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Tanuki are thought to be dim-witted and absent-minded, decadent and licentious.  They are one of the many animals in Japanese folk belief that are thought to have the ability to shape-shift or, like foxes, cast illusions.  In fact, many of the traditional monsters ([[bakemono|obake]]) of Japan are thought to be transformations of the tanuki or other such animals.  These transformations are sometimes said to be facilitated by the placement of a leaf or a bone on the animal's head.  Tanuki are also used as excuses for drunken stumbling, called ''ashimagari'' 足曲がり, with stories claiming that their tails coil purposefully around the legs of those out walking late at night.  Tanuki are also believed to be responsible for some of the many sound phenomena in isolated rural areas, such as the sound of a tree being cut down when no tree has actually fallen, or false cries that a village is on fire.  They will also roll stones down mountains at people or take the shape of firewood bundles to trick people.   

Tanuki are thought to be dim-witted and absent-minded, decadent and licentious.  They are one of the many animals in Japanese folk belief that are thought to have the ability to shape-shift or, like foxes, cast illusions.  In fact, many of the traditional monsters ([[bakemono|obake]]) of Japan are thought to be transformations of the tanuki or other such animals.  These transformations are sometimes said to be facilitated by the placement of a leaf or a bone on the animal's head.  Tanuki are also used as excuses for drunken stumbling, called ''ashimagari'' 足曲がり, with stories claiming that their tails coil purposefully around the legs of those out walking late at night.  Tanuki are also believed to be responsible for some of the many sound phenomena in isolated rural areas, such as the sound of a tree being cut down when no tree has actually fallen, or false cries that a village is on fire.  They will also roll stones down mountains at people or take the shape of firewood bundles to trick people.   

[[Image:ShunsenMamedanuki.jpg|thumb|200px|Mamedanuki 豆狸, a tanuki using its distended scrotum as a shelter from the rain.]]Ceramic tanuki statues are often seen outside Japanese businesses and people's homes.  They are usually depicted as rotund animals wearing a straw hat, carrying a bottle of sake and a written bill.  In such statues the tanuki's scrotum is usually engorged; and indeed much tanuki folklore is associated with this part of male anatomy.  It is said that a tanuki can stretch the skin of its scrotum to the size of an eight-mat room (a room the size of eight tatami mats).  One old tale even tells of such a room in which many people gathered, seeking shelter from the rain, until one of them dropped his cigarette on the floor, causing the tanuki to yelp in pain and thus expose himself.  Tanuki have also been depicted in art using their scrotum as a sort of fleshy umbrella, or to dress it up in certain props to make it look like another monster.  There is a popular folk song which goes, ''"Tan tan tanuki no kintama wa, Kaze mo nai no ni, Bura bura bura"''; meaning, roughly, "Tan tan tanuki's balls, even when there's no wind, go swing-swing".  But the most famous aspect of the tanuki's scrotum is that, at night, the animal will inflate it to a great size and use it as a drum in its many parades, the sound of which can be heard from great distances as ''pon poko pon''.  (It is also said that they may beat their bellies to make this sound.)  In contexts most concerned with this aspect, the tanuki is sometimes called ''mamedanuki'' 豆狸.

[[Image:ShunsenMamedanuki.jpg|thumb|200px|Mamedanuki 豆狸, a tanuki using its distended scrotum as a shelter from the rain.]]Ceramic tanuki statues are often seen outside Japanese businesses and people's homes.  They are usually depicted as rotund animals wearing a straw hat, carrying a bottle of sake and a written bill.  In such statues the tanuki's scrotum is usually engorged; and indeed much tanuki folklore is associated with this part of male anatomy.  It is said that a tanuki can stretch the skin of its scrotum to the size of an eight-mat room (a room the size of eight tatami mats).  One old tale even tells of such a room in which many people gathered, seeking shelter from the rain, until one of them dropped his cigarette on the floor, causing the tanuki to yelp in pain and thus expose himself.  Tanuki have also been depicted in art using their scrotum as a sort of fleshy umbrella, or to dress it up in certain props to make it look like another monster.  There is a popular folk song which goes, ''"Tan tan tanuki no kintama wa, Kaze mo nai no ni, Bura bura bura"''; meaning, roughly, "Tan tan tanuki's balls, even when there's no wind, go swing-swing".  But the most famous aspect of the tanuki's scrotum is that, at night, the animal will inflate it to a great size and use it as a drum in its many parades, the sound of which can be heard from great distances as ''pon poko pon''.  (It is also said that they may beat their bellies to make this sound.)  In contexts most concerned with this aspect, the tanuki is sometimes called ''mamedanuki'' 豆狸.

 

Lastly, there is a Japanese proverb that goes, ''Toranu tanuki no kawa zanyô'', meaning roughly "to count the worth of the pelts of tanuki that haven't yet been caught", a sentiment equal to the similar Western saying about counting chickens before they hatch.

Lastly, there is a Japanese proverb that goes, ''Toranu tanuki no kawa zanyô'', meaning roughly "to count the worth of the pelts of tanuki that haven't yet been caught", a sentiment equal to the similar Western saying about counting chickens before they hatch.

* Seki Keigo.  (1954)  "Foxes and Badgers".  ''Studies in Mountain Village Life'', ed. George K. Brady. University of Kentucky Press.   

* Seki Keigo.  (1954)  "Foxes and Badgers".  ''Studies in Mountain Village Life'', ed. George K. Brady. University of Kentucky Press.   

* Yanagita Kunio.  (1977)  ''Yôkai meii''.  Kodansha.   

* Yanagita Kunio.  (1977)  ''Yôkai meii''.  Kodansha.   

 

[[Category:Folklore]][[Category:Bakemono]]

[[Category:Folklore]][[Category:Bakemono]]