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"In medieval literature they appear prominently as one of the most sinister
enemies of Buddhism. They sow seeds of pride in the hearts of those treading
the path towards Buddhist illumination. They cause mysterious conflagrations
in Buddhist temples. They carry off priests engaged in pious exercises and
tie them to the tops of trees."
Quoted from: "Supernatural
Abductions in Japanese Folklore", by Carmen Blacker, published by Nanzan
University, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1967, p. 116.
"The favorite disguise of the
goblin [i.e., tengu] was the distinctive garb of the sect of mountain
ascetics known as yamabushi [山伏 or やまぶし]." Remember: yamabushi is
generally translated as mountain priest or Buddhist monk. (Ibid.)
Dr. M. W. de Visser in his
article "The Tengu" (published in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of
Japan, 1908, p. 25) at the very first mentions the number of famous authors
and scholars who took the existence of tengu as a given fact - or
apparently so. "Even the famous Shintō reformer Hirata Atsutane [1776-1843:
平田篤胤 or ひらたあつたね] and the learned novelist Kyokutei Bakin [1767-1848: 曲亭馬琴 or
きょくていばきん] made a deep study of this subject." But there were others: Hayashi
Razan [1583-1657: 林羅山 or はやしらざん] , the Buddhist priest Teinin [ていねん], Ogyū
Sorai [1666- 1728: 荻生徂徠 or おぎゅうそらい] and Hiraga Gennai [1728?-1779: 平賀源内 or
ひらかげんない]. "By far the clearest and most profound of all the older writers on
this subject is Bakin himself." In fact, he was disdainful of the writings
of the others. [However, that seems to have been one of his personality
traits. He was contemptuous of the scholarship of several of his literary
peers.]
Carmen
Blacker relates many stories of abductions where the child eventually
returns only to be found on a rooftop or in nearly inaccessible rafters.
After their return most of these children have diminished mental capacities.
De Visser recounts an almost identical story of a ten year old Chinese boy
living during the T'ang Dynasty (618-907) who is swept away by a fish-eagle
from a celebration at a Buddhist temple. When he reappears he is lying atop
a tall pagoda and tells of visiting strange places and eating unusual foods.
(de Visser, pp. 30-31) During the 17th century 10 other Chinese boys said
they met a man with tangled hair, wings on his back, a beak and a tongue so
long that hung down over his stomach. (de Visser, p. 31) There is also a 4th
century description of "...a kind of demon in bird shape, who, just as the
Japanese Tengu, can change himself into a man..." and set aflame the houses
of men who try to harm him. (de Visser, p. 32) ¶ De Visser makes clear that
the tengu are closely related to the folktales of the Celestial Dog
of China. It streaks through the skies, booms thunderously and brings on
conflicts between men. He also notes that comets and meteors are often
thought to be demons bringing calamities to many different cultures as
reported by Frazer in his Golden Bough. ¶ The oldest account of this
phenomenon is mentioned in the Nihongi of 720. It was said to have
occurred in 637. A Buddhist priest declared that a shooting star was
actually the Celestial Dog howling like thunder. (de Visser,, p. 34)
The point de Visser is making is that it took a Buddhist priest from China
to inform the Japanese who did not know the reason of such things prior to
that time. (p. 35) "But there is still more we can learn from the simple
words of the Nihongi. At the side of the characters 天狗, 'Celestial
Dog,' we find kana, reading 'Ama tsu kutsune' or 'Celestial Fox.' Now
the latter is also known as a Chinese demon." (Ibid.) [I know, I know, it's
a fox and not a tengu, but we should be able to clear this up
eventually.] ¶ In 1446 an encyclopedic work was published which said that
Celestial Dog and Foxes are often confused in the literature. "Hirata...
