What are the origins of the names of tanuki and kitsune noodle dishes? Two of Japan's native wild animals are the fox and raccoon dog. Interestingly there are also noodle dishes apparently named after each. (Not containing the meat of those animals!) The terms seem to be mostly for udon but occur with other kinds of noodles in Japan such as ramen and soba too. Do we know how these two noodle dishes came to each be named after a Japanese animal? Could it be that one animal lives in a part of the country where one style of noodle dish was first popular while the other animal lives in a different part of the country with a different popular noodle dish? Or is it based on something else?

(foxes) are regarded sacred animals in Shintoism, being servants of the god of harvests ([]{}).

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(source: martle.net)

(The sign on the (Shinto archway) says .)

According to legend, a fox's favourite food is (deep-fried tofu slices). Stripes of are what makes . (By the way, can also be sliced up and filled with (sushi rice) and sesame to make .)

I'm not aware of any similar explanation for , whose characteristic ingredient is (which you might also come across as , although there is a difference between the two). My guess would be that the name was coined by analogy.