Today was the first actually chilly day this fall. I was beginning to get worried because we had such a long, hot summer — I was afraid our fall would be late and warm as well. I finally noticed a little bit of color on the trees today, though, and I had to wear a light jacket today. It was wonderful, and it really made me feel like this is fall; and it really made me feel like Halloween is coming soon! And this perfect fall weather couldn’t have come at a better time, because we are now most definitely in the 3rd and final section of 2010’s A-Yokai-A-Day project: scary women! From now on until the end of the month I will bring you a different scary/evil/ghostly woman straight out of Japan’s most chilling ghost tales. Let’s take a look at today’s:

Kage-onna

With a name like kage-onna, or “shadow woman,” this yokai is pretty self descriptive. There are a number of ancient tales of this yokai/ghost appearing in homes, but they generally follow the same theme: the shadow of a young woman appears mysteriously on the opposite side of the shoji, or rice-paper door, but when you check the other side, there is nobody there. She may be accompanied by noises as well. The stories of people haunted by kage-onna generally don’t have people running screaming out of the house… they’re eerie and creepy, but more-or-less benign. Perhaps the creepiest thing, though, is that while usually this monster takes the form of a younger, attractive woman… other days, for no apparent reason, the shadow will be that of a withered old crone with a bell hanging from her neck.

On first thought, that doesn’t seem so scary to most people… but think about it, and visualize it. It’s pretty terrifying. I know — I sleep right next to our window, and I see shadows playing on the curtains all the time… and I have to go to bed right after writing this…

One other foreboding thing about kage-onna is that she often haunts houses that are already full of other yokai or mononoke. So if you happen to see one of these at your window, perhaps you should be expecting other company very very soon!

Kage-onna

Check my Etsy store for the most recent yokai fine art prints! And check back again later this week for when I list the final batch of yokai prints for sale! | 今日はこの秋一番の寒い日です。今年は本当に暑い日が長く続いたので、秋が来るのかと心配になったくらいでしたが、やっと少し木々の葉が色づき始めているのを見る事が出来ました。秋が感じられるようになってきたので、それと同じくハロウィーンが近づいていると実感してきます！秋を感じられるようになってきましたので、丁度いいタイミングです。これから第３セクションが始まり、最終セクションに向かいます！

Kage-onna　（影女）

古くからの言い伝えには家に出る妖怪や幽霊の話が多くあります。そのような話によく出てくるのは、若い女性の影が障子に映るが外を見ても誰もいないというものです。また、その女が現れる時には床の軋む音なども聞こえるのというのです。
影女はとても気味が悪く怖いものですが人を傷つけることはありません。しかし人を大変怖がらせるものです・・・。恐らく最も不気味な妖怪のうちの一つなのですが、多くは若くて美しい女性なのだそうです。ところが他の事例では、この影は首に鈴をつけた老婆の姿であるともいわれているそうです。
さっと見た限りではそれほど怖くは思わないのですが、ちょっと考えてみると・もしくはこれを思い描いて見ると・・・これほど怖いものはないですね。私のベッドの横には窓があり、カーテンには影が映っています。これを書き終わったらベッドに行かなくてはなりません・・・。

もう一つ、影女に関するお話があります。それによると、影女が憑いた家にはもうすでに他の妖怪や物の怪がいるという意味を持つというのです。もし、窓辺に影女をみたとしたらば、あなたは予見しなくてはならない。すぐに他の仲間も現れると！

Kage-onna

Today’s yokai is actually two yokai that share the same story. Like Gagoze a few days ago, we are looking at a unique legendary yokai rather than a particular type of monster. Today’s yokai comes from Nikko, a city famous for its ancient temples and shrines, in Tochigi prefecture.

Sessho-seki

Do you remember the adorable kitsune from last year’s yokai project? Well, like the other henge yokai, kitsune, or foxes, are not always cute and cuddly, and not always good. In fact, some time they are downright evil. Today’s legend is about one of those evil foxes.

