submitted 3 days ago by EveningCicada@hexbear.net to c/art@hexbear.net

NSFW 30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Where have you seen this? Japanese Wikipedia writes of the raccoon (araiguma),

{タヌキ|raccoon_dog}{と|with}{誤認|mistake_for}{される|PASS.PRES}{こと|NMZ}{が|SUBJ}{多い|frequent}{が、|though,}

Although [raccoons are] frequently mistaken for raccoon dogs,

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.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

Looks like I was mistaken. Whoops! Totally misremembered, it's been a while.

this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026

61 points (100.0% liked)

art

22990 readers

51 users here now

A community for sharing and discussing art in general.

If you are unsure if a piece of media is on theme for this community, you can make a post asking if it fits. Discussion posts are encouraged, and particularly interesting topics will get pinned periodically.

No links to a store page or advertising. Links to bandcamps, soundclouds, playlists, etc are fine.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net

gaycomputeruser@hexbear.net

Vostok_@hexbear.net