Japanese raccoon dog

"Tanuki" redirects here. For the Tanuki-style bonsai, see Deadwood bonsai techniques.

Japanese raccoon dog
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Nyctereutes
Species:	N. procyonoides
Subspecies:	N. p. viverrinus
Trinomial name
Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus

The Japanese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus), also known as tanuki (狸 or たぬき) in Japanese, is a subspecies of the raccoon dog native to Japan.

Researchers have suggested that they be considered a separate species, N. viverrinus, or that raccoon dogs of Japan could be further divisible into separate subspecies as N. p. procyonoides (hondo-tanuki) and N. p. albus (ezo-tanuki), but both views are controversial

As the tanuki, the animal has been significant in Japanese folklore since ancient times. The legendary tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absentminded. It is also a common theme in Japanese art, especially statuary.

"Tanuki" is often sometimes mistakenly translated into English as badger, an unrelated type of animal with a superficially similar appearance. Traditionally, different areas of Japan had different names for raccoon dogs as animals, which would be used to denote different animals in other parts of the country, including badgers and wild cats; however the official word in the standard Tokyo dialect is now tanuki, a term that also carries the folkloric significance.

Taxonomic disputes

Japanese raccoon dogs at Fukuyama, Hiroshima

Taxidermy of an Japanese raccoon dog, wearing waraji on its feet and standing, displayed in Morinji where folklore of Bunbuku Chagama is, Tatebayashi Gunma Prefecture

There is some debate in the scientific community regarding speciation between the other subspecies of raccoon dog and the Japanese subspecies in that due to chromosomal, behavioral, and weight differences, the Japanese raccoon dog could be considered a separate species (i.e. Nyctereutes viverrinus rather than N. procyonoides viverrinus).

Genetic analysis confirmed unique sequences of mtDNA, classifying the Japanese raccoon dog as a distinct isolation species, based on evidence of eight Robertsonian translocations. The International Union for Conservation of Nature Canid Group's Canid Biology and Conservation Conference in September 2001 rejected the classification of the Japanese raccoon dog as a separate species, but its status is still disputed, based on its elastic genome.

A not necessarily mutually exclusive position advanced by some researchers is that raccoon dogs of Japan could be further divisible into separate subspecies as N. p. procyonoides (hondo-tanuki) and N. p. albus (ezo-tanuki).^{[citation needed]}

Bake-danuki

Pottery statue of tanuki

Bake-danuki (化け狸) are a kind of yōkai of tanuki found in the classics and in the folklore and legends of various places in Japan.

The original tanuki is an existent kind of mammal, but the kind in literature was written from old times to be a strange animal. As the oldest, in the Nara period, Empress Suiko of the Nihon Shoki wrote such passages as "in two months of spring, there are mujina in the country of Mutsu (春二月陸奥有狢), they turn into humans and sing songs (化人以歌).". Next, they were written in such classics as the Nihon Ryōiki and the Uji Shūi Monogatari. In various places in Japan, like kitsune (foxes), they shapeshift into other things, shapeshift people, and left tales where they had abilities to possess humans and things like that.

There are many legends of tanuki in the Sado Islands of Niigata Prefecture and in Shikoku, and among them, like the danzaburou-danuki of Sado, the awa-tanuki-gassen of Awa Province (Tokushima Prefecture), and the yasima-no-hage-danuki of Kagawa Prefecture, the tanuki who possessed special abilities are given names, and even became the subject of rituals. Other than in these places, there are not few cases where they are treated with special fame.

The character 狸, pronounced lí in modern Mandarin, was originally a collective name for medium-sized mammals resembling cats in China, with the leopard cat as its nucleus. When this character was brought to Japan, there were no animals to which this character could be suitably applied. At the time, it can be seen that an intellectual used this character to signify tanuki, stray cats, wild boars, Eurasian badgers, weasels, and Japanese giant flying squirrels.

The tanuki of Japan from time immemorial were deified as governing all things in nature, but after the arrival of Buddhism, animals other than envoys of the gods (foxes, snakes, etc.) lost their divinity. Since all that remained was the image of possessing special powers, they were seen as evil or as yōkai, with tanuki being a representative type. Some also take the viewpoint that the image of the tanuki has overlapped with that of the mysterious and fearful 狸 of China (leopard cat). However, since the tanuki of Japan do not have the fearsome image that the leopard-cats of China do, unlike in China their image took the form of a more humorous kind of monster, and even in folktales like Kachi-kachi Yama, and Bunbuku Chagama, they often played the part of foolish animals.

