Famous animal in Japan

Basically, there are two animals that Japanese considered as the god, legends and the spirit. "Kitsune (fox)" and "Tanuki (racoon dog)" are the master of transformation. Japanese believed that sometime they transform into Tengu, the bird-man goblin of the forest and mountain. These two animals seems to be related to Japan a lot. There is still one more animal that also related to Japan, which is the "Koi fish". Japanese not only recognized Koi fish for beauty, but also as ability to transform the observer into otherworldy states of perception.

Kitsune (fox) painting

Tanuki (racoon dog) painting

"master of transformation"

Koi Fish