Baku

Baku is an imaginary animal.
Its body came from bear, the nose from an elephant, the eyes from rhinoceros, the tail from a cattle
the antlers from deer and legs from a tiger.
Its body is gray, and the chest hairs and upper tail hairs are white.
It is as large as a water buffalo.
It lives in a bamboo bush deep in the mountains
It moves very slowly, but has very strong power and tough teeth.
It loves to eat iron, copper and bamboos.
But later, it has been mixed up with a story of Baraki, a god, who let a bad dream turn away.
Then Baku became a dream eating holy animal.
So if you put a picture of Baku under your pillow,
you can dream only happy and good luck dream.

There still remain tradition that when you had bad dream at night,
say "I'll give my bad dream to Baku" three times, then you will be released from it.

This animal is also named Baku/tapir (Higashiyama Zoo)