During the reign of Emperor Konoe (1142-1155), there was a very famous courtesan named Tamamo-no-Mae. She was said to be the most beautiful and most intelligent woman in all of Japan. Her body always smelled beautiful, her clothes never ever wrinkled, and she appeared only 20 years old. There was no question she couldn’t answer, either, whether it be about music, astronomy, or religion. Everybody in the court deeply admired here, and Emperor Konoe even fell in love with her.

The emperor gave all his attention to Tamamo-no-Mae, and after some time he fell very ill. All of the priests and fortune tellers could not tell what was wrong with the emperor, and his prognosis looked very bad. Finally, an astrologer named Abe no Yasuchika informed the emperor that his darling Tamamo-no-Mae was actually an evil 9-tailed fox in disguise! She had taken the form of a beautiful woman in order to trick the emperor into loving her, and her plan was to kill him and seize the throne. Her plot uncovered, Tamamo-no-Mae fled the court.

The emperor sent Kazusa-no-suke and Miura-no-suke, the most powerful warriors in all of Japan, to hunt down the fox and bring her to justice. The chased and chased her but could never catch her. Finally, in a dream, the beautiful Tamamo-no-Mae appeared to Miura-no-suke in a dream. She had prophesied her own death the next day, and she begged him to spare her life. He refused.

Sure enough, the next day Miura-no-suke found the fox and shot her with an arrow. She died where she fell, and her body transformed into a large boulder, which became known as Sessho-seki, “the killing stone,” for anyone or anything which touched the stone would drop dead instantly. The fox’s spirit left her body and became a ghost, who haunted the stone.

She haunted the stone for a long time, until one day a traveling priest name Genno took a rest by the stone and was threatened by the ghost. A good priest, he performed a ritual and asked the ghost to seek salvation, and eventually he convinced her to leave the stone. Since then, Tamamo no Mae’s ghost no longer haunts the stone… but who knows where she could be? Perhaps she finally found peace and salvation, or perhaps she has moved on, haunting other places. The stone still remains where it always was, in the Nasu, Nikko, Tochigi. If you ever visit Nikko, be sure to visit the stone… but touch it at your own risk!

Sessho-seki

Don’t forget! Signed, matted, fine art prints from A-Yokai-A-Day are available from my Etsy store! Get yours while they last!

It’s hard to believe how fast this month is going by! I guess it’s true that keeping busy is the best way to lose track of time (is that a saying?). We’re nearing the 2/3 point of the month, and that means that the 2nd section of A-Yokai-A-Day will be coming to an end soon. First we looked at animalian yokai, then we moved into more monstrous and ghostly yokai, and in the next few days we will be gradually transitioning into phase three: scary women! To kick it off, today’s yokai straddles that border; she is both scary woman and horrible monster.

Nure-onna

Literally “wet woman,” nure-onna is something you should hope never to run into. Normally she is a solitary yokai, but occasionally it is said she works together with one of the crab-like ushi-oni. She’s a clever shapeshifter and disguises herself as a beautiful woman in need to help — usually carrying a baby, waiting by a lake or a river or the sea, and sometimes baby-less and combing her hair by herself. When an unsuspecting human comes by and offers to help her, or disturbs her, she begins her attack! If she is carrying a baby, she will ask her would-be savior to carry it for her. Then, the baby will grow heavier and heavier until the human is unable to move under its weight. Examining the bundle will reveal it to be only a pile of rocks wrapped in clothes, but by the time her victim realizes this, it is too late. She will have revealed her true form: a huge, snake-like body up to 300 meters long, and a long serpentine tongue! The final blow comes from her tongue, which she uses to drain all the blood from her victim.

So let that be a warning to you: never to offer kindness to a lone Japanese woman in distress!

