Talk:Japanese raccoon dog/Archive 1

message: Although I know little about Japanese folklore, I have corrected some of the more glaring errors in this article.  I don't know why earlier versions claimed that the tanuki was not the Japanese raccoon dog, when they are in fact two different names for the same animal.  Tanuki in art are shown as having large testicles because real tanuki have large testicles; the previously included metalworking explanation for this made no sense.  I hope someone who knows more about tanuki will be able to make further corrections and additions to this article. CKarnstein 16:46, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Raccoon dog 

message: Is it just me, or are the colors on the Japanese Folklore Info Box really horrible? To me it looks like some 8-year-old playing around with HTML for the first time. Am I missing something? 
Also, the formatting on the picture and stuff is a little screwy. Is my browser wacky? MikeDockery 06:45, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Japanese Folklore Info Box 

message: The infobox is way better. Props to Mitsukai! But the photo and headline is still screwy on my computer here at work (IE, Japanese XP). At home on my mac it was okay. I'll mess with it, but it might mess it up for other browsers. MikeDockery 23:49, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, I think I see the issue. Putting the drunken Tanuki photo "right" formatted forces it under the infobox, and the rest of the article is affected as a result. I'll work on it. Suggestions or edits would be appreciated. MikeDockery 23:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that I've got it looking decent on IE. I'll take a look on Safari when I get home. Might fool around with it a bit more. MikeDockery 00:06, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photo / Headline Formatting 

message: What's with the bad fan-art as a referance? This has nothing to do with tanuki in japanese culture.
I don't really want to delete it off the site since I didn't post it, but it's really inappropriate. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.248.86.72 (talk • contribs).
:Information on real tanuki may be found at raccoon dog. — BrianSmithson 19:09, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nice article, for the most part... 

message: In the one hand, the traditional Tanuki holds a bottle of sake, right? What is he holding in the other hand? J.J. 00:57, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Holding things

message: I'm having trouble understanding part of the Linguistic aspects section.  Specifically:
:The kanji for tanuki, 狸 (kyujitai: 貍), can be used interchangeably without change of meaning, while the former is currently more common.
What "former"?  The only halfway-plausible thing I can think of is that it's saying that the simplified kanji is mostly interchangeable with the older form -- but the older form is only mentioned parenthetically, which seems to make that unlikely.  Also:
:Originally, the characters were used to refer to mid-sized mammals, mostly wild cats. Since wild cats live in only very limited regions of Japan (e.g. Iriomote, Okinawa), it is believed that the characters began to be used for "tanuki" instead starting around the Japanese feudal era.
Does this refer to the character using the "cat" radical as well as the character using the "dog" one?  (I may be mistaken here in assuming that the radicals in Japanese are the same as in Chinese, and that they retain a semantic component.)
:Historically, this has been a source of confusion and misleading translations between the two languages.
Which two languages?  I think it's supposed to be Japanese and Chinese, but Chinese is not mentioned until the next paragraph.
24.159.255.29 02:50, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Linguistic aspects section messy and confusing 

message: Also, is turning into a stone statue part of the folklore?  It seems to be a property of tanukis in a few modern versions, e.g. Mario.
24.159.255.29 03:22, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stone statue form 

message: I've suggested a merge with "Raccoon Dog".  The articles deal with the same animal: one in fact, the other in fiction.  Both articles are short.  There is wikipedia precedent for having "in fiction" or "in literatute" sections associated with articles.
DarwinPeacock 08:28, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There's also precedent for splitting them. See Fox and Kitsune for one example. So, I oppose a merge, but would support a rename to Raccoon dogs in Japanese folklore. — BrianSmithson 07:38, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

text: I'd leave them separated, I think.  There's more that could be said about the tanuki, and it would lead to needing to split the article in the future.  Or having the biological information overwhelmed by the folkloric information.  In general, I think separate pages for creatures of folklore are good ideas.  (I also support using the native terms in cases where they're distinct to a culture, but that's a debate I don't need to get into again. ^_^) Shimeru 10:08, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

text: Against. In Japanese, they're the same. In English, raccoon dog refers to the animal found in more than just the specific region of Japan, and tanuki only refers to the Japanese Mythological Animal. Kitsune doesn't belong as a section under Fox. Irashtar 20:42, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

text: Against. IIRC they used to belong in a single article, but it was later split for reasons such as that given by Irashtar. —Tokek 02:39, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

