Within the past 2-3 months of being on this blog, I have only done one post on mythology, so why not write some more. Today’s myth focuses on the tanuki, a character who not only is this blog’s mascot, but is also a character in my books. These funny little creatures are one of the most well known kami/yokai in Japanese mytholgy and if you’ve ever been to Kyoto, you might’ve seen them all over the place.
#1: What is a Tanuki
The tanuki is a yokai (a supernatural spirit or entitiy) that rivals the kitsune in terms of popularity. Like the kitsune, it possesses magical powers and can shapeshift into humans, sometimes living their whole lives as humans and emulating them, for better or for worse. While tanuki enjoy playing pranks on people, these drunk little critters are often revered by families and store owners. The reason why is because they are said to bring wealth, wisdom (which is ironic since they are sometimes characterized as being very gullible), confidence, trustworthiness, protection, steadfastness, fertility, boldness and virtue (which is represented by a sake bottle).
However, their best power is their power of being cute in real life. While real life tanuki don’t posses any magic powers, they are known as raccon dogs (they don’t have any relations with actual raccoons) and are incredibly fluffy. Behold the cuteness!
#2: Different types of tanuki
There are two types of tanuki; your regular tanuki and the bake-danuki. The regular tanuki is a trickster, but is for the most part harmless. In some cases, the tanuki’s pranks will often be for your good, perhaps moving you away from danger to a better spot.
The bake-danuki, however, is not harmless. Its name literally translates to “monster tanuki” or “trickster tanuki” and they have been known to posses humans (very similar to kitsune) and bring bad omens. Basically, they are the evil dopplegangers of the tanuki. In some myths, they would force humans to do horrible things and were a bunch of little psychopaths.
#3: Stories of the tanuki
The first story is called “Bunbuku” or “The Tea Kettle Story.” While it comes in many different versions, the most widely accepted one goes like this; a tanuki was saved from something by a poor woodsman. The tanuki in return transformed himself into a tea kettle, which the woodsman sold to a priest who doesn’t realize the tea kettle is a tanuki. When he gets back to the temple, the tanuki also realizes that turning into a tea kettle was a bad idea, since – as you can imagine – it obviously hurt being hung over a fire and polished all the time (especially when you take into acount that tanukis used their giant yarbles to transform into things). Finally, the tanuki got tired of that and decided to escape the temple and go back to the woodsman who had sold him. In the spirit of tanuki being bringers of prosperity, the tanuki offered himself as an entertainer and so they lived in peace and wealth as people came to watch the dancing tea kettle on the tight rope.
Another tanuki tale is about what I would classify as a bake-danuki. What happened was a tanuki was stealing from an old farmer’s feild and when the farmer’s wife caught him, he used his powers of deception to get her to let him go. Obviously this was a mistake, since the minute she put him down, he killed her and ran away laughing with his loot. When the farmer came home and found out what had happened, he wanted to avenge his wife, so he got the help of a rabbit to bring the tanuki to justice.
The rabbit found the tanuki and I suppose he befriended him (sorta) since the story continues to a scene where the rabbit and the tanuki are gathering firewood. The two seem to be getting along, but the rabbit had a nefarious plan. While they were going home, the rabbit caught the wood on the tanuki’s back on fire. “What’s that noise?” the tanuki asked. “Why’s it getting hot?”
“He-he. Oh, that? Shouldn’t you know by now?” the rabbit responded. (Fun fact: in the original Japanese, the rabbit said “Kachi-Kachi” which is the sound made to represent flint being used to light a fire.)
I suppose the rabbit and the tanuki still somehow stayed friends after the fire incident because the tale ends when the tanuki and rabbit decide to have a boat race across a lake. However, while the rabbit was smart and used something boyant and durable, the tanuki had decided to make a boat out of mud, which inevitably sank, leading to him drowning to death.
#4: Tanuki can get drunk but can’t handle coffee.
Okay, this is something I made up for my books, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until I get my stories copyrighted to read that. But that would be great if this was actual tanuki lore.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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