Nure-onna

One more announcement: my Etsy store has been fully updated with a 2nd batch of yokai from this month’s creations. The prints are quite beautiful and make great Halloween presents at a very good price! Don’t forget to check them out! | 今月ももう２/３のところまできました！時のたつのは早いものですね。２/３という事は、この妖怪シリーズの第二セクションに入るという事です。最初のほうは動物に関係した妖怪を描いてきました。しかしここからはもっと怖く、ゴーストのような妖怪を描いていきます。そして残り3枚の所にきた所で、大変怖い有名な女の幽霊を描きたいと思っていますよ。

「今日の妖怪シリーズ」今日は濡れ女です。通常は濡れ女は単独で見られる妖怪ですが、牛鬼とともに出没するという伝説がよく聞かれます。彼女はとても上手く姿を変えることができ、助けてあげたいなと相手に思わせるくらいの美人になります（湖か川岸または海で子供を抱いているか自分の髪を抱いて現れます）何の気なしにやってきた人間が彼女に助けを申し出ると、濡れ女の攻撃が開始となります！

もし濡れ女が子供を抱いているならば、その子をしばらく抱いてくれるよう頼みます。それを受け入れてその子を抱くや否やその子供は段々と重くなり、抱いた人間は動けなくなります。奇異に思ってその子を見てみるとそれは大きな岩になっていますが、確認したときには時すでに遅し・・・濡れ女はその正体を現してしまっています。300メートルもある長い蛇のような体に長い蛇の舌をもっており、その舌を使って犠牲者の血を飲み干してしまうのです！

さて、皆さんも日本人女性が水際で困っている様子を見つけても、助ける前にちょっと考えてみてはいかがでしょうか？女は人間でしょうか・・・？

濡れ女

Not all the yokai we will look at are common “species” of supernatural creature. Some of them are unique monsters, like the bogeyman or Bloody Mary. Today we’ll look at a unique yokai born from a specific legend at a specific temple.

Gagoze

Gagoze is a horrible-looking ghost who haunts the ancient temple Gango-ji in Nara prefecture. His story dates back to the Asuka period (550-710 CE). He is first depicted in illustration in Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yakko, and he is said to take the appearance of a demon in monk’s garb.

His story says that during the time of Emperor Bidatsu, in old Owari province (now Nagoya in Aichi prefecture), lightning struck the ground near an farmer’s house. From the lightning emerged a thunder god in the form of a young boy, and the farmer ran outside with a stick to kill the boy. The boy pleaded with the farmer to spare his life, and promised that he would return the deed by giving the farmer and his family a young boy as strong as the thunder god. The farmer agreed, and allowed the thunder god to return to the sky.

Sure enough, the farmer’s wife soon bore a child, and the child was as strong as a thunder god! However, the child was born with a snake wrapped around his head, with the head and tail going down the back like a ponytail. When the boy turned 10, he had grown so strong and proud that he challenged a member of the imperial family to a contest of strength and won.

After this, the boy was apprenticed to Gango-ji temple. Shortly after that, the belltower boys began dying very strange deaths one-by-one, and rumors began to spread that an oni, or demon, was behind the deaths. The boy wanted to solve the mystery, so he said he would catch the oni. He waited all night by the belltower, and towards dawn finally the oni came. The boy grabbed the oni by the hair and dragged him around so hard that he ripped his entire scalp off, and the oni was able to escape. The boy followed the blood trail left by the oni all the way to its end, where he found the grave of a (former) very lazy and bad temple servant. The lazy servant’s ghost had become this terrible ghost-demon, and the boy had defeated it! The boy became famous and grew up to be a priest at the temple, and the oni’s scalp became one of the holy treasures of Gango-ji.

The story doesn’t really tell too much about the yokai itself, but it does at least explain who Gagoze was: a lazy priest-servant-turned-demon-ghost who liked to kill children! How is this not already a Japanese horror story?? I really love how the depiction of the spirit in the 3 different ukiyo-e paintings I was able to find all show him in this creepy, crawling position. These artists were centuries before modern horror stories, but they knew scary, and we can still see ghosts just like Gagoze crawling around in J-horror movies like Ringu and Ju-On today.