points out the great resemblance between the Chinese legends about the
Celestial Fox and what the Japanese call about their Tengu." (p. 36) Asikawa
Zenan (1781-1849: 朝川善庵 or あさかわ ぜんあん) said that he knew of three images of a
small tengu riding atop a fox. Japanese tengu and Chinese
foxes both can take the shape of a Buddha, burn houses, know intimately what
is happening both near and far at the same time and take over possession of
human bodies. And like certain Chinese werefoxes which possess a special
pearl "...whoever becomes a Great Tengu gets a pearl, red as agate. If one
holds this pearl before his eyes or ears, he can see or hear all that
happens in the three thousand worlds." (p. 37) By the 12th century the
Japanese were completely mixing up the lore of the Celestial Fox or Dog with
that of the tengu.
The first actual mention of a 'real' tengu
came in the 10th century in the Utsubo Monogatari (宇津保物語 or うつほものがたり)
or 'The Tale of the Hollow Tree'. "This story shows clearly that in those
early days the Tengu was considered as a mountain demon, who deluded people
and decoyed them into the depths of the wood." (p. 38)
In this case the tengu was disguised as a beautiful young woman
playing expertly on a koto. The next mention came
in the Konjaku Monogatari (今昔物語 or こんじゃくものがたり) of 1077. There are
quite a few stories of tengu in the Konjaku. In the first one a
tengu hears the singing of a Buddhist text coming from the ocean and is
determined to put a stop to it. He follows it to its source which is a
stream flowing down Mt. Hiezan in Japan. It is guarded by the Four Kings of
Heaven and acts as a privy for a sect of Tendai monks. The tengu is
so impressed that he decides to take human form and become a priest. In time
he rises in the ranks as a devout follower of Buddha. [We will be adding
much more information soon!]
The second story tells of a Chinese tengu traveling to Japan to see if the
Buddhist priests are as easy to fool there as they are at home. The tengu
finds a much tougher crowd - is this a nationalistic comment? - is thwartted
by a powerful bishop, beaten by boys and sent a packing in humiliation.
The third story tells of the
miraculous appearance of a Buddha in kaki tree near Kyōto. Crowds of
visitors came to witness the Buddha who gave off a brilliant light and
rained flowers constantly from the sky. However, one shrewd court minister
thought it might be a trick being played by tengu. The minister knew
that no tengu could keep up his powers of black magic for more than a week
so he went to visit the site on the last day and had the crowds removed. The
minister stared at the visitation until finally it fell exhausted to the
ground as a large bird with broken wings whereupon a little boy then kicked
it to death. In the sixth story - even de Visser doesn't give a synopsis of
them all - a tengu tries to tempt a Buddhist priest by taking
possession of a beautiful woman. She, i.e., the tengu, is relentless.
Finally in desperation the priest implores Fudō Myōō to help him.
After Fudō wrangled the possessed woman with his rope she began spinning
like a top, bumping into temple pillars. The injured tengu cried out
for mercy through the woman's mouth. Compassionately Fudō releases his
captive and the grateful tengu leaves the body of the woman who runs
away never to bother the priest again. In another case a tengu in the
guise of an Amida Butsu appears before a devout elderly priest and his
junior monks. The tengu who has surrounded himself with all of the
accoutrements of celestial buddhahood - the lotus throne, the five glorious
colors, Bodhisattvas, angels, blinding light - sweeps down and carries off
the elderly priest supposedly with the intent of taking him to the Western
Paradise. Several days later and some distance from the abduction a priest
was walking through the woods and heard moaning and groaning. He looked up
and saw the naked form of the elderly priest tied near the top of tree. He
climbed up and rescued the old man only to be scolded by him. The devout
priest had been told by the tengu/Amida to wait there as part of his
journey to paradise. "The bewitched priest was raving mad and died after a
few days. He had been deceived by Tengu because he had no knowledge and did
not understand the difference between the work of demons and the world of...
