In Japan, cats are regarded as auspicious and at the same time fierce. The way cats wash their faces look as if they are inviting good lucks, so the cat in that gesture is represented in an auspicious ornament as the "beckoning cat." On the other hand, there was a time that cats were thought to transform into monsters, and among many Japanese monsters is the "monster cat." Today, with its pet boom, cats from all over the world are kept in Japan, but traditionally valued is a tortoiseshell tom cat.
Living only in East Asia(Japan, Korean Peninsula, and China), they are nocturnal animals resembling badgers. When they are very surprised they fall into a state of apparent death; from this deception comes the phrase "the raccoon dog's sleep," indicating a pretense of sleeping. In Japanese folktales, raccoon dogs are depicted as humorous animals, appearing in disguise and deceiving people, but always failing. Raccoon dogs are believed to beat a drum on their bellies, and the song that sings of this has even been sung in English.
Just as with fox that appears in "Aesop's Fables," in Japan, too, the image of fox is one of cunning creatures who deceive people, and they often play the villain in folktales and legends. In addition, they are also evil spirits that possess human beings and make them go crazy.
On the other hand, the stone idol of a seated fox, which one can see in the precincts of the Inari Shrine, represents the fox as messenger of the gods.
The butterfly is a representative of beautiful insects. There are about 260 different kinds of butterflies counted in Japan. But common ones are cabbage butterflies and swallowtails. The national butterfly of Japan is named the giant purple butterfly.
Butterflies have long been included in the classical Japanese poems and songs. In particular, the sight of cabbage butterflies flying around rape blossoms is beloved by the people as announcing the beginning of spring.
Semi, together with butterflies and dragonflies, are insects familiar to the Japanese people. When summer comes, they start to sing all together on trees in mountains and villages. When there are many cicadas, the dronings become like a shower, which is called "semi-shigure"(shower of cicadas). This word is often found in poems in seventeen syllables(haiku) and other poems; there is a famous haiku on semi-shigure, by the "greatest master" of haiku, Basho. Since cicadas die only about a week after birth, they are compared, together with mayflies, to transient life of man.
Long ago Japan was called "akitsu-shima," "akitsu" meaning dragonflies(tonbo) [and "shima" meaning an island]. According to the legend, this name of Japan came from the time when Jinmu, the first Emperor(by myth), was bitten by a mosquito and a dragonfly flew in and ate it.
One can see various kinds of tonbo in summer and autumn; it is a common Japanese insect. Children especially like it, and there is even a well-known children's song called "Akatonbo"(red dragonflies) that expresses lyrical sentiments of autumn.
This insect inhabits bushes by clear streams and appears from around May in early summer until the middle of July. Since they emit a pale glow from their backs, appreciating the glow through an insect cage filled with fireflies has been a popular activity during summer nights. However, with the decrease of clear streams in recent years, fireflies have also decreased in number, making it hard to hunt them as in the past. The glow of fireflies at one time was thought to be the altered form of the souls of soldiers who had died in war.
A cultural properties protection law is in effect in Japan for the purpose of protecting what is valuable and rare in nature. It is called tennen-kinenbutsu and the law prohibits capturing of corresponding animals. The object animals are such as an Amami hare, Japanese crested ibis, short-tailed albatross, a bulbul, and a giant salamander, which are peculiar to Japan. There is, also on the list, the Japanese crane, which is not peculiar to Japan, but has a limited range of distribution. In addition, there are animal preserves, such as the stopping off point for cranes flying from overseas in Kagoshima Prefecture, a Genji-firefly habitat, a sea bream habitat in Chiba Prefecture, and a breeding ground for horseshoe crabs.