Gagoze

「今日の妖怪シリーズ」今日の妖怪は元興寺です。元興寺は見かけがひどい幽霊で、奈良にある元興寺という古いお寺に住み着いていたものです。彼にまつわる話は大変古く、飛鳥時代にまでさかのぼります。彼が始めて描かれたのは鳥山石燕による「百鬼夜行」で、そこでは元興寺は僧の姿をした鬼の姿で描かれています。

元興寺の伝説にはこのようにあります。敏達天皇の時代に尾張の国の農家の所に突然の落雷がありました。農夫がそこに行くと、そこには雷神の子がいたので、農夫はそれを殺そうとしました。雷神の子は農夫に命乞いをし、もし命を助けてくれたら雷神のように力の強い子を授けると言いました。農夫はそれに応じ、雷神の子を空に返しました。

その後、農夫の妻は子供を授かりました。その子の頭には蛇が巻きつき、頭と尾を後頭部にポニーテイルのように垂らしているという異様な姿でしたが、その子供が10歳になったときに行われた力試しコンテストでは、なんと優勝してしまったというまさしく雷神のような力を持った子でありました。

後にその子供は元興寺の童子となりました。ある時、寺の童子達が変死する事件が続き、鬼に殺されたとの噂が立っていました。農夫の子はその謎を突き止めたくなり、自分がその鬼をつかまえる！と言いました。彼は毎晩鬼の来るのを待ち、待ち続けた末にようやく鬼がやってきました。そして鬼が現われるや否や、その髪の毛を引きずりまわしまし、夜明けごろには鬼の毛はすっかりと抜け落ちてしまいました。朝になってから抜け落ちた毛と血のあとを追っていくと、血痕はとある墓につながっていました。その墓は、以前元興寺で奉公していた無精な下男のもので、その下男が霊鬼となって現われていたのでした。この時に抜き取った頭髪は、現在元興寺の宝物になっているそうです。

今回のお話はそれほど妖怪の要素はありませんが、元興寺が何者かについて書いてみましょう：無精な下男が霊鬼となって現われたものであり、子供たちを殺していた。これは日本のホラーストーリーではありませんか？？

元興寺を描くために、3種類の異なった浮世絵を見ましたが、それらは全て興味深かったです。

元興寺（がごぜ）

A lot of people have asked me where I do my research on yokai for this project. I actually haven’t made any of these up — they existed for hundreds of years before I was even born. Most of my research is done on the internet, because the old yokai anthologies are all public domain now. However, there are also good references that can be found in libraries or on Amazon.com as well. The English Wikipedia has a lot of information on yokai — particularly in the form of scans of old yokai art books from hundreds of years ago located in the Wikimedia Commons. The Japanese Wikipedia has even more information, if you can navigate the Japanese. For those of you who want to learn more, here are a few good yokai chroniclers to reference:

• Shigeru Mizuki, author of the yokai manga GeGeGe no Kitaro
• Toriyama Sekien, ukiyo-e painter and author of The Illustrated Night Parade of A Hundred Demons (画図百鬼夜行, 1776), The Illustrated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past (今昔画図続百鬼, 1779), Supplement to The Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past (今昔百鬼拾遺, 1780), and The Illustrated Bag of One Hundred Random Demons (画図百鬼徒然袋, 1784)
• Tosa Mitsunobu, the 15th cenury painter of the original Hyakki Yakko Zu scroll
• Utagawa Yoshiiku, a 19th century painter
• Kawanabe Kyosai, one of my favorite yokai painters
• Sawaki Suushi, another one of my favorites, author of The Illustrated Volume of a Hundred Demons (百怪図巻, 1737)

Keukegen

Today’s yokai is a truly bizarre one, but even so it is a little bit cute… Its name is a pun with two different meanings — the first one being “fluffy-looking hairy thing” and the second being “unusual and rarely seen thing” — depending on the kanji used to write it. It kind of looks like a small dog covered in hair.

It lives in damp, dark places, and is actually a disease spirit. Despite its cuteness, if you find one of these in your house you are probably going to get very sick. Beyond that, there is very little documentation on this yokai. The earliest appearance of him is in Toriyama Sekien’s supplemental yokai anthologies, so I suspect it may be one that he invented just to fill in some pages. Not that that really cheapens it at all, of course.

