Lab: Week 12

 Storybook Research: Tapir (Baku)

My third and final story for my project will be about the Japanese lore surrounding tapirs (baku). Luna is a tapir in the Animal Crossing games and I wanted to give her more of a backstory.

Luna from Animal Crossing

Wikipedia page

• Baku are said to devour nightmares
• Legend says they were created with the leftover pieces god had when he finished making all the other animals
• The Japanese term baku has two current meanings, referring to both the traditional dream-devouring creature and to the Malayan tapir
• Traditional Japanese baku myth originated in China
• Legend has it that a person who wakes up from a bad dream can call out to baku. A child having a nightmare in Japan will wake up and repeat three times, "Baku-san, come eat my dream." The baku will come into the child's room and devour the bad dream, allowing the child to go back to sleep peacefully. However, calling to the baku must be done sparingly, because if he remains hungry after eating one's nightmare, he may also devour their hopes and desires as well, leaving them to live an empty life
• The baku can also be summoned for protection from bad dreams prior to falling asleep at night. In the 1910s, it was common for Japanese children to keep a baku talisman at their bedside

Malayan tapir (Wikipedia)

"Little Silver's Dream of Shoji" by Griffis

• Ko Gin San (Miss Little SIlver) was a young maid who was scared of mythical creatures, esp shapeshifters
• To avoid this, her old nurse told her to draw a tapir and wrap it around the pillow
• "Old grannies and country folks believe that if you have a picture of a tapir under the bed or on the paper pillow case, you will not have unpleasant dreams, as the tapir is said to eat them."
• "So strongly do some people believe this that they sleep under quilts figured with the device of this long-snouted beast. If in spite of this precaution one should have a bad dream, he must cry out on awaking, "tapir, come eat, tapir, come eat"; when the tapir will swallow the dream, and no evil results will happen to the dreamer."

 "The Eater of Dreams" by Hearn

A baku, as illustrated by Hokusai (Wikipedia)