.html)
By the way, I saw two Tanuki at around 1am at the Osaka Komatsu plant, so if you’re around there keep an eye out. I tried to snap a picture but given their magical powers I’m not surprised they managed to notice me and scamper off before I could.
2 years ago - read more...