If any yokai were to do well as a pet for humans, this would be it. In my opinion, it is just a like a small dog; tiny, hairy, and disease ridden. But then, I’m biased towards parrots myself.

Keukegen

Tomorrow I will update my Etsy store with additional yokai prints from the second week of October! | この「今日の妖怪シリーズ」のプロジェクトのために、私がいったいどうやってリサーチをしているのか？といったご質問を多くの方からいただきます。ご紹介している妖怪は私が創造したものではなく、全て100年以上前にあったものです。そのためほとんどの資料は大変古く、博物館などにあるためほとんどの情報はインターネットからとっています。しかしながら、図書館やAmazon.comで参考になる良い資料がみつかることもあります。Wikimedia Commons（ウィキメディア　コモンズ）では、古い妖怪に関する画集を見ることができますし、日本のウィキペディアにはより多くの情報があります。妖怪についてもっと知りたい方のために、ここにいくつかご紹介します。

• Shigeru Mizuki: GeGeGe no Kitaro
• Toriyama Sekien: 画図百鬼夜行 (1776), 今昔画図続百鬼 (1779), 今昔百鬼拾遺 (1780), 画図百鬼徒然袋 (1784)
• Tosa Mitsunobu: Hyakki Yakko Zu
• Utagawa Yoshiiku
• Kawanabe Kyosai
• Sawaki Suushi: 百怪図巻 (1737)

それでは、今日の妖怪シリーズにまいりましょう。「今日の妖怪シリーズ」今日は毛羽毛現（けうけげん）です。毛羽毛現は本当に奇妙な妖怪ですが、ほんの少しかわいくもあります。毛羽毛現の漢字表記にはいくつかあり、「希有希見」や「希有希現」などで、いずれにしろ稀にしか見られないといった意味や羽のような毛といった意味があるようです。

毛羽毛現は湿っていて暗い場所に住み、病をもたらすものとされています。大変かわいらしい外見ですが、もしあなたがこの妖怪を家の中で見つけたならきっとひどい病気にかかってしまうでしょう。毛羽毛現に関しては、この言い伝えの他は情報が乏しいようです。
毛羽毛現を描いたものの中で最も古いものは鳥山石燕（とりやま　せきいん）の妖怪画集にありますので、以前にもお話しましたが、もしかしたらこの毛羽毛現も石燕が創造した妖怪であるのかもしれません。もっとも、私はそれが悪いことだとは思わずむしろ楽しくて良い事だと考えています。

もし妖怪がペットとして人間にとって良いものであるならば、きっとこの子犬のような（小さくて毛深くて病気をもたらす）妖怪はうってつけでしょう。

毛羽毛現

My Etsy store でれまでの妖怪と英語版ですでに出ている妖怪達のプリント絵を買うことができます。チェックしてみてくださいね！

Today’s yokai is a bit unique in that he’s the one really well known yokai exclusive to Okinawa.

Okinawa is to Japan a bit like Hawai’i is to the US. It was an independent island country for a long time, and only about 100 years ago was annexed into Japan proper. The old name for Okinawa was the kingdom of Ryukyu. In the 1600’s, Japanese settlers conquered and occupied the fairly weak kingdom, and kept it as a vassal state. The native culture was suppressed, Japanese language education was forced upon the people, and other attempts were made at assimilating the islands. Despite this, the island retained a unique culture, with many customs assimilated from Japan, but also a tradition existing independent of mainland Japan. One of these traditions is today’s yokai.

Kijimuna

No mention of kijimuna can be found in the “classical” yokai bestiaries by the great Japanese painters of past centuries, probably because Okinawa really wasn’t considered part of Japan in those times. However, the kijimuna is well known and beloved all throughout the island prefecture. Countless Okinawan folk tales talk about kijimuna, and one of the biggest annual festivals in the region is named the Kijimuna Festival.

