Shukaku is a sandy-brown coloured tanuki, with black (dark blue in the anime) cursed seal markings all over its face, body, and tail. It has a jagged, concave mouth with no tongue, and the sclerae of its eyes are black, with yellow irides and pupils that each takes the shape of a black four-pointed star with four black dots around it. During the last days of the Sage of Six Paths, Shukaku in its youth looked the basically same as it does presently, only much smaller with shorter ears and more spaced out markings.