Tengu

Tengu (天狗) are minor kami found in Japanese folklore. They are a part of the traditions of most Japanese religions including Shinto and Buddhism, where they are classified as marakayikas. They are sometimes identified with the gods Saruta-hiko, Susanoo, and Karura. Tengu are popular subjects of Japanese art, theater, and literature.

Appearance

Tengu come in two major varieties. The karasu tengu or kotengu (烏天狗) are crow-headed humanoids. Their heads may be red or green as well as black, and they often have human ears and hair. Their beaks are sometimes lined with sharp teeth, and they have clawed, birdlike hands and feet. They have small wings as well, sometimes shown as beating extremely fast like those of a hummingbird. Their wings and tails are feathered, as may be the entire body. Colouration varies, but they are generally depicted with red clothing, hair, or skin. They sometimes carry ring-topped staffs called shakujo to fight with or to ward off evil magic.

The konoha tengu, yamabushi tengu (山伏天狗), konsha tengu, or daitengu are more human-like than their karasu cousins. They are tall beings with wrinkled, red skin or red faces, their most unnatural feature being their extremely long noses. These tengu typically dress as mountain hermits (yamabushi), Buddhist monks or priests. They often carry a staff (bo) or a small mallet. They sometimes have birdlike features as well, such as small wings or a feathered cloak. Some legends give them hauchiwa fans made from feathers or the leaves of the Aralia japonica shrub, which they can use either to control the length of their noses or to cause gale-force winds.

Tengu can change their appearance to that of an animal (often a tanuki or a fox) or a human being, though they usually retain some vestige of their true form, such as an unusually long nose or a bird-like shadow.

Although both types of tengu have wings and can fly, they are generally able to magically teleport as well.

Behaviour

Tengu inhabit the mountains of Japan, preferring deep forests of pine and cryptomeria. They are particularly associated with Mt. Takao and Mt. Kurama. The land of the tengu is known as Tengudo, which may be a specific physical location, a part of some spiritual realm, or simply a name for any tengu settlement.

Legends often describe tengu society as hierarchical. The karasu tengu act as servants and messengers for the yamabushi tengu. At the top sits the tengu king, the white-haired Sojobo who lives on Mt. Kurama. In addition, many areas of Japan claim to be haunted by other named tengu, often worshipped in shrines. Though invariably pictured as male, tengu lay and hatch from eggs.

Tengu are capricious creatures, and legends alternately describe them as benevolent or malicious. In their more mischievous moods, tengu enjoy playing pranks that range from setting fires in forests or in front of temples to more grave offenses, such as eating people (though this is rare). Tengu enjoy posing as human beings to dupe lost mountain travelers. They tend to take friendly forms, such as wandering hermits. After gaining a victim's trust, the tengu may simply toy with him by, for example, flying him around on a saucer-like contraption or immersing him in a masterfully created illusion. Alternately, the tengu may kidnap him, a practice known as kami kakushi or tengu kakushi -- divine or tengu kidnapping. Victims often awaken far from where they were taken with no memory of the lost time. Missing children are also often blamed on the tengu. Tengu may also communicate with people as if by telepathy, and they are sometimes accused of possessing human beings or taking over their minds. Because of their malicious tricks, people sometimes leave offerings to keep the creatures from bothering them (usually rice and bean paste).

Tengu are proud, vengeful, and easily insulted. They are particularly intolerant of the arrogant, blasphemous, those who misuse power or knowledge for their own gain, and those who disrupt tengu-inhabited forests. This particularly compels them to pursue crooked monks and priests, and in earlier eras, samurai (in fact, some traditions say that the arrogant themselves are reincarnated as tengu). They are sometimes shown with political instincts as well, meddling in the affairs of humanity to keep mankind from becoming too powerful or disruptive. Despite their intolerance for such behavior in others, tengu are notoriously egotistical, leading to the phrase tengu ni naru ("to become a tengu"), i.e., to be boastful.

They are not immortal, and a seriously wounded tengu will change into a bird (often a crow or a bird of prey) and fly away. At least one legend claims that tengu can be reincarnated as human beings if they behave altruistically during their lives.

Tengu are experts in martial arts, battle tactics, and swordsmithing. They sometimes impart this knowledge to human beings. The human hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune learned sword fighting from the tengu king, Sojobo, for example. Such instruction does not even require the student to meet a tengu in person, as the tengu can impart this knowledge through dreams. The black mask worn by ninja is called the tengu-gui due to the tengu's association with fighting.

Origins and Development

The tengu most likely have their origins in China. The name "tengu" is probably derived from the Chinese Tiangou ("heavenly dog"), the Dog Star of Chinese astrology, or possibly a name given to a dog-tailed meteor that struck China in the 6th century BC. Eventually, an entire class of mountain demons called Tiangou developed in China, behaving much as the Japanese tengu in their more malevolent moods. These Tiangou were brought to Japan with the first Buddhists in the 6th or 7th century, where they perhaps became identified with native Shinto spirits. The earliest tengu legends feature only the karasu (crow) tengu, who are almost invariably evil in these tales. Tengu grew more humanoid over the years, as well as less evil and more mischievous.

During Japan's "middle ages", corruption infested much of the Buddhist clergy. It was during this period that the tengu took to punishing the blasphemous, and this association made them a favorite literary device used in the Kamakura period by authors wishing to safely criticize particular clergy or sects. The yamabushi mountain monks were also seen as fighting against this corruption, and eventually, the tengu took on their current yamabushi tengu form due to this association.

During the Edo period, Dutch traders were the only Europeans allowed into Japan, and it has been suggested that the ruddy-faced, wide-eyed, and big-nosed yamabushi tengu may have originated with peasants who thought that these "not-quite-Japanese-looking" strangers must be monsters in disguise.

As late as the Edo period, government officials posted notices warning tengu to leave the area before visits by the Shogun.

A well known Japanese children's story relates the tale of two tengu sitting atop mountains who can extend their noses great distances, following interesting smells down into the villages below. A whole set of stories feature a fan, received as a gift or bartered from tengu, waving which at someone can extend or shorten that person's nose magically, but not perminately.
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