[Buddhist principles]." The point: Tengu are nettlesome creatures
which are often at war with Buddhists. They disguise themselves as bonzes,
nuns, bishops and even Buddhas to trick the most gullible - especially among
the clergy. Defense: A knowledge of the true ways of the Buddha will be your
best protection.
By the 12th and 13th
centuries the tengu had branched out mischievously to torment members
of the Imperial Court and the Court was fighting back, but not always
successfully. (de Visser, pp. 44-5) "As in the Chinese story of the
Konjaku monogatari, this Tengu is an angry ghost of a priest, who
probably had suffered some wrong from the Throne and had died in anger." (p.
45) But the struggle between the tengu and the Buddhist clergy didn't
let up. Occasionally wayward priests came back as one of those foul smelling
tengu after he died. "In these legends we read for the first time
about the Tengu-road, as one of the punishments of hell for vain and
hypocritical priests." (p. 46) In many cases humans only seem to be
possessed by tengu to act as vehicles for dead priests.
In the story of Yoshitsune, the hero of the Battle of Dannoura in 1185 when
the Minamoto beat the Taira, he is said to have been taught in martial
skills by the tengu. How else could he have performed so remarkably?
Do you have a better explanation?
Numerous stories about the
travails of the 77th Japanese emperor, Go-Shirakawa (1156-58: 後白河 or ごしらかわ)
refer to vengeful relatives who torment him as ghosts/tengu. (pp.
49-50) But Shirakawa was not immune to the same issues: "The Gukwanshō
[1220-25: 愚管抄 or ぐくわんしょう] contains the following story: - In the year 1196
the ghost of the Emperor Go Shirakawa , who died four years before,
possessed two women and a priest, through whose mouth he spoke and ordered
the people to worship him." The 82nd ruling emperor Go Toba [1183-98: 後鳥羽 or
ごとば] exiled the first two, but when the order was repeated again he began to
think that it just might be the late emperor's ghost speaking. Just as he
was about to follow the dictate he received a letter from a bishop who told
him that it was more likely the work of a fox or tengu. As everyone
knows those creatures love being worshipped. The bishop noted that many
people in the capital had already started worshipping the dead emperor in
anticipation that the living one would do the same. The bishop pointed out
that if Go Toba went ahead with his plans he would join "...all kinds of low
people... [like] such fools as
miko, kannagi [巫 or かんなぎ] (female
sorcerers) and dancers of the saru-gaku (monkey-dance). If such things
happen, the world will come to an end." Whew! Fortunately Go Toba took the
bishop's advice - and the world didn't end. (de Visser, p. 50) When
Shirakawa's in 1184 the tengu were blamed. (p. 51) In another case
Shirakawa is told that about 90% of contemporary priests fail to follow the
way of the Buddha properly and therefore are apt to take the tengu-road.
(p. 52) That is a lot of errant priests and hence proto-tengu. "Proud
Nuns become Nun-Tengu, the priests Priest-Tengu. Although their faces are
those of Tengu, their heads are those of nuns or priests, and although they
have wings at the arms, yet they wear something like a dress and around
their shoulders hang scarves (kesa). When ordinary men, who are proud,
become Tengu, they have Tengu faces, but on their heads wear the
eboshi
(a cap formerly worn by nobles..." etc. When women became tengu among
other habits they continued was tooth blackening. [See our entry on
ohaguro.]
By this period tengu has taken on new skills in the telling; Incendiarism
and the full capacity to know both the history going back 100 years and a
clear view of the future for the same length of time. Another new phase was
the abduction of children with no purpose other than to distress the
parents. Generally the children are returned much the worse for their
adventure. Ill and near death the tengu had fed the children what
they convinced them were treats but in fact were nothing more than dung. (p.
