Tengu Tengo Toyama

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. Japanese legends and tales 伝説　民話 昔話 - Introduction .
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tengo テンゴ と伝説 Legends about Tengu
Tengosama, Tengu sama テンゴサマ / Tengohan, Tengo han (san) テンゴハン
Tengu 天狗 in the dialect of Toyama and other prefectures


Many Tengu live or take a rest in big cedar trees:
. Tengu, sugi 天狗と杉と伝説 Legends about Tengu and Cedar trees .
- Introduction -

About the 立山信仰 Tateyama belief, see below.
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- - - - - ABC List of the prefectures :

.......................................................................... Toyama 富山県 ......................................



The Tengu Tateyama Shijooboo 立山縄乗坊 / （しじょうぼう） Shijo-Bo, Shijobo
Joosuiboo ジョウスイボウ Josui-Bo, Josuibo (another name quoted for this Tengu)

He lived in the 立山連峰 (館山連峰) Tateyama Mountain Range. He used to throw stones at mountain climbers in the remote region, who did not show enough respect for the Mountain Religion or are self-conceited.
But now with the many modern climbers, he is not seen any more.

立山の天狗伝説 Tengu Legend of Tateyama
The 弥陀ヶ原東部の溶岩台地 stone formation at Midagahara is called
Tengudaira 天狗平.
To the South is Mount Tenguyama 天狗山.

In a story from 1821, 甲子夜話 Kassha yawa, there is mention of a person from 千葉県上総 Chiba named 源左衛門 Genzaemon , who had been abducted by a Tengu. He was taken to a cave in the Tateyama Mountain. (The cave is said to lead all the way to 石川県の白山 Mount Hakusan in Ishikawa.)

Amida Nyorai in its Shinto version as Tateyama Gongen 立山権現などと、
The main deities are
伊邪那岐命 / イザナギ Izanagi no Mikoto (as Amida)
and
刀尾天神 Tachio Tenjin (as 不動明王 Fudo Myo-O).
He is also known as Tajikarao no Mikoto 手力雄命（たぢからおのみこと）.

佐伯有頼 Saeki no Ariyori ca. 8th century, was the first to climb this mountain.
He was later called Jikoo Shoonin 慈興上人 Saint Jiko Shonin.
He was a nephew of Saeki Ariwaka
- reference source : toki.moo.jp/gaten 189 -


source : www2.tkc.pref.toyama.jp/general
Statue of Jiko Shonin, founder of Shrine 雄山神社 Oyama Jinja


立山室堂の天狗集会 Meeting of the Tengu at Tateyama Murodo
ここには数千もの天狗がおり、それを立山の天狗の首領縄乗坊大天狗が仕切っているといいます。
There lived more than a few thousand Tengu in the Tateyama mountains, and Shijo-Bo was their leader.
..... During a meeting of eleven of these Tengu and Yamabushi they placed Genzaemon on the main seat of honor and called him
権現 Gongen (Honorable incarnation of the Buddha).
They had drinks and sweets. (Tengu are rarely seen eating or drinking.) They made ritual music and danced.
To our times, the Murodo of Tateyama is a favorite place of the mountain climbers.
- reference source : toki.moo.jp/gaten 495 -

This Tengu is one of the
. 四十八天狗 48 Tengu of Japan .


There is another Tengudaira
北河内 Kitakawachi, Noto, Hosu District, Ishikawa
It is famous for its cherry blossoms in Spring
天狗平の御所桜
. . . CLICK here for more Photos !

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CLICK for more photos !

The three peaks of Tateyama Sanzan 立山三山:
Ōnanjiyama (大汝山, 3,015m), Oyama (雄山, 3,003m "Male Mountain"), and
Fuji no Oritateyama (富士ノ折立, 2,999m).
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Tachio Jinja 刀尾神社 Tachio Shrine
富山県富山市中市一丁目4番48号 / Toyama Town



Deity in residence :
田力男命 （たぢからおのみこと） Tajikarao no Mikoto
and
刀尾天神 Tachio Tenjin / 刀尾権現 Tachio Gongen
- - - - - HP of the Shrine
- reference source : ki43.on.coocan.jp/injapan -


Ame-no-tajikarao (アメノタジカラオ) 天手力男神 / 天手力雄神 Ame no Tajikarao no Kami
A kami whose name means "heaven-hand-power."
He pulled Amaterasu out of the "rock cave of heaven" ...
- source: kokugakuin Kadoya Atsushi, 2005


. Izanagi 伊弉諾　and Izanami　伊邪那美命.
The Creation Myth of Japan

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東砺波郡 Higashitonami district 井波町 Inami
Tengosama テンゴサマ

The Tengu who lived in the 一本杉 One Cedar Tree came to the family who lived nearby and asked them to prepare some festival food because he had some friends coming over that night.
They arranged everything in their living room and closed the doors.
They could hear voices and laughing. After a while all went quiet and they opened the door again. All the food was spilled on the table and floor.

