Dive into the Japanese myth of the shapeshifting tanuki, as the raccoonlike 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 highpitched 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 shapeshifting creature.

Lesson by Iseult Gillespie, directed by Anna Samo.

Support Our NonProfit Mission

Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop


Connect With Us

Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram


Keep Learning

View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/thejapane...
Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/thejapane...

Animator's website: https://vimeo.com/tigerunterwegs


Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Paul AldredBann, Manav parmar, Susan Wang, Utkarsh Dubey, Thawsitt, Xuebicoco, Jezabel, Maeve, Kim Humphrey, Kristen Damas, JackKeyton, Matthew D. Vigil, Amin Shahril, Adriano Fontes, Xiao Yu, Fatima Kried, Aravind Battaje, Melissa Suarez, Jason Duncan, Brian A. Dunn, Francisco Amaya, Daisuke Goto, Matt Switzler, Chhunheng Veng, Leonardo Monrroy, Sumedh Ghaisas, Guhten, Amer Harb, Dowey Baothman, Norbert Orgován, Shafeeq Ansari, Gabriel Balsa, Maryam Sultan, Bethany Connor, Jeremy Shimanek, Adam Foreman, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Lâm Nguyễn, Mark Byers, Bradley Heinold, Monkeypatcher, Laurence McMillan, Connor Roberts, Dmitry Neverov, Tonya RatliffGarrison, Avinash Amarnath, Eric McDaniel, Cristian Cristian, France Lipužič and EdoKun.