Not a fox means …

What does come to your mind when you hear, “It is an animal, not a fox.”?

I usually don’t really feel I am Japanese in my daily life. Yet, on rare occasions, I unexpectedly recognize that I am Japanese. Take, for example — I can leave my bag when I leave my seat at a restaurant, I bow my head while I am talking on a phone, I feel nothing special when I board a crowded train, I wait for a cab’s door to be opened automatically, I nod my head more than necessary while I am listening to others, I feel happy and my taste buds light up when I eat Natto with raw egg and I describe a raccoon dog to not Japanese people.

One day, one of my English teachers asked me, “What is a Tanuki?” He read my electronic lesson record and found an enigmatic word, “Tanuki.” Tanuki is a raccoon dog in Japanese, but unfortunately I didn’t know the English nomenclature. If I had known the English word for Tanuki, I couldn’t have known a different way to explain Tanuki between the Japanese and foreigners. On the contrary, I never would have known that my explanation was a completely unique method and feeling for the Japanese.

Tanuki, raccoon dog and Kitsune, fox are familiar animals to the Japanese, however, it doesn’t mean that we usually see them in our daily life but you may see only in the countryside. I have seen real ones only a few times at zoos so far in my long life. To me, maybe to almost all Japanese, their illustrations are more familiar than the real ones. That is because Tanuki and Kitsune are common characters of Japanese folk stories and we have grown up reading the folk stories’ picture books, which have many illustrations drawn in them.

In the Japanese folk stories, they are written as clever characters. They can transform into anything, even human beings. Kitsune often transform into beautiful women. They try to cheat people or animals around them in stories. One of the differences between Tanuki and Kitsune is that Tanuki is a bit goofy.

Anyway, I tried to explain Tanuki in English. “It is an animal, not a fox!” After I told him I was waiting for his answer. It was because I had believed that I gave him a perfect clue, but he was waiting for my next explanation. After a short silence, I realized a very important thing. It would take an excessive amount of time if I continued to tell other animals’ names, because there are various animals in the world. Who could possibly know what a Tanuki is with such an awful clue, if they are not Japanese? Then, I decided to explain using how they look. At the same time, I kicked my brain computer into high gear to remind myself how they looked. There was no useful information in my head. I had only the clue which would never help him to get the answer, “Tanuki is a hairy animal, having 4 legs.”

In Japan, when people hear a color “Red”, almost all Japanese people might have “White” cross their minds — not “Blue”, “Green” or “Yellow.” Japanese usually make “Red team” and “White team” when we need to divide into teams. The most famous Japanese music program is “Kouhaku-Uta-Gassenn, called ‘Kouhaku’,” broadcasting on every New Year’s Eve. The show is a “Red and White teams’ song battle”; many popular artists of the year are divided into a ladies’ team, “Red team” and a men’s team, “White team” and compete. Many elementary and junior high schools hold athletic meetings with division red team and white team.

In another case “Edokko” — people who are born and raised in Tokyo. Their family are also born and raised in Tokyo over three generations — calls up an image of “Sekkachi, festinate person” to the Japanese. We associate Soba noodles with the Kanto area. Udon noodles, the Kansai area. In Japan, pink is used to describe sexual or erotic things; pink movies, which means blue movies in English.

Anyhow, unfortunately, he needed to check the word on the internet because I couldn’t tell him what a Tanuki was with my explanation.

If I say, “Not a fox,” it means “Raccoon dog.” “Not red” means “white.” “I am Edokko” means that I am a festinate person. It is like that when you hear “Not a dog,” “Cat” will come to your mind.

After all, what does come to your mind when you hear, “It is an animal, not a fox.”?