Bunbuku Chagama

Bunbuku Chagama (分福茶釜 or 文福茶釜) is a Japanese folktale or fairy tale featuring a tanuki (raccoon dog) that uses its ability to change shape to repay someone who was kind to it.

In the fairy tale version, which has been translated into English as "The Accomplished and Lucky Teakettle" (1871) and "The Wonderful Tea Kettle" (1886), a raccoon dog is mistreated as a tea kettle at a temple and then sold. It later performs tricks like dancing and walking a tightrope, and the man who becomes its owner makes a fortune by putting on shows. In most folk tale versions, the raccoon dog or fox turns into a kettle so a human friend or helper can profit by selling the fake kettle, often to a priest.

There is also a legend about a tea kettle called Bunbuku chagama that belonged to a priest named Shukaku. He was later revealed to be an ancient raccoon dog or mujina, and the kettle is still supposedly kept at Morin-ji temple, where Shukaku served.

The name "Bunbuku" has several possible origins. One idea is that it is an onomatopoeic word for the sound of boiling water, while the character "buku" (fuku) means "good luck" or "good fortune." Another explanation is that "bunbuku" written as 分福 means "sharing (bun) the wealth or fortune (fuku)," based on the origin tale of Morin-ji and the essay *Kasshi yawa*. A third theory, given by Toriyama Sekien, is that the correct name is Bunbuka (文武火), where "bunka" means a mild flame and "buka" means an intense flame.

The fairy tale summary, based on early English translations, goes as follows. At Morin-ji temple in Kōzuke Province (now Gunma Prefecture), the head priest owns a tea kettle. When he puts it on the hearth, it grows a head and tail (or legs as well) and becomes a half-raccoon dog, half-kettle creature. The priest and his novices subdue it, and since it turns back into an ordinary kettle, they sell it to a traveling tinker or rag peddler. The kettle reveals its half-tanuki form to the peddler, who either follows a friend's advice to make it perform tricks or is persuaded by the tanuki itself to treat it well in exchange for acrobatics. The peddler agrees not to put it over a hot flame or shut it in a stuffy box, and to share his food. He sets up a roadside show where people pay to see the tea-kettle badger walk a tightrope to music. The man becomes wealthy and eventually returns the kettle to Morin-ji temple.

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