What is a bake-danuki?
The bake-danuki is a tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog) yokai that bewitches people and changes into people and objects. Together with the fox, it is the classic “trickster animal” of Japan; there is even a saying that the fox has seven transformations and the tanuki eight. While fox stories are often frightening, tanuki stories tend to be comical and a little goofy.
Legends of famous great tanuki
Shikoku is especially rich in tanuki legends. In Tokushima Prefecture, the “Awa Tanuki War” tells of tanuki splitting into two factions and fighting a great battle. Another tradition says there are no foxes in Shikoku because the monk Kobo Daishi drove them out. Danzaburo-danuki of Sado (Niigata), Tasaburo-danuki of Yashima (Kagawa) and Shibaemon-danuki of Awaji Island (Hyogo) are known as Japan’s “three famous tanuki.”
Tanuki in folktales
“Bunbuku Chagama,” handed down at Morinji temple in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, is a famous folktale about a tanuki that turns into a tea kettle and performs tightrope tricks. At Shojoji temple in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, a legend tells of tanuki drumming on their bellies on a moonlit night in a dance contest with the head priest, which inspired a well-known children’s song. Alongside the fox yokai, it is one of Japan’s most familiar tricksters.
