Tengu

are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion (Shinto). They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey and a monkey deity, and they are traditionally depicted with human, monkey, and avian characteristics. Sarutahiko Ōkami is considered to be the original model of Konoha-Tengu (a supernatural creature with a red face and long nose), which today is widely considered the ''Tengu''s defining characteristic in the popular imagination. He is the Shinto monkey deity who is said to shed light on heaven and earth. Some experts theorize that Sarutahiko was a sun god worshiped in the Ise region prior to the popularization of Amaterasu.

Buddhism long held that the ''Tengu'' were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective and even manifestations of Buddhist deities, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. ''Tengu'' are associated with the ascetic practice of Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the garb of its followers, the ''yamabushi''.

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Image

The ''tengu'' in art appears in a variety of shapes. It usually falls somewhere in between a large, monstrous bird and a wholly anthropomorphized being, often with a red face or an unusually large or long nose. Early depictions of tengu show them as kite-like beings who can take a human-like form, often retaining avian wings, heads, or beaks. The ''tengu's'' long nose seems to have been conceived in the 14th century, likely as a humanization of the original bird's bill. This feature allies them with the Sarutahiko Ōkami, who is described in the 720 CE text the '' Nihon Shoki'' with a similar nose measuring seven hand-spans in length. In village festivals, the two figures are often portrayed with identical red phallic-nosed mask designs.

Some of the earliest representations of ''tengu'' appear in Japanese picture scrolls, such as the , painted c. 1296, which parodies high-ranking priests by endowing them the hawk-like beaks of ''tengu'' demons.

Tengu is often pictured as taking the shape of some sort of priest. Beginning in the 13th century, tengu came to be associated in particular with yamabushi, the mountain ascetics who practice Shugendō.de Visser, pp. 55–57. The association soon found its way into Japanese art, where tengu are most frequently depicted in the yamabushi's unique costume, which includes a distinctive headwear called the '' tokin'' and a . Due to their priestly aesthetic, they are often shown wielding the khakkhara, a distinct staff used by Buddhist monks, called a ''shakujō'' in Japanese.

Tengu is commonly depicted holding a magical . In folk tales, these fans sometimes can grow or shrink a person's nose, but usually, they have attributed the power to stir up great winds. Various other strange accessories may be associated with ''tengu'', such as a type of tall, one-toothed '' geta'' sandal often called ''tengu-geta''.

Origins

The term ''tengu'' and the characters used to write it are borrowed from the name of a fierce demon from Chinese folklore called '' tiāngǒu'' though this still has to be confirmed. Chinese literature assigns this creature a variety of descriptions, but most often it is a fierce and anthropophagous canine monster that resembles a shooting star or comet. It makes a noise like thunder and brings war wherever it falls. One account from the ''Shù Yì Jì'' (, "A Collection of Bizarre Stories"), written in 1791, describes a dog-like ''tiāngǒu'' with a sharp beak and an upright posture, but usually ''tiāngǒu'' bear little resemblance to their Japanese counterparts.

The 23rd chapter of the '' Nihon Shoki'', written in 720, is generally held to contain the first recorded mention of ''tengu'' in Japan. In this account a large shooting star appears and is identified by a Buddhist priest as a "heavenly dog", and much like the ''tiāngǒu'' of China, the star precedes a military uprising. Although the Chinese characters for ''tengu'' are used in the text, accompanying phonetic furigana characters give the reading as ''amatsukitsune'' (''heavenly fox''). M. W. de Visser speculated that the early Japanese meaning for the characters used to write Tengu may represent a conglomeration of two Chinese spirits: the ''tiāngǒu'' and the fox spirits called ''huli jing'' before the nuances of meaning were expanded to include local Japanese kami, therefore the true Tengu in appearance

Some Japanese scholars have speculated that the ''tengu's'' image derives from that of the Hindu eagle deity Garuda, who was pluralized in Buddhist scripture as one of the major races of non-human beings. Like the ''tengu'', the ''garuda'' are often portrayed in a human-like form with wings and a bird's beak. The name ''tengu'' seems to be written in place of that of the ''garuda'' in a Japanese sutra called the ''Emmyō Jizō-kyō'' (), but this was likely written in the Edo period, long after the ''tengu's'' image was established. At least one early story in the '' Konjaku Monogatari'' describes a ''tengu'' carrying off a dragon, which is reminiscent of the ''garuda's'' feud with the ''nāga'' serpents. In other respects, however, the ''tengu's'' original behavior differs markedly from that of the ''garuda'', which is generally friendly towards Buddhism. De Visser has speculated that the ''tengu'' may be descended from an ancient Shinto bird-demon which was syncretized with both the ''garuda'' and the ''tiāngǒu'' when Buddhism arrived in Japan. However, he found little evidence to support this idea.

A later version of the '' Kujiki'', an ancient Japanese historical text, writes the name of Amanozako, a monstrous female deity born from the god Susanoo's spat-out ferocity, with characters meaning ''tengu deity'' (). The book describes Amanozako as a raging creature capable of flight, with the body of a human, the head of a beast, a long nose, long ears, and long teeth that can chew through swords. An 18th-century book called the suggests that this goddess may be the true predecessor of the ''tengu'', but the date and authenticity of the ''Kujiki'', and of that edition, in particular, remain disputed.

Evil spirits and angry ghosts

The '' Konjaku Monogatarishū'', a collection of stories published in the late Heian period, contains some of the earliest tales of ''tengu'', already characterized as they would be for centuries to come. These ''tengu'' are the troublesome opponents of Buddhism, who mislead the pious with false images of the Buddha, carry off monks and drop them in remote places, possess women in an attempt to seduce holy men, rob temples, and endow those who worship them with unholy power. They often disguise themselves as priests or nuns, but their true form seems to be that of a kite.

Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, accounts continued of ''tengu'' attempting to cause trouble in the world. They were now established as the ghosts of angry, vain, or heretical priests who had fallen on the "''tengu''-realm" (, ''tengudō''). They began to possess people, especially women and girls, and speak through their mouths (''kitsunetsuki