The Japanese myth of the trickster raccoon

Dive into the Japanese myth of the shape-shifting tanuki, as the raccoon-like creature rewards a traveling salesman for his kindness.

On the dusty roads of a small village, a traveling salesman was having difficulty selling his wares. As he wandered the outskirts of town in the hopes of finding some new customers, he heard a high-pitched yelp coming from the edge of the forest. Following the screams to their source, he discovered a trapped tanuki. Iseult Gillespie details the Japanese myth of the shape-shifting creature.