Bunbuku Chagama

In the engi associated with Morin-ji temple the kettle called Bunbuku Chagama is tied to a priest named Shukaku (守鶴) who local legend says was an ancient mujina (a raccoon dog). The origin framing places a chagama used in the temple hearth at the center of the story: when set on the fire the vessel reveals its animate nature. Scholarly treatments also present a fairy-tale version in which a rescued animal (tanuki or in some variants a fox) becomes the kettle and later is exhibited by a peddler as an attraction, bringing wealth to its human rescuer before the tale concludes (some variants end with the animal returning to the wild). The compound name bunbuku/chagama carries layered readings—onomatopoeic, references to fortune (分福 “sharing fortune”), or alternative character glosses—reflected in different commentaries on the tale.

In tale summaries the Bunbuku chagama alternates between an ordinary tea-kettle (chagama) and a hybrid form in which the kettle 'sprouts' animal features such as a head, tail, or legs; older English renderings sometimes call the animal a 'badger' while Japanese sources identify it as a tanuki (raccoon dog), and some variants substitute a fox. The narrative image is therefore of a domestic metal kettle that can move and, at times, visibly combine object and animal anatomy. Local legend claims a kettle associated with the tale is on view at Morin-ji temple.

The central supernatural ability is shapeshifting between inanimate kettle form and an animate animal or hybrid half-kettle/half-animal. In the story the creature performs acrobatics—notably walking a tightrope and dancing to music—to entertain and draw paying viewers. Its agency functions socially: through performance it enables a human (a peddler or rescuer) to profit, and the tale highlights negotiated terms of treatment (the human agrees not to put it over a hot flame, not to stow it in a stuffy box, and to share food). Some folktale variants record that after being sold or exhibited the creature ultimately flees to the mountains.