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Raccoon balls
(hexbear.net)
I tried to look it up: These depictions began to appear during the Edo era (1603-1868) and, as far as I can tell, it's not entirely known why they had these gargantuan ballsacks.
Their skin, used by artisans, was known for it's great elasticity. In Japanese folklore, the tanuki are capable of shapeshifting.
In Japan today, tanuki statues are often placed outside establishments such as restaurants, and are said to bring good fortune.
Real raccoons do not have enormous balls.
TLN: ~~keikaku means plan~~ Tanuki means raccoon
"tanuki" is used for raccoons, but the actual Japanese animal is called the "raccoon dog" in english. They're kinda like if a fox was wearing a raccoon disguise.
Tanuki is specifically (Nyctereutes viverrinus) in Japanese they call it Tanuki.
The Common [This is to distinguish it from general "Raccoon Dog" which includes Tanuki, the Japanese Raccoon Dog.] Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is native to East Asia.
During USSR it was introduced to European continent. As of now, it has become classified an invasive species.
And these animals also have nothing to do with raccoons, they're closer to foxes. Which is also known for it's shape-shifting ability in Japanese culture, but unlike the fox which is seen as bourgeoise, the tanuki is more simple minded and aloof using it's disguise for trickery and playful mischief, where as foxes tend to use it for boosting their own image and manipulation. You can see this being portrayed in pop culture, such as the mega hit Naruto or lesser known: Brand New Animal
Huh, I didn't know they were different animals. TIL!
To complicate things further, raccoons also exist as an introduced species in Japan, but they are known as araiguma or "washing bears".
Calqued from Waschbär in German? Apt term for them.
I've had it backwards this whole time. I thought tanuki were raccoon dogs, you mean Tanuki just means 'raccoon'?
I'm pretty sure Blakey is just wrong and you were right the whole time
{タヌキ|tanuki} = raccoon dog
{アライグマ|araiguma} = raccoon
Neither Wiktionary nor my pop-up dictionary indicate that tanuki is used in Japanese to refer to raccoons. The reverse, however, of people saying raccoon in English to mean tanuki, is very common. It could be that this is what Blakey meant but poor phrasing made it sound like the opposite.
Ah, I see. Thanks. It could just be me reading their comment wrong. I do that a lot.
Yeah, poor phrasing. "Tanuki" is the japanese raccoon dog but I believe the word is also used to refer to actual raccoons.
Where have you seen this? Japanese Wikipedia writes of the raccoon (araiguma),
But that seems like a pretty different statement than "tanuki is also used to refer to actual raccoons". My Japanese-to-English pocket dictionary and every online dictionary in Japanese I've looked at has also not mentioned tanuki being used to refer to actual raccoons.
Looks like I was mistaken. Whoops! Totally misremembered, it's been a while.
No, tanuki are raccoon dogs, but afaik the word "tanuki" is also used to refer to raccoons (which are not native to Asia) in Japanese.