In Japanese myth, the creature with a monkey’s head, tanuki body, tiger’s legs, and a snake’s tail is the Nue.
The Nue is a legendary yōkai described most famously in the medieval Tale of the Heike. It is a composite monster, often compared with a chimera, and is associated with an eerie birdlike cry heard at night. The tanuki is the Japanese raccoon dog, not a badger, despite the common English translation “raccoon dog.”
One famous story tells how Minamoto no Yorimasa shot a Nue that had frightened Emperor Nijō and apparently caused the emperor’s illness. Yorimasa received the sword Shishiō as a reward, while the creature’s corpse was said to have fallen near Nijō Castle.
Descriptions vary in later texts: some give the creature a fox’s tail, a cat’s head, or a chicken’s torso. Those variations do not change the standard answer to this particular traditional description: Nue.