![]() These exaggerated features represent fertility and plenty. Tanuki statues always have a large belly, and contemporary sculptures may or may not show them with the traditional large testicles. These statues often wear big, cone-shaped hats and carry bottles of sake in one hand, and a "promissory note" (a bill it never pays), or sometimes an empty purse, in the other hand. Statues of tanuki can be found outside many Japanese temples and restaurants, especially noodle shops. They may be shown drumming on their bellies instead of their testicles, especially in children's art. ![]() Tanuki are also typically depicted as having large bellies. Tanuki may be shown with their testicles flung over their backs like a traveller's pack, or using them as drums. The wild tanuki has unusually large testicles, a feature often comically exaggerated in artistic depictions of tanuki. The current humorous image of tanuki is thought to have been developed during the Kamakura era. ![]()
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