page_title: Bake-danuki
section_title: Ongoing popular tradition
hierarchical_section_title: Bake-danuki / Ongoing popular tradition
caption_attribution_description: Statue of Tanuki (Raccoon) at entrance to a Shrine
context_page_description: Bake-danuki are a kind of tanuki yōkai found in the classics and in the folklore and legends of various places in Japan, commonly associated with the Japanese raccoon dog or tanuki.
  Although the tanuki is a real, extant animal, the bake-danuki that appears in literature has always been depicted as a strange, even supernatural animal. The earliest appearance of the bake-danuki in literature, in the chapter about Empress Suiko in the Nihon Shoki written during the Nara period, there are such passages as "in two months of spring, there are tanuki in the country of Mutsu, they turn into humans and sing songs. ". Bake-danuki subsequently appear in such classics as the Nihon Ryōiki and the Uji Shūi Monogatari. In some regions of Japan, bake-danuki are reputed to have abilities similar to those attributed to kitsune: they can shapeshift into other things or people, and can possess human beings.
context_section_description: A common schoolyard song in Japan makes explicit reference to the tanuki's testicles:
  Japanese:
  Tan-tan-tanuki no kintama wa,
  Kaze mo nai no ni,
  Bu-ra bura
  English translation:
  Tan-tan-tanuki's bollocks,
  Even without wind,
  They swiiing-swing!
  on the melody of Shall We Gather at the River?.
  It continues for several verses, with many regional variations.
  The legendary tanuki has eight special traits that bring good fortune, possibly created to coincide to the hachi symbol (八, meaning 'eight') often found on the sake bottles the statues hold. The eight traits are these:
  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;
  an oversized scrotum that symbolizes financial luck;
  a promissory note that represents trust or confidence;
  a big belly that symbolizes bold and calm decisiveness; and
  a friendly smile.
  The statues available all over Japan of the tanuki are Shigaraki ware, a style of pottery long associated with tanuki imagery. According to Alice Gordenker, the modern version of the tanuki was developed by a potter named Tetsuzo Fujiwara, who moved to Shiga Prefecture in 1936 and whose pottery was admired even by the emperor.
caption: Tanuki next to a shrine
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