Greetings yokai fans!

Today I present to you the kawa tengu. I was able to include two short tales in the Legends section this time, because fortunately these guys have very short stories! But they do a good job capturing the gentle yet mischievous nature of these tengu.

It’s almost enough to make you want to go fishing in hopes that you might run into one!

川天狗
かわてんぐ

Translation: river tengu
Habitat: riverbanks
Diet: fish

Appearance: Kawa tengu are tengu which make their homes along riverbanks and lakesides in eastern Japan. They look like other tengu–vaguely birdlike, with dark feathers. They usually remain invisible to humans, but are sometimes spotted on cloudy or rainy days wearing beautiful kimono and carrying umbrellas.

Behavior: Kawa tengu spend their days alone on the riverside, sitting on the rocks and watching the water as if deep in thought. At night they catch fish. They create magical fireballs called tengubi which float above the water and act like lures. They are fond of creating auditory hallucinations, and are more often heard than seen. The sound of nonexistent rapids or waterfalls coming from valleys is often the work of kawa tengu.

Interactions: Kawa tengu enjoy playing pranks on humans, but rarely do any real harm. They use magic to scare people away if they get too close. If a fisherman casts his net near where a kawa tengu is fishing, it will create illusionary torchlights and the sounds of crowds of people to draw them away. If children play too close to where a kawa tengu is sitting, it will scare them away with illusions–for example, a giant, black monk emerging from the forest chanting, “Children, children!”

If a person purposefully goes looking for a kawa tengu, the pranks can become more direct. Someone leaning over a riverbank looking for a kawa tengu will suddenly lose their footing and stumble head-over-heels into the river. They also create illusory bridges, causing people who try to cross them to tumble and suffer injuries.

Some villagers leave offerings of freshly caught fish by the riverside, or wash the large boulders along the banks. After doing this, the kawa tengu leave them alone.

Legends: Along the Tama River in western Tōkyō, there was a kawa tengu who could be seen every day sitting by a deep pool, lost in contemplation. One spring, however, he mysteriously vanished. In the fall of that year, the kawa tengu returned to his rock, although now he was accompanied by a beautiful young female tengu. A villager offered the pair a nice bowl and tray set as a wedding gift, and the tengu thanked them by teaching them how to make an effective fever medication from worms.

A fisherman was walking along the Tama River, returning home after a day’s work. His pack was filled to the brim with fish. Suddenly he heard a strange sound like a person splashing in the water behind him. He put down his heavy pack to investigate. There was nobody there. After deciding he must have been hearing things, the fisherman shouldered his pack and continued on his way, but it was much lighter than it had been a moment ago. He looked inside, and all of the fish were gone. He had caught so many fish that he angered a kawa tengu, who took them all back.

Greetings yokai fans!

Today’s yokai is ōgama, the giant toad. I hope you enjoy it! There were lots of stories to choose from, so I had to narrow it down to two nice examples. However, due to the large amount of frog and toad folklore out there, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more amphibians this year!

大蝦蟇
おおがま

Translation: giant toad
Alternate names: bakegama
Habitat: mountains and rivers
Diet: carnivorous

Appearance: Ōgama are enormous toads. They can grow incredibly large and they become more dangerous the larger they get. Their long tongues are agile and sticky, and they can catch and drag just about anything into their mouths to eat. Their breath appears rainbow colored when they exhale. They sometimes carry spears which they use to assault humans. Like many animal yōkai, ōgama have the ability to change their forms and disguise themselves as humans.

Behavior: When a Japanese toad (Bufo japonicus) reaches one thousand years of age, it transforms into an ōgama. Ōgama behave for the most part like they did when they were ordinary toads. They live deep in the mountains, usually by rivers. They hunt bugs, birds, and snakes by breathing their rainbow-colored breathe on them, and then snatching them up with their powerful, stretchy tongues.

Interactions: Ōgama rarely come into contact with humans due to their remote habitat, but it does occasionally happen. When they rest, they are large enough that they can be mistaken for a large boulder or other natural mass, and a foolish person might accidentally sit on them. Even the smallest ōgama will commit evil deeds. When provoked, they are clever enough to wield spears and chase after humans. When they reach sizes of over three meters, they begin to see humans as food.

Origin: Toad legends can be found all over Japan. Ōgama appear in a number of Edo Period story collections, including Ehon hyakumonogatari and Hokuetsu kidan, but superstitions about toads go back much further. Toads living deep in the mountains tended to grow larger than those living closer to humans. This may have given rise to the idea that the deepest, most remote mountains might be home to truly gigantic toads.

Legends: Long ago in Miyagi Prefecture, a famous marksman heard about an old, dilapidated house by a bridge where every night a strange old woman appeared and spun thread. Her neighbors feared her and thought she was a demon of some kind. The marksman went to investigate the old woman. Her smile and cackle were so disturbing to him that he immediately aimed his gun at her heart and fired. As he did, the light from her lantern went out and the night became pitch black. The marksman stumbled home in the dark. The following morning the woman was gone, and there was no sign of any injury. He must have missed somehow. A few nights later the old woman appeared again. The marksman went to see, and this time he aimed his gun not at the woman, but at her lantern. He fired, and once again everything went black. This time he heard a terrible shriek and a clattering sound. At first light he returned to the house, and lying where the woman had been was the corpse of an enormous, ugly toad.

In Niigata Prefecture, a man went deep into the mountains to fish in a pond. He sat down on a boulder by the water’s edge and cast his line into the water. A fisherman on the other side of the pond noticed him. Suddenly the fisherman’s face went pale. He packed up all of his gear as quickly as he could. He motioned for the man to do the same, and then he ran away. The man did as he was told, and ran off into the woods after the fisherman. When he found him, the fisherman asked him, “Didn’t you notice? The boulder you were sitting on suddenly opened a massive eye red as fire, and then it yawned!” When the two returned to the pond to see, the boulder the man had sat upon was gone without any trace. In actuality, he had been sitting on an ōgama.