The Great Tengu of Mount Kurama and Young Ushiwakamaru

Say "tengu," and many people in Japan think of Mount Kurama. This mountain north of Kyoto has long been said to be home to a great tengu, and that tengu is famous for one story in particular: teaching swordsmanship to a boy named Ushiwakamaru, who would grow up to be the warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune. The tengu, a mountain spirit known for spiriting children away, appears here as a teacher watching over a young boy.

Sojobo, master of Mount Kurama

Some tengu are known by name, each tied to the mountain where it lives. Two of the most famous are Tarobo of Mount Atago and Sojobo of Mount Kurama, both in Kyoto. Sojobo is said to live in Sojo-ga-dani, a valley deep in Mount Kurama, and is told of as a great tengu who leads many lesser tengu.

Mount Kurama has drawn worshippers since long ago. Huge cedars tower over its paths, and tree roots snake across the ground. Walk through those dim woods, even at midday, and it's easy to see why people once felt a tengu might be close by.

The tengu who taught a boy to fight

Ushiwakamaru is said to have been sent as a small child to live at the temple on Mount Kurama. Legend has it that he slipped away night after night to Sojo-ga-dani to practice swordplay with the tengu. His famously nimble fighting style, the story goes, was tengu-trained. On the mountain there's even a path of exposed tree roots, known as a place where Ushiwakamaru is said to have trained.

This legend became the basis of a Noh play, "Kurama Tengu." In short, the story goes like this. During a cherry-blossom party on Mount Kurama, a strange mountain ascetic, or yamabushi, wanders in. The guests, uneasy, drift away, but one boy stays behind and speaks to him kindly: Ushiwakamaru. Moved, the yamabushi reveals that he is the great tengu of the mountain and promises to teach the boy the arts of war. A fearsome tengu becomes the friend of a lonely boy, and that is where the warmth of the story lies.

Why tengu dress like mountain ascetics

Look at pictures of tengu and you'll see a small cap on the forehead, round tassels on the chest, and a ringed staff or feather fan in hand. It's the outfit of a yamabushi, a follower of Shugendo, the Japanese tradition of religious training deep in the mountains.

These ascetics were believed to gain mysterious powers through hard training on steep peaks. To villagers, a yamabushi who could roam the deep mountains at will already seemed more than human. It's said that the image of the tengu as a mountain spirit gradually merged with the figure of these mountain trainees, and so the tengu came to be pictured in yamabushi dress.

In this way, the tengu became more than a scary yokai. It was also respected as a guardian of the sacred mountains where people trained. Sojobo of Kurama, too, is told of less as a troublemaker and more as the master of the mountain who watches over those who come to learn there. From mountain spirit to protector of the mountain: the changing image of the tengu carries the feelings of people who feared the mountains and revered them at the same time.

Find the tengu in the Yokaipedia and on the map

You'll find the tengu's look, and the story of the "star racing across the sky" behind its name, on the tengu's Yokaipedia page. On the Yokai Map, the tengu pops up near Mount Kurama in Kyoto.

If the wind suddenly roars along a mountain path, maybe a tengu just gave its feather fan a single wave.