Kijimuna live in the banyan trees that can be found all over the islands of Okinawa. They look like small, hairy, wild boys, and like little boys they are often mischievous, but generally good at heart. Physically they are short, they either go naked or wear leafy loincloths, and they are covered in wild red hair. My best description of them would be a cross between a troll doll and Link from the Legend of Zelda. In most depictions of kijimuna on the islands, they are rather cute and boyish, like Peter Pan, while the famous yokai chronicler Shigeru Mizuki depicts them as round, hairy, ball-like monsters with huge, crazy eyes and fanged mouths. I liked both depictions equally — the crazy eyes of Mizuki’s kijimuna, and the more “authentic” native Okinawan version — so I drew my version as a blend of the two.

Kijimuna are said to befriend humans easily, doing good deeds for them and bringing them presents, but also quickly become jealous and will punish people in very childish ways who don’t act friendly enough. Despite living in the banyan trees, kijimuna are expert fishermen, and often offer their help to kind human fishermen as well. If they really like you, they might even offer you the bodies of the fish they catch (after they suck out the most delicious part — the eyes)! As far as pranking goes, kijimuna will sometimes sit on a person’s chest at night, rendering them immobile and unable to breathe (sounds kind of like sleep paralysis, which I suffer from fairly often). Apparently they will also happily carry humans that they like piggy-back style through the banyan forests. However, if the person should *ahem* fart on the kijimuna’s back… well, he’d better beware!

One final fact of note about kijimuna — they loathe octopuses! I am so far unable to discover why they hate them so much, but the lowly octopus is the one thing they cannot stand. Kijimuna will avoid them at all costs, so keeping octopuses around is a fairly foolproof way for humans to avoid potential kijimuna-related troubles.

Kijimuna

キジムナーに関しては、古い伝統的な記述の中ではなかなかみつけることはできませんでした。その理由としては、これまでのような古典的な妖怪の話が描かれていた時代には、沖縄は日本ではなかった（琉球王国でした）ためだと思われます。
キジムナーは沖縄県内で有名であり、県内の大きな祭りにもその名前が使われています。

キジムナーは沖縄でよく見られるガジュマルの木に住んでいる、小さくて毛深くて赤い毛の野生的な子共のような妖怪です。時にいたずらもしますが、一般的には良いものとしてしられています。トロールと「ゼルダの伝説」のリンクの間くらいと表現すると分かりやすいかなと思います。もしくはピーターパンよりももっと可愛らしいとも表現できます。
有名な水木茂さんのキジムナーは、丸くて毛深くてボールのような形をしており、大きくてクレイジーな目と牙がある口で表現されています。
今回私は、水木茂さんのキジムナーと沖縄に伝統的に伝わっているキジムナーを統合させる形で描いてみました。

キジムナーは人間と簡単に友達になり、魚をプレゼントしたりいいことをしてくれますが、友達じゃない素振りを見せてしまうとすぐに嫉妬深くなり子供のようなやり方で仕返しをするようです。

ガジュマルの木に住んでいるキジムナーは、漁をしている人を見つけると近づいて漁の手伝いをし、捕まえた魚の目以外の部分はその漁師に全てプレゼントします（魚の目はキジムナーが食べます）。

キジムナーの行動には色々と伝えられていることがあります。例えば、夜になって人の胸の上に座って苦しめ、動けず呼吸ができないようにしてしまうそうです（私も時々感じる金縛りのような状態です）。または、喜んで人間をおんぶしてガジュマルの林を走り抜けたりもするそうです。ただしキジムナーはおならが大嫌いなので、キジムナーの背中ではおならをしないように気をつけましょう！
そしてもう一つキジムナーの嫌いなものがあります。それはタコです！どうしてタコを嫌うのかについてはよくわかっていませんが、もしキジムナーと関わりなくないと思われるのでしたらタコを周辺に置いておくのも良いかもしれません。

キジムナー

Today’s yokai is not only awesome in its own right, but it is also the name of one of my favorite chain restaurants over here.

Tengu

This is one of the most famous and most interesting yokai, with a lot of documentation, and probably more paintings and imagery than all other the yokai combined. It is interesting for a number of reasons, the first being its name.

