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Revision as of 21:35, 4 June 2008 by Niko (talk | contribs)

Tengu (天狗, "heavenly dogs") are mountain and forest goblins or yokai in Japanese mythology, sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami (revered spirits or gods).


Nature

Etymology

The term tengu and the characters used to write it are borrowed from the name of a fierce demon from Chinese folklore called tiangou.


Appearance

Tengu are usually portrayed as human-like creatures with a bird's beak or a long and beak-like nose, wings and tailfeathers on their backs, and claws on their fingers and toes.

The tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is practically the tengu's defining characteristic in the popular imagination.

The tengu's long nose seems to have been conceived sometime in the 14th century, likely as a humanization of the original bird's bill.[1] Perhaps via confusion with the similarly-long-nosed Shinto deity Sarutahiko, who is described in the Japanese historical text, the Nihon Shoki, with a similar proboscis measuring seven hand-spans in length[2], tengu are sometimes portrayed with a red face and without any bird features. This image is particularly common in folk art, like the famous tengu masks that can be found in many Japanese restaurants. In village festivals the two figures are often portrayed with identical red, phallic-nosed mask designs.[3]

In Japanese picture scrolls, such as the Tenguzoshi Emaki (天狗草子絵巻), painted ca. 1296, which parodies high-ranking priests by endowing them the hawk-like beaks of tengu demons.[4] Tengu are often pictured as taking the shape of some sort of priest. Beginning in the 13th century, tengu came to be associated in particular with the yamabushi, the mountain ascetics who practice Shugendo.[5] The association soon found its way into Japanese art, where tengu are most frequently depicted in the yamabushi's distinctive costume, which includes a small black cap (頭襟) and a pom-pommed sash (結袈裟).[6]

Tengu are commonly depicted holding magical hauchiwa (羽団扇), fans made of feathers. In folk tales, these fans sometimes have the ability to grow or shrink a person's nose, but usually they are 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.[7]


Powers

Tengu are masters in shapeshifting and may appear as humans or other things if they so wish. They also have the ability to speak (telepathically) without moving their mouths or beaks. It is also said that they may enter dreams, which further adds to this theory. They have wings and can fly, but they may also traverse some distance without the use of their wings, through teleportation. This is supposedly limited however, and for longer travel they must either walk or use their wings. Tengu are also famed for their skills in martial arts, and are said to have trained the ninja, taught samurai, schooled famous heroes in kendo and possessed the founder of aikido. Last but not least,it is believed that most tengu enjoy composing and hearing or reading poetry.


Behavior

Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Sometimes they kidnap people and leave them wandering through the woods in a state of dementia called tengu-kakushi, but sometimes they are called upon to help lost children find their way home.

Closely associated with the tengu are the yamabushi or shugenja, a sect of ascetic warrior-monks who sought power and enlightenment by living in the harsh, unforgiving, and supernaturally-auspicious environment of the mountains. Sharing the tengu's remote home and bad reputation, the yamabushi inevitably became associated with the bird-goblins, and often hold their image sacred. So universal was this correlation that tengu are almost always depicted wearing the mountain-ascetic's small black cap and pom-pommed sash.

Tengu and a Buddhist monk, by Kawanabe Kyōsai. The tengu wears the cap and pom-pommed sash of a follower of Shugendō.





Their supernatural powers include shape-shifting into human or animal forms, the ability to speak to humans without moving their mouth, the magic of moving instantly from place to place without using their wings, and the sorcery to appear uninvited in the dreams of the living.

Tengu are depicted in two forms both forms have an essentially human body, the Karsu Tengu whilst having the head of a human has more bird like features with a crow’s beak replacing the nose and mouth. The Yamabushi Tengu on the other hand has more human face with a pronounced nose, akin to that of Pinocchio.