Why Tanuki with large genitalia are placed at the entrances of Japanese stores (8 photos)

Anyone who sees a Japanese tanuki figurine or drawing for good luck for the first time invariably asks out loud: why are they so big!? They're referring to the testicles, crafted with particular care and of enormous size.





Meanwhile, these "gifted" tanuki are everywhere in Japan: at store entrances, along the road, painted on billboards, and children aren't bothered. But naked Greek statues in the park are. Mysterious Japanese culture.



So big, I had to throw it over my shoulder!

Why do tanuki have such big testicles?





It's fun to understand the cultural context of each statue; our world is so diverse!

Tanuki, also known as raccoon dogs, live in the wild in Japan. And in this very nature, they have the smallest testicles. But why does everyone in Japan draw them as big!? And here again, it all comes down to the Japanese language. Male testicles have a very noble name in Japanese – "kintama," which means "gold," "golden balls," or "gold and jewels." And the logic is that large testicles are analogous to large bags of money.



The werewolf tanuki bargains with people and pays with leaves.

But why aren't boars or foxes big? Because in ancient times, metalworkers in Kanazawa Prefecture needed tanuki skin to forge gold. It was placed between pieces of tanuki skin, and its incredible strength allowed the gold to be stretched into very thin sheets, almost like sheets.



Tanuki attacks nobles!

Therefore, the locals associated a piece of thin gold with tanuki skin, and since skin stretches best there, it was associated with tanuki testicles. So shopkeepers display "gold bags"—large-balled tanuki—as a symbol of good luck and wealth. It's not customary to put ordinary ones in a cage; ordinary ones are sent to the zoo.

Myths about the incredible "talents" of tanuki



A pretty good advertisement for a pottery workshop.

Tanuki are famous shapeshifters (like foxes) in Japanese mythology. They love to transform into humans, visit bars or brothels, and pay with autumn leaves, tricking the owner into thinking they're gold. To float on rivers, they inflate their balloons to the size of a float mattress. If necessary, they sit comfortably on them or drape them over their heads like a cloak.



Guess what they're stretching...

If you've seen the Ghibli film "Heisei Tanuki Wars," you'll know all the funniest ways the tanuki use their "wealth." Since it's a Ghibli film, I definitely recommend it.



Egg-bearing tanuki are just out there somewhere in town