Japanesetanuki

Real tanuki

Heiseitanukigassennponnpoko that is tanuki's famouse Japanese anime movie by Hayao Miyazaki

Tanuki is sysmbol of happiness

Tanukijiru

Tanukisoba

The legs are short and almost black. The tail is thick and bushy. Color of the body is dark brown and yellowish. Circumstances of eyes are black, white muzzle, look like a raccoon's facial marking.
They are secretive and not truculent. So they tend to hide or scream rather than fight when they are frightened.

They live with family　and they are nocturnal.

＊deta＊

Name: Raccoon Dog (Nyctereuctes procyonoides)
Family: Canidae

Body Length: 50 to 60 cm

Tail length: 13-18cm
Weight: 4 to 10 kg

Diet: Major foods are frogs and fish. They also eat rodents,birds,inects, plants, acorns, fruit, berries and rubbish. They are omnivorous.

Life span: about 10 years

Habitat: a mountain region and a grassland
Range: only inhabit in East Asia(Japan, China, Korea etc...), but in 1928, they were put into Russia for the purpose of taking the fur, and they became wild animal in there, as a result, through Poland and Germany, they inhibit in Finland and Germany now.

Life Cycle: coupling January to March, born four to eight pups

They are raccoon or dog?

They similar to a raccoon but it is not closely related to a raccoon. As you can see by its family name "Canidae”, raccoon dog is certainly a dog.

In Japan・・・
In recent years it’s populations have declined by hunting , urbanization and so on. It is said that about 70,000 raccoon dogs are killed every year in Japan because of the fur trade. They are also used medical preparations.

Recently, forests in the mountain where Tanuki live is decreasing because of development, so a number of Tanuki that live in the city is increasing, and there can be seeing Tanuki　in the city.

This movie portrayed the fight for human and Tanuki.

The Tanuki are portrayed as a highly sociable, mischievous species, able to use "illusion science" to transform into almost anything but too fond of tasty treats and too gullible to be a real threat (unlike the wicked kitsune and other shapeshifters).

Visually, the Tanuki are portrayed three ways: the realistic dogs, the "humanoid" form they wear when no one else is looking (this one is based on traditional Japanese good-luck figurines) and the "cartoony" form which they fall into while doing something outlandish or whimsical.

The story takes place in 1960's Japan, where a group of Tanuki is threatened by a gigantic suburban development project outside Tokyo cutting into their forest habitat, terraforming and dividing their land.

The Tanuki begin fighting for the diminishing resources of their habitat, but then decide to unify against the humans to stop the construction.

We imagine Tanuki has a big scrotum, this is because when we make gold
works, extend gold with fur of Tanuki, it spreads well. So Tanuki became
to be put in the garden as a motif
that calls happiness. That is to say, Tanuki was deal with symbol of gold.

It was believed that Tanuki bewitch people since long ago.

There were many old Japanese story about Tanuki and their character is various, some are good for people, some are very bad, some are funny and some can shape-shifteing…In now, we imageine Tanuki is funny and cunning.

But during the Muromachi eras, Tanuki that appear in Japanese old story is more dreadful like a monstar, the Otogizoshi story of "Kachi-kachi Yama" features a tanuki that clubs an old lady to death and serves her to her unknowing husband as "old lady soup".

The current humorous image of tanuki is thought to have been developed during the Kamakura era.

This is the soup that is using bulb of konnyaku (a gelatinous food made from devil's-tongue starch).

The color of it is like Tanuki, so people call it “Tanukiziru”

Tanuiki Soba bits of fried batter left after cooking tempura on buckwheat noodles.

In Japan, ingredient of tempura calls “tane”.

There is no tempura’s “tane” in Tanuki soba, and this is called “tanenuki” in Japanese (“nuki” means “There is no….”).

So, “tanenuki” is called the “tanuki” for short.