Lab: Week 6

 Storybook Research: Tanuki Stories

How the Wicked Tanuki Was Punished:

  • A tanuki and his fox wife were running out of food to themselves and their son
  • They came up with a plan - one of them would play dead and the other would shapeshift into a human, and sell the "dead" one in the village. They would take the money and the "dead" one would escape
  • The tanuki played dead first and they successfully made money and bought food
  • When it was the fox's turn to play dead, the tanuki realized they would have more food if the fox wasn't with them. So he told the buyer that the fox was alive and he killed her
  • The tanuki returned home but became more greedy and didn't give his child anything to eat
  • The baby tanuki soon realized his mom wasn't coming back so he also came up with a plan
  • He told his dad that he was good at shapeshifting. The dad said he bet he could still recognize him no matter what disguise. They wanted to test it
  • The dad saw a king and thought it was the baby in disguise
  • The king's men threw him off the king and into the river
  • The baby tanuki watched it all and felt his mom was avenged

Source - The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)

--Idea-- This could be the origin story of Tom Nook. He was the baby tanuki and now he never wants to go hungry again and makes money by running the island.


Tanuki Statues in Awashima Shrine by Motokoka (Wikimedia Commons)


Comments

Popular Posts