The Ultimate Yōkai Guide

Tanuki

The tanuki is a kind of canine that resembles a raccoon. It is one of the most well known kinds of yōkai. Tanuki and kitsune are often portrayed as rivals of each other and are both known as shapeshifting tricksters. Like kitsune, tanuki can be either benevolent or malevolent. While kitsune are generally portrayed as more calm and cunning, tanuki are more commonly thought to be playful and jolly. They are also quite gullible and absent-minded

Kitsune and tanuki are often portrayed as rivals. The saying "The fox has seven disguises; the tanuki has eight." suggests that tanuki are more skilled shapeshifter than kitsune. However, tanuki often use their ability for less ambitions means. While a kitsune may try to seduce a human and take advantage of them while in human form, a tanuki will usually only shape shift in order to pull pranks. 

Tanuki are commonly associated with eight traits that have symbolic importance:

1. They wear hats to protect them from trouble or bad weather.

2. They have big eyes to help them perceive their environment and make good decisions.

3. They carry a sake bottle that represents virtue.

4. They have big tails that provide them with steadiness and strength.

5. They have huge testicles that represent financial luck. This feature of tanuki is an exaggeration of the real animal's unusually large testicles. Tanuki can turn their testicles into just about anything including an umbrella, a fan, or even an entire shop.

6. They carry a promissory note representing trust or confidence.

7. They have big bellies that represent calm decisiveness.

8. Lastly, they have big smiles that show their friendliness.

These eight traits are featured on statues of tanuki that are thought to bring good luck.

One of these traits, the tanuki's large testicles, has led to localization problems. In one particular case, in the dub of the movie Pom Poko, this particular part of the tanuki's anatomy is referred to as "raccoon pouches".  The dub also erroneously refers to tanuki as raccoons. This is another common error in localization. Tanuki are sometimes erroneously called badgers as well.

Some of the most intelligent and magically adept tanuki adopt human names and practices such as drinking, gambling, and following religions while in their human form. They can live their entire lives among humans without being detected. However, these tanuki are not free from the corruption that sometimes affects humans. They can sometimes develop reputations as liars, thieves, drunkards, and cheats.

FUN FACT: Real life tanuki are shy nocturnal animals. They are extremely common in the forests of Japan.

Examples in various media: 

Shukaku (Naruto) Shukaku was once thought to be the corrupt spirit of a priest. Although this was later proven false, this element of his backstory is a reference to a Japanese legend of a tanuki disguised as a shrine's priest. An element of his backstory that was proven true, him being sealed into a teakettle at one point, is a reference to another story called Bunbuku Chagama.

In this folktale, a tanuki turns itself into a teakettle and tells the man who freed it from a trap to sell him for money. The teakettle is sold to a monk who uses it to boil tea. Frightened and in pain, the tanuki reverts to its animal form. There are two versions of how this story ends. 

In one, the tanuki returns to the man who freed him from the trap and the two set up a circus-like attraction where the tanuki walks on a tightrope in its teapot form. The man becomes wealthy and the tanuki lives happily with his friend.

In the other version of the ending, the tanuki does not run away and turns back into a teakettle. Shocked, the monk decides to leave it as an offering to a poor temple and it is never used to make tea again. The temple becomes famous for its dancing teapot.

Shigaraki (Gugure! Kokkuri-san)

Tom Nook (Animal Crossing) He is erroneously called a raccoon in the English versions of the games.