57) [In Paris once I ordered andouille. The waiter tried to dissuade me, but
I persisted. Ate a little bit and now know how the abducted children must
have felt. And to think there were no tengu dining with me. Only Angela.] ¶
Now, I think I already mentioned the fact that Buddhist priest could come
back as tengu. However, what I haven't mentioned is that there are
'good' demons and bad ones. Priests who were proud and ambitious and didn't
really follow the way of Buddha would come back as the bad ones. The ones
who erred in the same way, but still believed in the Buddhist scriptures
came back as good one, i.e., good tengu priests, who would continue to study
the way and act as protectors of Buddha. (pp. 59-60)
In the Genpei Seisuki (源平盛衰記 or げんぺいせいすき) the god of Sumiyoshi
appears before the retired emperor Go Shirakawa that he difficulties with
the Hieizan priests is actually the fault of heavenly devils or temma (天魔 or
てんま). When asked about the nature of these devils the god gives quite a
listing. Among these are priests with great learning who become great tengu
and of those of lesser knowledge small tengu. Those with no knowledge or
understanding go on the animal-road or chikushōdō (畜生道 or ちくしやうだう)
after death. [Chikushōdō can also mean incest.] They come back
as horses or cows and are beaten every day. The god continued: "In the
middle ages there lived in Japan a bishop whose name was Kakimoto no Ki,
a pupil of Kōbō Daishi. He was also an intimate friend and nearly his equal.
But he grew proud of being the possessor of the Great Law and became the
first Great Tengu of Japan, Tarōbō of Atago-san. As there are many proud men
in the world, a great number became Tengu, and on all the mountain peaks of
the country, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred or two hundred of them are
assembled." [Kakimoto = 桓本 or かきもと: Kōbō Daishi = 弘法大師 or
こうぼうだいし:Tarōbō = 太郎坊 or たろうぼう: Atago-san = 愛宕山 or あたご] The image shown above
is a detail from a print by Kunisada showing Tarōbō as both priest and
tengu as displayed on a hanging scroll. (de Visser, pp. 51-3) Notice the
kongōsho or double vajra he is holding in his left hand.
In the early 14th century Yoshino shūi (吉野拾遺 or よしのしゅうい) the long
nosed tengu makes its first appearance. "Formerly they were always
described as having kite's beaks. No doubt the long nose is only a hunanized
bird's bill. As is very often the case with animal-shaped gods and demons,
there is a general tendency toward taking the human body. First of all the
Tengu were kites, then they became men with the head of a kite, thereupon
they had only a kite's beak, till at last the latter changed into a long
nose." (p. 61)
3 mountains known for their
concentration of tengu are Atago, Ōtake and Kimpusen. (p. 64) One of
the repetitive themes of tengu life was that of a gathering where
they would drink balls of red hot iron, writhe in agony, burn up into a pile
of ashes and then after a short period be reconstituted only to continue
their original activities. Hollywood could do no better than that. Also,
many of the stories of strife and warfare are explained as being provoked
and promoted by tengu who by this time are the vengeful spirits,
i.e., of famous men. There is less emphasis on anti-Buddhist activities
although monastery or temple fires are almost always blamed on tengu
- they couldn't possibly be an accident or arson caused by a mortal. Losses
on the battlefield were clearly caused by tengu armies in disguise.
De Visser tells us that in
the Ainoshō (埃嚢鈔 or あいのうしょう) of 1446 it states that "...all
distinguished officials and priests become Tengu on account of their proud
hearts." (p. 67) On a totally different matter: One theme seems to pop up
again and again and that is the rivalry between the Buddhist monks of
Hieizan and Miidera. For example, when two boys disappeared (p. 68) from
Miidera the monks at Hieizan were blamed when in fact it was the - you
guessed it - tengu. But that is only one theme. There are plenty more
where that one came from. Too numerous to list.
