Sasebo History About Sasebo Tanuki
By Phil Eakins

The tanuki is one of the more amusing animals in Japan. It is most commonly seen in ceramic form, usually at the entrances of restaurants, wearing a straw hat and carrying a bottle of sake in one paw and a book of receipts in the other. According to Japanese folklore, the tanuki can transform itself into other forms, such as a monk or even a teapot, to play tricks on unsuspecting folks.

We have a tanuki of our very own at U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo. It also is of the ceramic variety featuring clear glass eyes. His paint has faded but that’s to be expected from something at least 51 years old.

The tanuki first stood watch in 1953 at the entrance of the old Enlisted Men’s Club, known later as Fiddler’s Green. One evening the tanuki was “kidnapped” by Sailors who thought it would look spiffy on their quarterdeck. Unfortunately, the Sailors dropped the tanuki on their way to the ship, turning it into a jigsaw puzzle. After an extensive restoration, the tanuki stood in the club’s ballroom until 1975 when Fiddler’s Green closed its doors.

Afterwards the tanuki pulled duty in front of the old Security Building until someone decided it was an “inappropriate” decoration to greet visitors. It was then exiled to the Public Works scrap yard until it was restored in 1989 and displayed in front of the John C. Meyer CPO Club where it remains today.

I had forgotten all about the uproar caused by the tanuki when it was brought out of retirement until I ran across an old article about it recently. You see, a live male tanuki can “sound off” like he has a pair because, well…he DOES have a pair! But unlike other ceramic tanuki, ours has all his “outdoor plumbing”.

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