Tanuki Town: A quaint mountain village filled with all manner of tricksters

This month’s destination: Shigaraki, in Shiga Prefecture

Ceramic tanuki figures in Shigaraki — Tanuki figures always feature outsized ballsacks, and the reason for that actually has nothing to do with their studly prowess. Makers of gold leaf used to wrap the nugget of gold in tanuki skin while working it. The skin is so tough, it’s said that a tiny piece of gold wrapped in it can be hammered into a sheet that will cover eight tatami mats. The Japanese words for “small ball of gold” and “testicles” sound so similar that tanukis with outsized wedding tackle are associated with good fortune and stretching one’s pennies to this day.

Deep in a valley that runs through the mountains of Shiga prefecture lies the little town of Shigaraki, which is best known as the place where all those grinning tanuki figures are made. You’ve seen them outside of bars and restaurants, right? The cheerful raccoon-dog wearing a straw hat, with a sake flask in one hand and a wad of unpaid bills in the other? You may have wondered why this mammal is constantly trying to get you inside to spend money, but I bet you might have been too polite to ask why he’s always got such a MASSIVE SCROTUM?

Woodblock print by Juniyoshi showing tanuki hunting geese by throwing his huge scrotum at them — And since the tanuki is the wily coyote-equivalent in Japanese folklore, the idea of a testicularly talented trickster has generated its share of bawdy woodblock prints depicting just how useful a pair of giant balls might be. This tanuki, for example, is hunting geese by just flinging his giant scrotum at them

But let’s go now to the town where they’re all made, and discover just how many excellent varieties of tricksters there might be!

Giant tanuki figure phone booth in Shigaraki — We’ll know we’ve arrived when we see the enormous Phone Tanuki that greets us right outside the train station (pay phone for scale!)

And the tanuki goodness doesn’t end on the shopping street. As we walk the tiny lanes that climb the hills of this old-fashioned village, tanuki figures customized by artists hide around every corner…

Artist-designed ceramic tanuki figures in Shigaraki — They all started with the same basic clay figure, but some became still-recognizable samurai tanuki, while other became figures depicting the eternal struggle between good and evil within each of us

Artist-designed ceramic tanuki figure in Shigaraki — This one doesn’t seem convinced we’re winning that battle

Soto-en kiln in Shigaraki noborigama style — Here’s the kind of kiln where all those tanukis are fired—this one belongs to the Soto-en company, and it’s been in production since the samurai era. This is what I actually went to Shigaraki to see…

Shigaraki-ware tea ceremony bowls for sale in Shigaraki — …because this is also where National Living Treasures turn out tea ceremony bowls, like the one in *The Last Tea Bowl Thief*

Here’s where Shigaraki is:

Here’s how to get to Shigaraki from Tokyo:

No matter what time of day you go, it takes around four hours. I left Tokyo super early in the morning and returned the same day, but as you can see by the map, a trip to Shigaraki gets you within shouting distance of all kinds of other great stuff to see in the Kyoto area. Bonus travel experience: the last train on this route—the Shigaraki Kogen Railway—is one of those quirky local lines with a theme:

Ninja train on Shigaraki Kogen Railway Line — Yes, it’s the ninja train! Shiga prefecture actually is in legendary ninja territory—besides pottery tricksters and tea ceremony ware, it’s what the region is most famous for

I used the Japan Navigation phone app to figure out this route, and you can easily use it too, when your actual date and departure time. It’s also good for finding the easiest way to get to Gyōda from where you’re staying. Here’s where to get the app and how to use it and here’s where to buy a Japanese transit card and how to use it. (I searched the route from Shinjuku Station, because it’s huge and central, but you might find a closer place to catch the Shonan-Shinjuku Line, if you search from where you’re staying.)

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