In the 17th century a story
about Tarōbō of Mt. Atago appears in the Honchō Jinjakō
(本朝神社考 or ほんちょうじんじゃこう): "Hosokawa no Katsumoto [細川勝元 or ほそかわかつもと]
(1430-1473), who had no children, prayed on Atago-yama to the Great Tengu Tarōbō
for a son. His prayer was heard, and Masamoto [政元 or まさもと] (1466-1507) was
born. This son, who was a Tengu, became kwanryo (first minister of the
Shōgun) in 1494, and having been murdered in 1507, caused a curse after his
death. In order to smooth down the Tengu ghost a temple was built in his
honor." (p. 70) As I am sure you must realize by now this story is based on
the lives of real people. Sibling rivalries between Masamoto's three adopted
sons was the cause of his death - unless, of course, you are inclined to
think it was tengu doings.
As noted above de Visser
mentioned three mountains populated by tengu. That was on p. 64, but
on p. 70 me adds to the list these mountains: Taisen, Hiko, Kurama, Hira,
Hieizan. Chances are where there are mountains there are tengu. (A
cautionary note: Whenever a mountain is named it might not be the one you
are familiar with. Turns out there are often several mountains in several
provinces with the same name. I suppose that would be like trying to find
Springfield, U.S.A. Supposedly there are a ton of them. 35? 38? I mention
this becuase sometimes it is difficult sorting out the true local of a place
shown in a print or mentioned in the literature.)
Razan, a Confucian scholar,
who was mentioned above, believed "...that the Tengu evidently are ghosts of
the dead who have become demons (悪鬼). He enumerates the principal ones, and
puts in the first place the 'Bishop of Kurama' (who instructed Yoshitsune),
Tarō of Atago, and Jirō, of Hira-yama. As to their shape he says: 'Sometimes
they become foxes or boys, sometimes they fly in the shape of doves, or come
among men as Buddhist priests or yamabushi; sometimes they change themselves
into demons or Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. They change luck into calamity, and
order into confusion. Now they cause fire, now war." (p. 71)
In the 18th century the
first stories appeared of people dropped from the sky by tengu. |
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"The dragonfly, an emblem of the country, was also known as katsumushi
[勝虫 or かつむし] (the invincible insect), a favorite symbol of strength
among Japanese warriors. During the seventeenth-century Tokugawa shogunate
period, dragonflies were used as a motif for decorations on warriors
helmets."
Quoted from: A Dazzle of
Dragonflies, by Forrest Lee Mitchell and James Laswell, Texas A & M
University Press, 2005, p. 30.
Meadowhawk photographed by
Regular Daddy
"The ancient names akitsu and akitsu-mushi both mean 'autumn insect' and are
still used to refer to all dragonflies of Japan. Although dragonflies fly
throughout the summer months in Japan, they appear in great numbers in
autumn, especially the red-colored Sympetrum species (meadowhawks),
the ones most commonly written about in Japanese poetry. The colloquial name
aka-tombo [赤蜻蛉 or あかとんぼ]... is actually used for many different
species of red dragonflies found in Japan, including Sympetrum
species." (Ibid., p. 31)
In 1788 Tsutaya Jūzaburō (1750-97: 蔦屋重三郎 or つたや.じゅうざぶろう) published the
Ehon mushi erabi (画本虫撰 or えほんむしえらび or 'Picture Book of Selected Insects'
illustrated by Utamaro. The detail of the red dragonfly shown above is
accompanied by a poem by Akera Kankō (1736-98: 朱楽菅江 or あけらかんこう). [Various
dates are given for Kankō. Another possibility is 1740-1800. These come from
what seem to be credible sources. Actually the British Museum web site says
that Akera was still active until ca. 1813.] One web site states that the
poem deals with unrequited love which makes sense because of the quiet
nature of the dragonfly itself. Also, there is another type of dragonfly
illustrated in this book.
