COPYRIGHT NOTICE Wakabayashi/The Seven Tengu Scrolls is ...

Introduction
In the spring of the ninth year of Emperor Jomei (637), on the twenty-third
of the second month, a large star shot across the sky from east to west.
Then there was a sound similar to that of thunder. The people said it was
the sound of a shooting star. Others said it was earth-thunder. Thereupon,
the monk Min said it was not a shooting star, but a celestial dog; its barking
sounds like thunder.
nihon shoki 1
The mythological creature known as tengu has had a long and complicated
history in Japan. The earliest known reference to tengu in Japan is found
in the eighth-century Nihon shoki (The Chronicles of Japan). The word
“tengu” originated in China, where tian gou, as its literal meaning “celestial
dog” suggests, refers to a comet or an animal. 2 The tengu popularly known
in Japan today have beaks or long noses, wings, and human bodies, and are
often disguised as yamabushi (mountain ascetics). Yamabushi themselves
worship tengu as guardians of the mountains, where much of the mountain
ascetics’ religious training takes place. Festivals honoring tengu are held at
various temples throughout the country, many of which are located in or
near mountains and are centers of shugendō, the order of mountain ascetics.
In traditional Japanese folktales, tengu are usually depicted as forest
spirits or deities. They can be mischievous (kidnapping children from
xiii