The house was kind of cursed and when people passed by, someone threw stones at them from above.
The son of the family was possessed by a Tengu, they say.

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小矢部市 Oyabe

sugi 杉 cedar tree
Once they cut the cedar tree, the home of the Tengu. Blood begun to flow from the cut and they never tried to cut that tree again.
It might have been the curse of the Tengu 天狗の祟り (Tengu no tatari).

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下新川郡 Shimoniigawa district大家庄村 Oienosho

大杉 big cedar tree
At the temple Kooeiji 光栄寺 Koei-Ji in Oenosho sometimes sometimes flames were seen but there was nothing burning. So people wondered if there was a Tengu living in the big cedar in the compound. Sometimes the tatami mats were lifted up or the rain doors take off. Sometimes something strange floated in the bath.
Once a female voice was heard asking for paper and pen. So when the villagers placed it outside, some letters were written on the paper.

Kooeiji 光栄寺 Koei-Ji
241 Oienosho, Asahi, Shimoniikawa District, Toyama
The main statue is 阿弥陀如来 Amida Nyorai.

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礪波市 Tonami town

Aragansama, Aragan sama 荒神様 / アラガンサマ "Wild Deity"
is another name for the Tengosama.
He is a kind of ma no hito 魔の人 demon.
When people meet him doing his 剣術の稽古 exercises in sword fighting, they will be injured.

. Koojin sama 荒神様 Kojin sama, Aragamisama .
a kind of Kamagami 釜神 Hearth Deity in the kitchen.

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Tengosama is a huge person, becoming invisible by the power of his magic cloak.
If children play outside until late in the evening, he will come and abduct them.
This is one form of kamikakushi 神隠し "being spirited away".
Sometimes children are bewitched and will eat horse apples, thinking it is Tofu bean curd.

. Tengu no Kakuremino 天狗の隠れみの The Tengu's Magic Cloak .
- Folktale -

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The Tengu resides in ipponsugi 一本杉 a single cedar tree, 巨松 a huge pine tree and in 大杉 a huge cedar tree. He also resides in other 巨木 huge trees in the forest of a shrine.
From the Ipponsugi sometimes the sound of a big drum can be heard. This is the Tengu hitting the drum.

He likes trees best which have a round bump on the trunk.

When people have to cut trees in a Shrine forest for special reasons, they fear the curse of the pine tree and leave one standing. This is the
Tengosugi, Tengo-Sugi テンゴ杉 Tengu Cedar Tree.

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Tengosama likes to spend money.
If he has borrowed money once, he will pay it back by borrowing from someone else.

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Tengosama likes to follow people who walk alone at night. When they turn round and see his long nose, they become afraid and begin to chant the Amida Buddha prayer. Some people even become more strong in their religious belief in Amida after such an experience.

. Namu Amida Butsu 南無阿弥陀仏 the Amida Prayer .

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To prevent Tengosama to come into a newly constructed home, people have to place an amulet to ward off evil at the entrance 魔除け.
If they do not do it, the Tengosama will come at night, make terrible noise and prevent them from sleeping.

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Tengosama lives in the ceiling of a house and makes noise, but he never shows his figure.
If the noises suddenly stop, this family will certainly fall into decline.

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Tengosama makes noise like big drum or like cutting bamboo. Some people can hear the difference.
Sometimes he makes the noise of a festival music with drums and flutes at midnight.
If people hear this during a war, they will win.
During the Second World War this noise was never heard, so the war was lost.

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Once a man came to a Sake rice wine shop and asked to have his bottle filled. After it was filled with 一升 one SHO (about 1.8 liters), the man asked for one more Sho, and then one more. The shop owner kept pooring and all fit into the small bottle.
When the visitor left the shop, the owner followed him outside, but the man just became invisible. So it must have been a Tengu.
They say a Sake shop where a Tengu comes to consume must be a very good Sake indeed.

Tengu sake 天狗酒 Tengu rice wine



. sake 天狗 酒 Tengu Sake rice wine brands - .

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tojikomerareta Tengu とじこめられた天狗　a Tengu in confinement　　
富山市大久保 Toyama city, Okubo

At the temple Hoorinji 法林寺 Horin-Ji in Okubo there was one extra large 松 pine tree.
At night there was often a special wind blowing - ゴウッー goooon - and the branches rattled バサッ、バサッ pasapasa and even now people avoid to pass here at night.
This huge pine tree was the residence of a Tengu since olden times. He threw stones on the roof at night - バラバラバラット paraparaparaa - and disturbed the people, preventing them from sleeping.
This Tengu also abducted children for two or three days and was a great nuisance to the villagers.



