Bake-danuki

Bake-danuki (化け狸) are a kind of yōkai (supernatural beings) found in the classics and in the folklore and legends of various places in Japan, commonly associated with the Japanese raccoon dog or tanuki.

In some regions of Japan, bake-danuki are reputed to have abilities similar to those attributed to kitsune (foxes): they can shapeshift into other things or people,[1][2] and can possess human beings.

[4] The earliest appearance of the bake-danuki in literature, in the chapter about Empress Suiko in the Nihon Shoki, written during the Nara period, is the passages "in two months of spring, there are tanuki in the country of Mutsu (春二月陸奥有狢),[5] they turn into humans and sing songs (化人以歌).

[11] The legendary tanuki has eight special traits that bring good fortune, possibly created to coincide to the hachi symbol (八, meaning 'eight') often found on the sake bottles the statues hold.

According to Alice Gordenker, the modern version of the tanuki was developed by a potter named Tetsuzo Fujiwara, who moved to Shiga Prefecture in 1936 and whose pottery was admired even by the emperor.