Ceramic Raccoon/Tanuki Lamp?

I picked this piece up at an estate sale this afternoon and have been unable to find anything remotely similar online. My best guess is that it depicts a Japanese Tanuki (aka Raccoon Dog), but the man who previously owned it had been a world traveler, so it could be from anywhere. It's about 7 inches tall with no distinguishing marks other than the stamp depicted below.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Although I can't be absolutely certain, I think you are correct about what the figure depicts. From the photographs it appears to have been wood-fired and was most likely made in or around Bizen in Japan.

Bizen is one of the six ancient kilns of Japan and during the early part of the 20th century the production of traditional wares such as vases and bowls had almost died out, with most of the remaining potters making various sculptural figures. This type of thing wasn't uncommon.

The only real doubt in my mind is that the stoneware clay of your figure isn't local Bizen clay but I would imagine that the production of such figures, which still continues, needed stoneware clay to be brought in from elsewhere to meet the demand.

Awesome! Thanks so much. If I had to guess, this particular character was probably made in the early 20th century because the house it came from was packed with books from the late 1800's/ early 1900's as well as model ships with dates and vintage clothing from the 1920's.

Do you know if this would be considered predominately a tourist piece, or would it have been something used for decorative purposes by locals as well?

Finally, just for good measure, I've attached a shot of the bottom that show a portion of the pot (the small hole on the left) where it remained unglazed.

It is the kind of thing tourists would bring back but the Japanese appear to love this sort of thing as well - today they are more garish, brightly coloured and in plastic and even used as "street art" in places. So not just for tourists by any means.

I forgot to mention that your figure would have gone into the kiln unglazed and it would have been fired using wood, usually pine. The surface effect is caused by ash from the wood used in firing reacting with the clay body.

I was wondering about that. All the resources I had found said that the Bizen style was unglazed. It had me worried that the previous owner had decided to put some kind of finish on it after purchasing.

Thanks again!