Japanese Tanuki
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008During our 10-day stay in Japan I was always on the look out for Kappa -related objects. These figures, sitting next to the door of homes and restaurants, appeared quite often. I had mistaken them for Kappa until one of my Japanese friends told me otherwise. It is a Tanuki – a garden ornament representing a raccoon dog.
Shigarakiyaki is a most famous kind of pottery in Japan, and among its different products Tanuki stands out as a popular garden ornament.
According to the Japanese wikipedia, there is also another reason for its popularity. This time it lies in its phonetics: Tanuki can be split up into ta and nuki. Ta stands for other person and nuki (derived from its plain verb nuku) means to be ahead of others in a competition. As it’s a symbol of success, many businesses like to display one as a mascot.
To learn more about Tanuki, click here
Tanuki
and another one…
This one stands in front of a restaurant.
