Long, long ago in a certain place there was a priest who, more than anything else, enjoyed collecting old things. One day the priest came back carrying an old tea kettle he had purchased. Once he had it back in his room, he spent a long while gazing and sniffing at it.

"Whew, this does stink a little." He called out," Hey! Isn't anyone out there?" and the young acolytes came running.

"Yes, what is it, Priest-san?"

"I'm sorry to trouble you, but could you please wash this tea kettle? Use lots of sand, and scrub it good."

The acolytes who got this order were often told that sort of thing, and tended to be a little sloppy in their washing. So they scrubbed away, grumbling that the priest could wash it himself if he didn't like what they did.

Suddenly they heard the cry, "Ouch!" almost as if the tea kettle were complaining. The acolytes knew that tea kettles didn't have mouths that talked, and they ran back to the priest's room as fast as they could go.

"Priest-san! It's terrible! The tea kettle can talk!"

But the priest didn't believe what they told him.

"You boys are talking nonsense because you don't like washing. That's enough of that. When you've washed it, fill it with water and bring it back here."

The acolytes filled the tea kettle with water and carried it back. They set it over the irori, then fearfully backed away from it. They were watching to see what the tea kettle would do.

"Really! You're just talking nonsense," the priest told them. "I don't want to hear any more-- a talking tea kettle!"

"Too hot!" Along with this cry, the tea kettle spit out an amount of water."

The boys were panicked, and even the priest was surprised. As long as he'd been collecting old things, he had never heard a tea kettle talk before, and he didn't have a good feeling about it.

Just then the priest noticed a recycled goods peddlar passing by. He saw the solution immediately, and called out to the peddlar.

The peddlar was excited when he saw the tea kettle, and couldn't believe his luck when the priest said he could have it free of charge. And it was freshly cleaned!

Suspecting nothing, the peddlar cheerfully packed up the tea kettle, and returned to his home. He decided to celebrate his good fortune by buying himself a whole fish for supper.

But when he had finished all the other preparations for dinner, the peddlar discovered that his fish was missing. That was almost as unbelievable as his earlier luck. He searched everywhere, but couldn't find a trace of the fish. Who could explain such bad luck. He had never heard of a fish that managed to get away after it had been cooked.

This peddlar, in addition to being unlucky, was a very good person but a poor businessman. For that reason, he had never been able to escape poverty.

He was still hungry, of course, when he lay down for the night, and he started to wonder if he had dreamed the whole thing. He knew he was dreaming when he heard a voice say, "Please excuse me. I'm sorry that I ate your fish."

He turned toward the voice and saw the tea kettle, but with arms, legs, a tail, and what seemed to be a tanuki's head looking back at him.

His first thought was to run, but the tea-kettle tanuki apologized again, this time for frightening him. Then it apologized again for taking such an expensive fish.

"Oh, don't mind that," the peddlar said. "If you're alive, you must get hungry. I know it happens to me."

The tanuki was touched by the peddlar's kind words. It began to cry, and asked if it could stay and live there.

"I'm sorry, but you can see what a poor life I live. I don't have the money or the time to take care of a tanuki. It would be better for you to go back to the mountains."

"It's not as easy as you think. When I lived in the mountains, I got into a changing contest with the others. I'm just a novice, and tried something harder than I had trained for. And I ended up not being able to change back. There's no way I can live in the mountains looking like a tea kettle."

The peddlar felt sorry for the tanuki, and let it stay the night.

When the peddlar awoke the next morning, the tea-kettle tanuki was waiting with a serious look on it's face.

"How would this be? Please let me stay here. If money is the problem, I'll earn that."

"How?"

"I can do tricks. You just need to build a stall where I can put on a show."

And so the next the peddlar completed the stall, and the tanuki began to perform under the name "Bunbuku the Tea Kettle."

Of course, a tea kettle doesn't have to put on much of an act to be amazing. At first Bunbuku would just balance himself and walk across a rope, and even if he fell off, people would pay to watch him try again the next day. Soon he could walk the rope without falling, and he learned to juggle, to do flips and cartwheels, and even to sing while the peddlar beat time.

Everyone who saw the marvelous tea kettle told all his friends, and more customers came to see the show every day. Before long the peddlar was no longer a poor man, and could live as well as his neighbors.

One evening he was intently reading a book.

"What are you doing," the tea-kettle tanuki asked.

"I was wondering if there wasn't some way you could return to your form as a tanuki. You've been a great help to me, and now it's my turn to do something for you."

"No," it said, looking away. "I'm happy as things are now. I enjoy every day."

Another two years went by. The peddlar tried every method he could find to turn the tea kettle back into a tanuki, but nothing worked. Although it continued to say it was happy, life as a tea kettle is surely no real life at all. Then, one cold day, the tea-kettle tanuki developed a high fever and collapsed. The peddlar nursed it with great care.

"Now, Bunbuku," he said, "when spring comes and you're feeling better, we'll go flower viewing together. I'll pack us some rice balls, and . . ."

"Father . . ." the tanuki said. Feeling the warmth of the peddlar's heart, the tanuki truly was happy. That night the amazing Bunbuku drew his last breath, without every having returned to his original form.

The grieving peddlar carefully carried the tea kettle to the temple, and presented it as an offering. When he heard the full story, the priest accepted the tea kettle, and put it with the treasures of the temple. They say the tea kettle can still be seen in the temple called Morinji.