In the Meiji period, a new stone fence was built at the temple.
And then one evening, the Tengu appeared in a dream of the priest:
"Why did you built a stone wall around the pine tree where I live? Why are you trying to confine me there, making live miserable for me?"
"The temple can built a stone wall anywhere it likes, and you are not to complain about it. We should ask you to pay a rent for living here. It is up to you, whether we will remove the stone wall or not!"
The Tengu pleaded with the priest for a while and finally they came to an agreement:
The Tengu would not play tricks on the villagers and protect them from now on. Thus the stone wall around the tree was removed and all was fine from now on.
- reference source : kimamanatabibito.blog97.fc2.com -

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Tateyama shinkoo, Tateyama Shinkō　立山信仰 Tateyama mountain worship

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Beliefs and practices surrounding Tateyama, the composite name given to a series of peaks found in Toyama Prefecture, the highest of which is Ōnanjiyama (3015 m.).
Along with Hakusan it was an important Shugendō site and sacred mountain in the central western coastal region. The main peak is Oyama, whose kami, Oyama no kami, is mentioned in the Manyōshū; this deity is also known as Tateyama no kami and Tateyama Gongen.

According to the Ruiju kigenshō (late Kamakura period), its founder was an unknown hunter. Later legendary histories and the picture scroll known as the Tateyama Mandara say that Saeki Ariyori, a nephew of Saeki Ariwaka, the administrator of Etchū Province (present-day Toyama Prefecture), borrowed his father's white hawk and went hunting in the mountains. There he shot a bear, which changed into Amida. Ariyori received the Buddhist precepts and the religious name of Jikō. 慈興上人 Saint Jiko Shonin.

The original Buddhist form (honji) of Tateyama Gongen was Amida, and under the influence of Pure Land beliefs, there was a strong idea that the mountain was Amida's Pure Land of Sukhavati. There was also a cult attached to the area around Jigokudani ("Hell Valley"); the forbidding landscape was dotted with pools of boiling mud which were thought to represent hell, while volcanic pools were regarded specifically as the
Pool of Blood Hell, and it was here that wrongdoers were said to go after death.
The Hokke genki (by Chingen, 1040-43) and the Konjaku monogatari (late Heian period) contain tales of women who fell into hell at Tateyama and who attained salvation when their parents copied out sutras.
Beliefs in hell and paradise were probably spread by shugen practitioners, hijiri and bikuni (female itinerant religious figures).
In the Edo period, Tateyama was made up of seven shrines and 24 temples, of which the most important were the Kamimiya on the summit of Oyama ( Oyama Jinja 雄山神社), the middle shrine at 芦峅寺 Ashikuraji, and the outer shrine and front building at 岩峅寺 Iwakuraji. Ashikuraji and Iwakuraji, which stand on the 常願寺川 Jōganji River, flowing down from Tateyama, were the two main Shugendō centers.

Shugen priests from here ran pilgrims' lodgings, guided pilgrims to Tateyama (Tateyama chūgo) and climbed the sacred peaks (Tateyama zenjō). During this time Iwakuraji had more than twenty shugen subtemples and supervised the greater part of the area of Tateyama. It extracted fees from pilgrims to stay at the Murodō and to climb the mountain (yamayakusen). When buildings were to be repaired or reconstructed, shugen priests would conduct canvassing campaigns in nearby provinces, centering on touring holy images.

Ashikuraji had around 30 subtemples, of which the Ubadō and the Enmadō were the most important. Parishioners were acquired throughout the country and the Tateyama cult was spread mainly through canvassing campaigns. Confraternities (kō) were established in the parishes (dannaba) and every year the protective talismans of the gongen would be distributed there and those members who would next make pilgrimage to the mountain decided.

Copies of the Menstruation Sutra (Ketsubonkyō) were also distributed, as a means of female salvation, as were various medicines such as the Tateyama gentian (rindō), yunokusa, kumanoi and wild carrot, all remedies for stomach complaints. This is considered to have been the origin of the famous Toyama medicine peddlers.

Shugen priests would also take with them on their parish visitations copies of the Tateyama Mandara and explain through them the sufferings of the hells and the nature of the gongen's saving powers. Mandara in the Ashikuraji tradition emphasized the rite called the Nunohashi Consecration which took place at the Ubadō and the Enmadō. Here, at the time of the autumn equinox, a white cloth (nuno) was spread over the bridge connecting these two halls; hence the bridge was known as Nunohashi ("cloth bridge"), and also as the Bridge of Heaven.

It was only at this one time in the year, on the middle day of the autumn equinox, that women were allowed to enter the precincts, normally forbidden them, as far as the Ubadō, from where, having received the protection of the deity Ubagami, they worshipped the sacred mountain and prayed for rebirth in paradise. The rite was an enactment of death and rebirth. After the rite, pieces of the white cloth that had been spread over the bridge were distributed among believers as burial shrouds.

