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Pretty sure "squirrel boy" is a tanuki costume, with that nuttsack...

 

The comical image of the tanuki is thought to have developed during the Kamakura era. The actual wild tanuki has disproportionately large testicles, a feature that has inspired humorous exaggeration in artistic depictions. Tanuki may be shown with their testicles flung over their backs like travellers' packs, or using them as drums. As tanuki are also typically depicted as having large bellies, they may be depicted as drumming on their bellies instead of their testicles — particularly in contemporary art.

 

A common schoolyard song in Japan (the tune of which can be heard in the arcade game Ponpoko and a variation of which is sung in the Studio Ghibli film Pom Poko) makes explicit reference to the tanuki's anatomy:

 

Tan Tan Tanuki no kintama wa,

Kaze mo nai no ni,

Bura bura

 

Roughly translated, this means "Tan-tan-tanuki's testicles, there isn't even any wind but still go swing-swing-swing."[1] It continues for several verses, with many regional variations. It is sung to the melody of an American Baptist hymn called "Shall We Gather At The River?".[2]

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