Tonight’s yokai is another animal beloved by all: the tanuki. Tanuki are one of the most common animal yokai found in Japanese folklore, and they are well known for playing tricks and pranks. Sometimes their pranks even get nasty, but tanuki are only very rarely truly wicked. Most of the time their pranks are harmless, or their secret is exposed before they have the chance to do something truly awful.
Since I live in a rural part of Japan, I’m lucky that I get to see tanuki frequently. Around this time of year, I see tanuki just about every day. They visit my home several times per night and I catch them on my outdoor cameras, and they lazily scurry away from the road when I take evening walks. They are very cute and fun to see, with their bushy tails and round, fat butts.
I have yet to see one do magic, though!
The Tanuki’s Wedding; or, The Miraculous Walking Stick
In Kamiyama, Tanba Province, there was a farmer named Utsunomiya Kohyōe. He had four daughters, three old whom were married, but the youngest was not yet married. A rich farmer from a neighboring village heard about this and introduced himself and, with the help of a matchmaker, quickly arranged a marriage date with the youngest daughter.
However, two or three days before the arranged day, the matchmaker came to the farmer and said, “The date that we agreed upon has unexpectedly become a problem, so we would like to change it to one day earlier. That is to say, the bridegroom will come first, and then the following day the bride and bridegroom will return home together.”
The daughter and the father both agreed to the change. And so the arranged day arrived, and the bride’s sisters and their husbands all came to the house. And as the sun set, the bridegroom, his guests, and the matchmaker all came to the house and laid their gifts for the bride’s father, and various gifts were laid out in the tatami room.
The eldest sister’s family was late in arriving because they lived farther away, and she always carried a staff with scriptures carved into it as a walking stick with her when she traveled at night so that she would not encounter any evil spirits on the road. On this night, too, she came with her walking stick.
The eldest sister wanted to peek at the bridegroom, so she walked around to the back of the house and pushed open the bamboo window screen with her walking stick. She saw a group of old, balding tanuki drinking sake and merrymaking. Astonished, she called her husband over and told him to look, but when he did, all he saw were people.
To the sister’s eyes they looked like regular old tanuki, and the objects that were lined up in the tatami room like gifts were all just the bones of horses and cattle. She became suspicious, thought for a moment, then she lifted up the bamboo screen with her walking stick again and showed her husband. Truly, the bridegroom and every one of his guests were all old tanuki. Her husband was so astonished that he quietly called over his brothers-in-law. He explained everything to them and said, “Let us not be fooled!”
They sealed the back door and windows, and blocked off the veranda. Then they went into the tatami room and introduced themselves to the bridegroom, and offered to pour him some sake. Once they were close enough, they suddenly grabbed the bridegroom by the arms and held him as tightly as possible, pinned him down, and said, “You are a loathsome fiend!”
The guests and the matchmaker cried out, “This is an outrage!”
But the brothers-in-law held the bridegroom tightly, drew their wakizashi, and stabbed him through.
The father of the bride was shocked. “Have you gone mad?” he cried, but they did not listen. They proceeded to slay all of the bridegroom’s servants and companions, who cried out, “We are all humans! Please forgive us!” They tried to escape underneath the veranda and through the windows, but there was no way out. When everyone was slain, they saw that they were all elderly tanuki.
Everyone was astonished, and the following day, the real bridegroom arrived and they had the real wedding party. It was all thanks to the power of the holy walking stick.