Kitsune and Tanuki in Japanese Folklore: Foxes and Tanuki

The two tricksters at a glance

Kitsune (狐) is the fox; tanuki (狸) is the raccoon dog. In stories both have a magical power: they can bakeru, take on another form, and bakasu, bewitch or trick a human. A fox might become a beautiful woman, a tanuki a monk or a tea kettle, and the unlucky traveller wakes up to find the feast was leaves and the money was grass.

Their personalities are different, though. The fox is usually the cool, clever one, admired and a little feared. The tanuki is the jolly, greedy, clumsy one, more likely to make you laugh than to frighten you. Japanese even has a phrase for two sly people trying to outwit each other: kitsune to tanuki no bakashiai, a fox and a tanuki tricking each other.

Kitsune: foxes of Inari and of legend

The fox has two faces in Japanese belief. The first is sacred: foxes are regarded as the messengers of Inari, the deity of rice and prosperity worshipped at many thousands of shrines across Japan. Pairs of stone foxes stand at the gates, often wearing red bibs and holding a key, a jewel or a scroll in their mouths. Offerings of aburaage, sweet fried tofu, are said to be the foxes' favourite, which is why inarizushi, rice in fried tofu pouches, and kitsune udon, udon topped with fried tofu, carry the fox's name.

The second face is wild. In folk tales, foxes trick travellers, possess people and transform into beautiful women who marry humans. In some stories, a fox grows more tails as it ages and gains power, up to the nine-tailed fox, kyūbi no kitsune, a famous figure of legend. Fox masks, kitsune no omen, are sold at festivals and appear often in anime.

Tanuki: the jolly shape-shifter

The tanuki of folklore is a merry prankster. It is said to change shape by placing a leaf on its head, and to drum on its round belly on moonlit nights, a sound called tanuki no haratsuzumi. In many tales, its tricks go wrong because it cannot hide its tail or is too greedy, and it ends up the fool.

The tanuki you see most often is a ceramic one: a standing figure in a straw hat, with big round eyes, a broad smile, a huge belly, a sake flask in one hand and a ledger in the other. This style, strongly associated with Shigaraki ware from Shiga Prefecture, stands outside countless restaurants and shops as a good-luck charm for business. Shops often explain each part as a lucky symbol, for example the hat protecting from bad luck and the belly showing calm boldness, though the details differ from source to source.

Fox and tanuki compared

The food names are a fun reminder of regional variety: in much of eastern Japan, tanuki soba means soba with crunchy tempura bits, while in parts of western Japan, such as Kyoto and Osaka, the word refers to quite different dishes. If you are curious, ask the shop what their tanuki is.

Idioms the fox and tanuki left behind

Many everyday expressions come from these animals. Most are casual or neutral and are used with a smile. Use them about situations or about yourself; aiming them at a person you are talking to, especially an older one, can sound rude.

Tanuki oyaji is genuinely insulting, used for a crafty older man, often a politician or a boss, behind his back. Toranu tanuki no kawazan'yō literally means calculating the price of the pelt of a tanuki you have not caught yet, a vivid old image.

Two famous tales

Bunbuku Chagama is a folk tale told in several versions. In a well-known one, a tanuki turns itself into a tea kettle; when the kettle is put on the fire, it grows a head, a tail and legs and runs about. The tanuki later performs tricks and brings good fortune to the man who looks after it. A temple in Gunma Prefecture, Morinji, is linked with the story and keeps a kettle associated with it.

Kuzunoha is a famous fox legend: a white fox, saved by a young man, takes the form of a woman named Kuzunoha, marries him and has a son, then must leave when her true form is discovered. In the legend, the son grows up to be a celebrated court diviner of the Heian period. The story has inspired plays and puppet theatre for centuries.

Meeting the real animals

Both animals are real and live wild in Japan. Tanuki are shy, nocturnal and surprisingly common, even in wooded suburbs and parks near big cities. Foxes are seen in the countryside and are famous in Hokkaido, where the local fox, kita kitsune, often approaches tourists. Do not feed or touch wild foxes or tanuki: in Hokkaido in particular, foxes can carry a dangerous parasite, and local advice warns visitors not to touch them or drink untreated stream water.

Make the idioms yours with Mocchi

Paste an idiom sentence into Mocchi with /explain, for example /explain 取らぬ狸の皮算用だよ, and Mocchi breaks it into parts, names the grammar and gives the meaning. Then ask it to quiz you on the six idioms in this guide; Mocchi keeps track of the ones you confuse and brings them back in a later /review.

Turn the idioms and animal words into flashcards and stack them up in Kotoba Stack, building a tower word by word, a light way to keep folklore vocabulary fresh.