Mitchell and Laswell cite Lafcadio Hearn's delineates various categories of
dragonflies in A Japanese Miscellany: There is the Mugiwara-tombo
(麦藁蜻蛉 or むぎわらとんぼ) or Wheat-straw dragonfly "...is a colloquial name used for
the immature male and female Orthetrum albistylum speciosum"; the
Shiokara-tombo (塩辛蜻蛉 or しおからとんぼ) or Salt-fish dragonfly - the adult male's
tail looks like it was dipped in salt. (Ibid.) The Shōrai-tombo (しょうらいとんぼ)
or Dragonfly of the Dead, scientifically identified as the Pantala
flavescens. It is also called the Bon-tombo because these dragonflies
appear in the great numbers around the time of the Festival of the Dead,
i.e. August 15th today. These dragonflies were believed to be the vehicles
ridden by the spirits of the dead which return to their former homes. It is
also referred to as the Wandering Glider.
Dragonfly of the Dead (Pantala
flavescens) photographed by Dr. John C. Abbott
"...there is a tradition that the Emperor Jimmu, some twenty-six hundred
years ago, ascended a mountain to gaze over the province of Yamato, and
observed to those who accompanied him that the configuration of the land was
like a dragon-fly licking its tail. Because of this august observation the
province of Yamato came to be known as the land of the Dragon-Fly... And the
Dragon-Fly, remains an emblem of the Empire even to this day."
Quoted from: The Writings
of Lafcadio Hearn, by Lafcadio Hearn and Elizabeth Bisland, published by
Houghton Mifflin, 1922, p. 241
Hearn lists 32 kinds of dragonflies. One of the more interesting - from my
point of view - is number 15, the "Ki-yamma [基山 or きやま] (goblin dragon-fly).
Also called 'Ki-Emma' - 'Emma' or 'Yemma,' being the name of the King
of Death and Judge of the Souls." #17 is the ghost dragonfly or
Yurei-tombo (幽霊蜻蛉 or ゆうれいとんぼ). Hearn's #18 is
"Kané-tsuké-tombō, O-haguro-tombō. Either name refers to the preparation
formerly used to blacken the teeth of married women, and might be freely
rendered as 'tooth-blackening dragon-fly.' " [As I live and learn, another
reference to tooth blackening. For more go to our entry on
ohaguro.]
Hearn continued: "Kané wo tsukéru signified to apply, or, more literally,
to wear the stuff: thus the appellation kané-tsuké-tombō might be
interpreted as 'the kané-stained dragon-fly.' The wings of the insect are
half-black, and look as if they had been partly dipped in ink." #20 is the
Yanagi-jorō (やなぎじょうろう?) or spirit - or lady - of the weeping willow
dragonfly. (p. 245) During the Festival of the Dead children are forbidden
from disturbing dragonflies since they are the steeds of deceased souls. (p.
247)
There are long established conventions, according to Hearn, for painting and
poetry. "...for example, the nightingale should be mentioned, or portrayed,
with the plum-tree; the sparrow, with the bamboo; the cuckoo, with the moon;
frogs, with rain; the butterfly, with flowers; the bat, with the
willow-tree. Every Japanese child knows something about these regulations.
Now, it so happens that no such relations have been clearly fixed for the
dragon-fly in tanka-poetry..." (pp. 251-2) Hearn notes that the dragonfly is
limited to certain types of poetry and is almost never mention in love poems
because it is such a silent creature. This noiselessness also sets it apart
in tanka from insects such as crickets. Haiku is another story altogether
and Hearn gives numerous examples. Hearn also notes references to angel-like
wings or its ability to reverse directions in a flash which gives us the
modern Japanese word for somersault: Tonbogaeri (蜻蛉返り or とんぼがえり) which the
author calls dragon-fly-turning. (p. 259)
Now I get it: Below is a detail from a Kiyochika print series entitle '100
Victories 100 Laughs' (百撰百笑) in which the artist pours forth with the
most scathing ridicule of the Chinese during the Sino-Japanese War. Here the
dapper and superior Japanese character is portrayed by a dragonfly pointing
a pistol at a distraught, sobbing Chinese pig (?) which is also beset by
three Western bees. Remember the dragonfly was considered a symbol of Japan.
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