<p><strong>Makiko Itoh</strong> answered the question &quot;<em><a href="http://www.quora.com/Japanese-Food-2/Do-people-in-Japan-actually-eat-tanuki-in-hot-pot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Do people in Japan actually eat tanuki in hot pot?</a></em>&quot;. A side information of her shows &quot;<em>I write about Japanese food and cooking and am Japanese</em>&quot;.</p>
<p>I quote her answer below:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A long, long time ago it may have been more widely eaten, but these days it rarely is. Even when it is eaten it's limited to certain regions, and to certain seasons. Tanuki are omnivores, and the meat of omnivores is supposed to be very unpleasant.</p>
<p>You do see a lot of dishes that are called tanuki, e.g. tanuki udon, but that usually means it has some tenkasu (tempura batter crumbs) in it. The 'tanuki' part of such dishes has nothing to do with the animal - it comes from 'tanenuki', or 'no main ingredient/filling' - i.e. tempura batter without the shrimp or vegetable or whatever.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>Another <a href="http://food-in-japan.com/2013/05/kitsune-udon-and-tanuki-udon/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a>, which writes about interesting names of food, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do Japanese people eat fox and raccoon dog?</p>
<p>“<strong>No way!</strong>”</p>
<p>Don’t worry!  They are  just a name of foods and any fox and raccoon dog are NOT cooked.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><sub>(Raccoon dog = Tanuki)</sub></p>
<hr />
<p>Another answer by <strong>bluemoonmemory</strong> for the question &quot;<em><a href="https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081206214834AAGjYYM" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Do people really eat tanuki?</a></em>&quot;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Because raccoon dog is not cultivated but just hunting game in limited
official hunting season, the supply is scarcely limited. Most of
Japanese never eat tanuki but rabit or sort of fake instead actually.</p>
<p>In addition, tanuki soba or tanuki udon is just name only. It doesn't
contain any tanuki meat or tanuki extract. It is soba or udon with
topping something non-animal products deep-fried that old people long
time ago once had thought it as if tasted like tanuki or much better.</p>
<p>Raccoon dog meat has heavy animal smell urinal. This modern society of
Japan people prefer beef, pork and/or chicken much more to wild animal
meat. They don't need to eat tanuki anymore.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With these information, I would say that Japanese generally do not eat tanuki. Only the food is called like that, but it is actually made from other animal or even vegeratarian. But I would not deny that it is eaten in some regions, and especially a long time ago.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-14T14:55:54.867Z
I found that before, but the way she answer, but the way she answer, she doesn't look sure about it
Darjeeling
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-14T15:18:13.647Z
@ShinobuOshino Updated a little bit. This is all I could find about it...
Gerret
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-14T14:48:08.210Z
2014-09-15T13:43:33.340Z
2020-06-17T09:17:53.303Z
Gerret
<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ahpTu.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>Searching on Google, I found some food related to tanuki like tanuki udon (not sure if they really use tanuki). But I can't find anything like tanuki hot pot. Does this kind of food actually exist? Do they actually eat tanuki?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-14T15:33:16.870Z
This question might fall under the same close criteria as my first question here.. while the question actually references an anime, the real question is out of anime and thus can be answered without references to anime (just as demonstrated by gareth). I therefore opt to close this question.
Vogel612
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-15T11:54:03.363Z
@Vogel612 Yea you are actully right. But as I can read from the help center, it would say that the question is "*OK*". There is no scope defined in this middle part. I think he ask the question with the motivation of "*I would like others to explain ______ to me*" and the question is in "*context of an anime or manga*". If it is really allowed I do not know. btw My name is Gerret and not gareth ;)
Gerret
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-15T13:35:46.017Z
Whoops... well with my sleep deprivation when I wrote that comment it's not further surprising that I misread that.. If there is no scope defined I'd say it's the perfect moment to ask the community by means of a meta question.
Vogel612
<culture><the-eccentric-family>
Does tanuki hot pot actually exist?
# Does tanuki hot pot actually exist?
Posted by: username_0 on 2014-09-14
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ahpTu.jpg)

Searching on Google, I found some food related to tanuki like tanuki udon (not sure if they really use tanuki). But I can't find anything like tanuki hot pot. Does this kind of food actually exist? Do they actually eat tanuki?
**Tags:** culture the-eccentric-family
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This question might fall under the same close criteria as my first question here.. while the question actually references an anime, the real question is out of anime and thus can be answered without references to anime (just as demonstrated by gareth). I therefore opt to close this question.  
> **username_2**: @Vogel612 Yea you are actully right. But as I can read from the help center, it would say that the question is "*OK*". There is no scope defined in this middle part. I think he ask the question with the motivation of "*I would like others to explain ______ to me*" and the question is in "*context of an anime or manga*". If it is really allowed I do not know. btw My name is Gerret and not gareth ;)  
> **username_1**: Whoops... well with my sleep deprivation when I wrote that comment it's not further surprising that I misread that.. If there is no scope defined I'd say it's the perfect moment to ask the community by means of a meta question.  
---
## 1 answers
### Answer by username_2 on 2014-09-14. Score: 5 | Accepted answer
**Makiko Itoh** answered the question "*[Do people in Japan actually eat tanuki in hot pot?](http://www.quora.com/Japanese-Food-2/Do-people-in-Japan-actually-eat-tanuki-in-hot-pot)*". A side information of her shows "*I write about Japanese food and cooking and am Japanese*".

I quote her answer below:

> A long, long time ago it may have been more widely eaten, but these days it rarely is. Even when it is eaten it's limited to certain regions, and to certain seasons. Tanuki are omnivores, and the meat of omnivores is supposed to be very unpleasant.
>
> You do see a lot of dishes that are called tanuki, e.g. tanuki udon, but that usually means it has some tenkasu (tempura batter crumbs) in it. The 'tanuki' part of such dishes has nothing to do with the animal - it comes from 'tanenuki', or 'no main ingredient/filling' - i.e. tempura batter without the shrimp or vegetable or whatever.

---

Another [article](http://food-in-japan.com/2013/05/kitsune-udon-and-tanuki-udon/), which writes about interesting names of food, says:

> Do Japanese people eat fox and raccoon dog?
>
> “**No way!**”
>
> Don’t worry! They are just a name of foods and any fox and raccoon dog are NOT cooked.

(Raccoon dog = Tanuki)

---

Another answer by **bluemoonmemory** for the question "*[Do people really eat tanuki?](https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081206214834AAGjYYM)*":

> Because raccoon dog is not cultivated but just hunting game in limited
> official hunting season, the supply is scarcely limited. Most of
> Japanese never eat tanuki but rabit or sort of fake instead actually.
>
> In addition, tanuki soba or tanuki udon is just name only. It doesn't
> contain any tanuki meat or tanuki extract. It is soba or udon with
> topping something non-animal products deep-fried that old people long
> time ago once had thought it as if tasted like tanuki or much better.
>
> Raccoon dog meat has heavy animal smell urinal. This modern society of
> Japan people prefer beef, pork and/or chicken much more to wild animal
> meat. They don't need to eat tanuki anymore.

With these information, I would say that Japanese generally do not eat tanuki. Only the food is called like that, but it is actually made from other animal or even vegeratarian. But I would not deny that it is eaten in some regions, and especially a long time ago.
> **Comments:**
> **username_0** (2014-09-14): I found that before, but the way she answer, but the way she answer, she doesn't look sure about it  
> **username_2** (2014-09-14): @ShinobuOshino Updated a little bit. This is all I could find about it...  
---