text: This makes sense to me.  Should I just take off the suggested merge tag?  (I don't know what the process is). DarwinPeacock 00:23, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggested merge with Raccoon Dog 

message: However, the introduction to the article states "but tanuki are in fact two subspecies of raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides). These canid species native to Japan are N. p. viverrinus, the (ordinary) Japanese racoon dog and N. p. albus, the white variety found on Hokkaidō". It doesn't sound like the introduction to a mythical animal if you ask me. I agree that they should be separate articles, but as it stands right two the content of the articles overlap. Based on the introduction, to the reader it would appear that this "Tanuki" article is about the animal, not Japanese Folklore.
The article needs some serious cleanup. It states "While tanuki are prominent in Japanese folklore and proverbs, they were not always distinguished from other animals. ".  That sentence starts off referring to the mythical creature, then ends with "other animals" - contradicting itself.
Given that the merge was denied, I'm sticking a cleanup needed on this article. It overlaps with the Raccoon Dog article in confusing ways and can't seem to make up it's mind whether or not it wants to be about the animal or the folklore. 
I recommend using a structure similar to the Kitsune article or the other Japanese mythology articles. Unfortunately, I do not have sufficient knowledge of Tanuki folklore to perform the rewrite myself. 216.232.228.33 03:17, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Overlapping with Raccoon Dog article and serious cleanup needs 

message: On the all of the briefcases, I noticed a double ring. Is that the symbol of the marriage?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hamster2.0 (talk • contribs) 14:41, 5 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question about the Rainy Day Tanuki picture 

message: Hachi isn't introduced as a badger, but he's introduced as a raccoon dog. Can I change it?
Tanner9461 (talk) 01:26, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hachi from "InuYasha" 

message: I deleted the following entries;
*There is no linked article in the entry.
*There is no reference to a word "tanuki" in the linked article. 
: -- Phoenix7777 (talk) 22:52, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Clean up "In popular culture"

message: There seems to have been quite an edit-war of people adding the videogame Super Mario Bros. and the Miyazaki Anime Pom-Poko as pop-cultural references. Both these qualify far more for the term pop-culture than the Tom Robbins novel remaining in the article. I propose to either allow those references, or get rid of the section completely to avoid further edit-wars (and restore a bit of common sense).
217.94.255.153 (talk) 18:22, 12 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: As for the anime "Ponpoko", it is already mentioned in the Folklore section. The duplicate should be avoided. As for Tanuki suit in Mario, it's just a gadget only in Super Mario Bros. 3. It's not even a minor character. It should be at least a protagonist of a novel/game/film/anime. The suit is a very minor trivia. No, I don't think it's acceptable. Oda Mari (talk) 10:35, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Trivia so "minor" that gamers nearly rioted with excitement when they heard the Tanuki suit was coming back in this year's Mario game. That tail was the stinkin' box art to both the games it's appeared in; it's significant. CaptHayfever (talk) 23:09, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The Tanooki Suit from Super Mario Bros. 3 should definitely be included in Popular Culture, it's more famous and influential than anything else currently written there. I demand a reason as to why it's being omitted, otherwise I'll simply keep adding it in.  And Oda Mari, get over your own personal bias. ExecuteRobot --Don't mess with the ROBOT (talk) 10:38, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I remove it because there is no Tanuki suit article at en WP. It just an item in two games in the Mario series, not even a character. I'm glad as a native ja speaker that you enjoy Japanese games, but not everyone in the world plays the games and has no interest in them. Those who do not play the games may have heard of the Mario games, but not the suit. It is just an item. And why only Tanuki suit? what about other items? Are they mentioned in linked articles? As far as I checked, there were none. To think the suit is notable and important is your bias. Sorry, but it's only a trivia.  Oda Mari (talk) 14:27, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: On the contrary, Super Mario Bros. 3 is such a well-known video game that it largely introduced tanukis to American pop culture through the Tanooki Suit. I know I and many others never would have even known about tanukis if not for SMB3. There's no reason it has to be a living "character" like you said since the in-game representation plays such a prominent role. Your argument is invalid, not "everyone in the world" cares about Beast Wars Neo or Villa Incognito either. Again, you're the only one with objection to this, and I think you need to swallow your pride.  Either SMB3 is included or we abolish the entire category, however right now you're the only one who is being recalcitrant.--Don't mess with the ROBOT (talk) 23:48, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Super Mario Tanooki Suit

message: There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Japanese raccoon dog which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you.  —RMCD bot 19:02, 19 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Move discussion in progress