The name tengu is derived from the Chiense tiangou, a type of black dog that lives in the sky and eats the moon (during lunar eclipses). This brought about the Chinese superstition of beating dogs during an eclipse until the tiangou spits up and the moon returns to the sky. The characters for tengu, 天狗, literally mean “celestial dog,” and the writing is the same as it is in Chinese. Like many yokai we’ve looked at, the tengu was brought over to Japan from China along with Buddhism, Confucianism, government, writing, and many other things over 1000 years ago. And also like many of the yokai we’ve seen, the tengu quickly adapted into a completely unique Japanese being. For one, although it still retains the name, the tengu has no dog-like traits whatsoever, and does not swallow the moon. In fact, other than the name it bears no resemblance whatsoever to its Chinese namesake.

So what is a tengu exactly? Well, its been described as a god, a demon, and a kami, but mostly it is accepted as a yokai. Physically it appears in a few common forms: one is that of an anthropomorphic kite-like monster (kite the bird, not the toy); another is a human yamabushi, a Japanese ascetic mountain warrior-sage; and a third is a hybrid of the previous two, usually with an enormous nose that would make even Cyrano de Bergerac blush, and a deep red face. The tengu is extremely wise, extremely powerful, and extremely dangerous. They enjoy eating humans, and they are fierce enemies of Buddhism. There are many stories of tengu carrying off monks into the mountains to be ravaged and devoured. They mislead the pious with false images of Buddha, impersonate women and try to seduce holy men, they rob temples, and they can also grant great unholy power to evil men who would worship them. They often abduct young boys and drop them in the woods, or tie them to the tops of trees, or forcing them eat feces until they go mad. There are dozens upon dozens of tales of tengus doing harm to mankind. Even the Japanese Emperor Sutoku, in the 12th century, is said to have died in torment and sworn to haunt the country forever as a great demon, and so his ghost transformed into a vicious tengu. But don’t worry — according to local lore from Ishikawa prefecture, tengu hate mackerel, so if you hang the fish up around your house, you may just be able to keep yourself safe!

So how is a tengu born exactly? Well, in most cases they are the ghosts of bad men and women whose souls cannot go to Heaven, but as Buddhists also cannot go to Hell. Often people with excessive pride become tengu after death. It is said that wise and knowledgeable men become very powerful daitengu, while ignorant people turn into the weaker kotengu. Being an important enemy of Buddhism, the priests did a lot of work to document them, and there are even a number of famous named tengu, as well as locations which are specifically infested with tengu. One of these books is the Tengu Meigiko, which documents the 17 best-known daitengu and the mountains that each one calls home. These daitengu often take on the more human-like, long-nosed appearance, while the kotengu are often more monstrous and bird-like.

But not all tengu are bad! There are, in fact, a number of good tengu written down in Buddhist parables. And in the last 300 years or so, the horrific image of tengu has given way to more stories of good — or at least neutral — tengu. Tengu eventually evolved into the vigilant protectors of mountains and forests, and they inflict terrible punishments on foolish mortals who would so much as pick a single leaf from their protected grounds. As they are often described as yamabushi, or shugenja, there have even been a number of religious cults that worship tengu as kami. Tengu are also well-known for being martial arts masters, and there are many legends of people seeking tengu out for training. These legends were popularized by later Japanese painters and printers, as well as playwrights and dramatists.

Tengu are extremely popular even today, and if you’ve even spent only one day in Japan you’ve likely seen at the very least a wooden mask with a long red nose, or a painting of a tengu on a freight truck, or a restaurant with tengu masks or sculptures. They are everywhere, a testament to their popularity and versatility as heroes and villains, monsters and masters.