Until the separation of buddhas and kami (shinbutsu bunri) in the early Meiji period, the main image of the Ubadō was an Uba (kami in the form of an old woman) triad and there were also 66 Uba statues, each representing one of the 66 provinces of Japan. They retained features of the kami of the mountains (yama no kami). Thus, though Tateyama was closed to women and place names in the area, such as Ubaishi ("old woman's stone"), Bijosugi ("cedar of the beautiful woman") and Kamurosugi ("maiden's cedar"), recall legends related to this taboo, it also fostered a belief in female salvation.

After the separation of buddhas and kami, Iwakuraji became Oyama Shrine, and Ashikuraji became an auxiliary shrine called Ōmiya Wakamiya.
Shugendō was abolished.
- source : Suzuki Masataka Kokugakuin 2007-


TATEYAMA MANDARA - Tateyama Mandala
TATEYAMA Jigoku-Dani - Hell Valley
- read more at : Mark Schumacher -


. Sanzu no Okawa 三途の大川 Great River to The Other World .
- a bridge over the river 岩倉川 Iwakuragawa



Oyama Jinja Torii gate

Ashikuraji, Oyama Jinja and Iwakuraji
- source : en.japantravel.com/toyama/ashikuraji -

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. Medicine sellers from Toyama 富山の薬売り - Introduction .

. Mingei - Folk art from Toyama 富山県 .

. Food specialities from Toyama 富山県 .


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.......................................................................... Kanagawa 神奈川県 ......................................

tengoosama テンゴーサマ Tengoo Sama

A tengu lived at the river crossing and people were not supposed to walk along there at night. If anyone did, the 楢の木 oak trees on both sides of the road would start walking toward the middle of the road and block it. That was the deed of a Tengu. If people apologized, the Tengu would stop the wind and they could climb the slope.
The old people venerated the Tengu as Tengoo Sama.


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津久井郡 Tsukui district

Once two brothers were thowing their fishing nets out along the river of 三沢村 Misawa village. They caught a lot of ayu 鮎 trout. To make sure the Tengu would not be jealous of their catch, they opened three fish, cleaned them and put them on the lid of the fish trap.
Once the Tengu was not pleased and a 火の玉 huge ball of fire came down on their boat. They were afraid and rushed home.
But this was, most probably, not a Tengu but a
. kawauso 獺魚 / カワウソ river otter .


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Tengonboo 天狗坊 / テンゴンボー Tengon Bo, Tengo'n Bo

If someone is fishing at the 天狗坊渕 Tengonbo-buchi pool and suddenly begins to mumble Tengo-bo, Tengon-Bo . . all the fish he has caught till now will then turn into tree leaves.



.......................................................................... Nagano 長野県　 ......................................
松本市 Matsumoto

Tengosue, Tengo sue テンゴスエ Tengo Sue

Once a man named Sue had been abducted by a Tengu. But he was let gone free with the promise that the Tengu would be back next year at the last day of Next Year. With these words the Tengu threw him on the large 松の木 pine tree in front of his home. Due to the protection of the deities, he was not injured at all.
Since that event, the villagers called him テンゴスエ Tengo Sue.


.......................................................................... Saitama　埼玉県　 ......................................
秩父 Chichibu

Tengoo matsuri 天狗祭（テンゴー祭り） Tengo (Tengu) Festival
Tengu is seen as yama no kami 山の神 a Deity of the Mountain
During the festival people pray for safety while working in the mountain forest and blessings for the family.
The main actors of this festival are children.

原の天狗まつり Hara no Tengu Matsuri
秩父市荒川白久（原区）地内 In Hara village



This festival was held in many parts of Chichibu, but now only in the Hara village.
The young boys collect wood, bamboo and leaves to prepare for a huge ritual bonfire.
The sounds of the huge fire,
パチパチ、パンパン、バリバリ pachi pachi, pan pan, pari pari
The Tengo sama is venerated as Hibuse no Kami 火防の神 Deity to prevent fire, also as the Yama no Kami 山の神 Deity of the Mountain and the pillow of this Tengo is on top of the mountain.
- reference source : navi.city.chichibu.lg.jp -


.......................................................................... Yamanashi 山梨県　 ......................................
芦川村 Ashigawa

One of the villagers of Ashigawa had been abducted by a Tengoo San オテンゴウサン Tengu.
All villagers walked around the mountain forest, hitting gongs and searching for the man, but they did not find him. Then a few days later they found him hanging on a rack for pumpkins, sleeping.
He woke up and told them he had been walking around with a Tengu, throwing Mochi rice cakes at people.
In this district, people who build a new home have a special ritual where these Mochi are thrown from the gables to appease the Deity of the Mountain. So this was a Tengu after all.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -

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. Japanese legends and tales 伝説　民話　昔話 - Introduction .

- Yookai 妖怪 Yokai Monsters of Japan -
- Introduction -

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