Compared with kitsune (foxes), which are the epitome of shape-changing animals, there is the saying that "the fox has seven disguises, the tanuki has eight (狐七化け、狸八化け)". The tanuki is thus superior to the fox in its disguises, but unlike the fox, which changes its form for the sake of tempting people, tanuki do so to fool people and make them seem stupid. There is also the theory that they simply like to change their form.

A common schoolyard song in Japan makes explicit reference to the tanuki's testicles:

Tan Tan Tanuki no kintama wa,
Kaze mo nai no ni,
Bura bura

('"Tan-tan-tan", tanuki's bollocks ring/The wind stops blowing/But they swing, swing, swing') It continues for several verses, with many regional variations. It is sung to the melody of an American Baptist hymn called "Shall We Gather at the River?".

The legendary tanuki has eight special traits that bring good fortune, possibly created to coincide to the Hachi symbol (meaning 'eight') often found on the sake bottles the statues hold. The eight traits are:

• a hat to be ready to protect against trouble or bad weather;
• big eyes to perceive the environment and help make good decisions;
• a sake bottle that represents virtue;
• a big tail that provides steadiness and strength until success is achieved;
• over-sized testicles that symbolize financial luck;
• a promissory note that represents trust or confidence;
• a big belly that symbolizes bold and calm decisiveness; and
• a friendly smile.

Tanuki statues at a temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan.

Name

Tanuki with typically enlarged scrotum, in a print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

While tanuki are prominent in Japanese folklore and proverbs, they were not always clearly distinguished from other animals with a similar appearance. In local dialects, tanuki and mujina (狢, kyujitai: 貉) can refer to raccoon dogs or badgers. An animal known as tanuki in one region may be known as mujina in another region. In modern Tokyo standard dialect, tanuki refers to raccoon dogs and anaguma refers to badgers. Regional dishes known as tanuki-jiru ("tanuki soup") may actually contain either raccoon dog or badger, although the taste of the latter is often preferred.

Originally, the kanji for tanuki, 狸 (kyujitai: 貍) was used to refer to other mid-sized mammals, mostly wild cats.^{[citation needed]} Since wild cats live only in limited regions of Japan (e.g. Iriomote, Okinawa), it is believed that the characters began to be used to mean 'raccoon dog' instead starting around the Japanese feudal era. This shift in meaning, along with the rarity of the raccoon dog outside Japan, may have contributed to confusion over the proper translation of "tanuki" into other languages.

In Japanese slang, tanuki gao ("raccoon dog face") can refer to a face that looks like that of the animal, or a person's facial expression of feigned ignorance. By contrast, kitsune gao ("fox face") refers to people with narrow faces, close-set eyes, thin eyebrows and high cheekbones.

Controversy

PETA featured the animal in a Super Mario Bros. game series spoof in which a skinned tanuki tries to get its fur back from Mario, in order to bring attention to the issue that tanuki are skinned alive to obtain their fur.

Suggested further reading

• 池田彌三郎他編 (1974). 日本民俗誌大系. 第3巻. 角川書店. ISBN 978-4-04-530303-6. 
• 桜井徳太郎編 (1980). 民間信仰辞典. 東京堂出版. ISBN 978-4-490-10137-9. 
• 多田克己 (1990). 幻想世界の住人たち. Truth in fantasy. IV. 新紀元社. ISBN 978-4-915146-44-2. 
• 中村禎里 (1990). 狸とその世界. 朝日選書. 朝日新聞社. ISBN 978-4-02-259500-3. 
• 日野巌 (2006). 動物妖怪譚. 中公文庫. 下. 中央公論新社. ISBN 978-4-12-204792-1. 

External links

Media related to Tanuki at Wikimedia Commons

• "Report: Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus" in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• "Tanuki" entry at The Obakemono Project
• Tanuki stories from Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Translated Japanese Ghost Stories and Tales of the Weird and the Strange
• "Tanuki" entry at The Portal of Transformation
• "Tanuki" entry at The A-Z Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Statuary
• "How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished", a folktale collected by Andrew Lang.