Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Part B

How the Wicked Tanuki Was Punished

(A Tanuki from Wikipedia Commons)

Plot: A tanuki was married to a fox and had a son. He thought he was very clever so they decided to do a trick. The tanuki pretended to be dead and the fox transformed herself into a woman and sold the tanuki coat for profit. The tanuki then escaped when left for dead and his wife bought food for the family. The tanuki became greedy though and the next time they ran out of food made his wife pretend to be dead. Seeing an opportunity for extra food, he told the merchant the fox wasn't really dead. The merchant then killed the fox. The tanuki is very pleased with himself and begins neglecting his young son. The son grew up and realized what happened so he planned a trick on the tanuki. He told his father he was a better magician than him. This caused the tanuki to make a bet that his son could transform into any shape and he would recognize him. The son ran and hid under a bridge while the king's procession came through. The father thought his son had disguised himself as the kind and came out yelling you cannot deceive me. The guards thought this with a threat to the king and threw the tanuki into the water where he drowned. In this way, the son avenged his mother's death.

Lesson: Do not be too greedy and treat your family well.

Ideas: I would probably do a straight retelling but maybe change the characters into more familiar animals. I would keep the plot and storyline pretty much the same.

Story Source:  The Crimson Fairybook translated by Andrew Lang