Award-winning storyteller Bill Gordh (Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence winner, National Association of Parenting Periodicals Gold Award winner) presents this folktale live with no script, accompanied only by his own dynamic banjo playing.

An old man put the teakettle on the stove and went out to sit on his porch. When the water began to boil, the pot began to transform. It became a tanuki (sort of like a badger) and began racing around his house, causing all kinds of noise and trouble. The old man realized it was a magical kettle, as the tanuki became the kettle again when the old man came inside. He made a box and, before it could change again, put the teakettle into the box.

A handyman who was a friend of the old man walked by, and the old man gave him the box with the teakettle in it. It transformed while he tried to sleep, and he finally saw the tanuki turning flips. He asked the tanuki if it would like to be in a show. Tanuki nodded, and the young man begin taking the tanuki around, doing magic teakettle performances. The tanuki did the fan dance and shadow dances and flips. He traveled all over Japan and did very well. The time came for him to stop. He filled the teakettle with gold and brought it back to the old man. It did not change into a tanuki again, and the old man had what he needed as he grew older.