Wildlife terms

Animal:

• butterfly and butterfly seven
• cat
• crab
• crane
• dog, dogleg and dogleg
• duck (kamo no itte, a mistake for kami no itte, i.e. “hand of god”)
• elephant
• giraffe
• golden chicken standing on one leg
• gorilla
• horse and keima
• itachi (weasel)
• Lion's mouth
• Lion Shape and Panther Shape
• mole play (submarine)
• monkey
• mouse stealing oil
• pig’s snout, large and small
• rabbit
• raccoon dog
• tiger
• tortoise.

Mythical:

• dragon, two-headed dragon
• Jabberwocky
• Loch Ness monster

Also:

• worm or snake, alternate names for finger.

See also Vegetable terms (alias for Flora Terms), Anatomical terms and Mineral terms.

• KGS Animal Players

Charles Something else worth recording here is the concept of a eel's nest?: a mess of false eyes on the first and second lines. These don't of course occur in respectable games, and are rarely recorded - but are a notable feature of novice games, and sadly cause shortage of liberties all too often.

The Japanese tanuki belongs here somewhere - it has sometimes been translated into English as 'badger' when 'raccoon' is more apt. Also when 'weasel' occurs in English translation, is it this or something else?

Charles Matthews

I heard from a fluent Japanese speaker at the Massachusetts Go Association that 'tanuki' and 'tenuki' don't sound at all similar in Japanese. In American English both would usually be pronounced using the schwa ('uh') sound, but natively they would be unconfusable.

saccade

Musings from a coffee break John Fairbairn: I can think of monkey (jump), giraffe('s neck), octopus (in a kettle), cockroach (gokiburi), swallow (opening), mole (opening), phoenix (tournament), kylin (tournament), rabbit(y six), boar('s snout), Leo (famous Go writer), white ape (famous Go player), hamaguri (clams but also hama = prisoners). Weasel is itachi.

Charles: I missed monkey. I hate rabbitty six with one t or two. Is giraffe after horse? I thought it was Nessie, too.

Tanuki = Nyctereutes procyonoides (raccoon-dog) from the family Canidae (dogs). The name of the tesuji is usually translated as Raccoon-dog drumming on its belly though scrotum would be more correct.

See Tanuki no hara tsuzumi for details on the tesuji.