Tengu

Don’t forget that you can buy prints from the A-Yokai-A-Day project from my Etsy store. They make great Halloween gifts, and look incredibly stylish in any room of the house. (They also make great conversation pieces!) Originals are also available; please email me for details! | 「今日の妖怪シリーズ」今日は天狗です。

天狗は、最も有名で興味深い妖怪のうちの一つであり、他の妖怪に比べると多くの絵画やイラストが見られます。

私が天狗に興味を興味を抱いた理由の一つがその名前です。天狗の名は中国でtianguと呼ばれていたものが伝わったもので、空に住み月を食べる（月食の時）黒い犬をさします。中国には、tianguが月を食べてから吐き出すまでの間（月食の間）にまつわるたくさんの言い伝えがあります。
「天狗」の名前の意味は、”天の狗（いぬ）”で、中国語でも「天狗」の漢字が使われています。多くの妖怪達と同様に、天狗についても仏教，儒教，政治，書字などとともに1000年以上前に中国から伝わったもののようです。

そしてこれまた他の妖怪達と同様に、天狗は日本に伝わるとすぐに日本特有のものに変わっていったようです。実際に、日本で伝えられている天狗は、「天狗」という名前こそ同じですが狗の形をしておらず月も食べませんので、名前以外に類似する所はないといえます。

では、「天狗」とはいったい何なのでしょう？神であったりdemon（デーモン）であったりしますが、多くは妖怪として語られているようです。
天狗にはさまざまな種類がありますが、いくつかのよく見られる特徴を紹介しましょう。
１つは、擬人化された鳥のような形。２つ目は人の山伏（やまぶし）に似た形。3つ目は上の二つよりも驚く特徴で、非常に長い鼻がある形です。
天狗は膨大な知識を持ち、非常に強力で危険です。彼らは人間を食べることを楽しみます。そして仏教を妨げる者とされています。
天狗にまつわる話はたくさんあり、それは修行僧を襲ったり、子供を木の上に落としたり木に縛り付けたりと様々です。中でもこんなエピソードがあります。第７５代天皇である崇徳上皇は、保元の乱に敗れた後讃岐の国に流されました。そこで彼は自らの血で大乗経を書き、「この写経の功力を三悪道に投げ込み、その力をもって日本国の大魔縁とならん」と言って舌を噛み切ってその血でさらに呪詛をしたというものです。その後彼は生きたまま天狗になったと言われています。

こわい話がありましたが、石川県に伝わっている話によると、天狗は鯖が嫌いなようです。家の周りに魚を吊るしておけば、安全に生活できるでしょうから安心してください。

さて、天狗はいったいいつ生まれたのでしょうか？多くの場合、天狗は天国にいけなかった悪い人間のゴーストであるとされています。しばしば強すぎるプライドを持っている人は、死後天狗になるとされているようです。賢明で博識な人は大天狗になり、無知は人はより弱い小天狗になるとされています。
天狗は仏教にとって大きな敵でありましたので、仏教徒たちは天狗に関する沢山の記録を作りました。そしてそれは今残っている多くの有名な天狗の名称になっています。その中の一つの本Tengu　Meigikoで、そこには１７種類の良く知られている大天狗と、彼らの家である山について書かれています。大天狗はより人間に近く、長い鼻を持っており、小天狗はよりモンスターのようか鳥のようであるとされています。

しかし、全ての天狗が悪い天狗ではありません。多くの良い天狗についても、仏教徒の書物に書かれています。３００年ほどの間で、怖いイメージの天狗は良いかもしくはニュートラルなイメージにかわっていきました。彼らは山を守る存在であり、守護している山から葉っぱを摘みすぎているものに罰を与えるなどしています。天狗の姿がしばしば山伏や修行者として記述されているように、神として天狗を崇拝している多くの話もあります。また、天狗はブドウの達人であるとも知られており、天狗を探すためトレーニングする話もあります。これらの多くの伝説は、画家や劇作家などによって普及されてきました。

大変昔から伝わっている天狗ですが、現代でもとても人気があります。もし日本に１日だけでも滞在するときがあったら、きっと鼻の長い赤い天狗の顔を、お面かトラックの側面、レストランなどで見つけることができるでしょう。

天狗は本当にいたるところで見ることができます。それは英雄であたり悪者であったり怪物であったり達人であったりと多才で有名な証拠でしょう。

天狗

私のEtsy storeのチェックを忘れずに！販売が可能になっていますよ！