Apparenty, the story starts like this:

A Mujina (racoon dog) had the power to turn itself into a man and joined a temple of worshippers. The Mujina, felt guilty about the frequent animals he killed in his racoon-dog life and decided to present a lantern to the Zenkoji temple as symbol of forgiveness. Sadly one day, as the Mujina took a bath, he did it as a racoon dog, not as a human. He was discovered by his compatriots and fled into the mountains in embarrassment never to return. The head priest knew about the Mujin's intentions re: the lantern and built one on the temple grounds as a tribute.

There.