Tengu
The other day, I posted this article about Japanese comics, and I talked about a couple of books that I found very useful for studying Japanese, because they taught realistic expressions and vocabulary in everyday settings. I gave a link to some samples on that page. One of the links was an article, written by Dr. Tim Screech, Professor of Japanese Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. I had been to that website before, but I had never read Dr. Screech’s article until this week. I think it is pretty interesting. Just in case you didn’t read it the other day, here it is.
The article introduces many traditional spirits and creatures that have inhabited the Japanese psyche since ancient times. As a student of martial arts, I was always interested in the stories of great warriors, who would go into the mountains for solitary training. According to legends and scrolls that have been handed down for centuries, the mysterious and superhuman sword techniques of many masters were attributed often to Tengu.
Tengu, according to Dr. Screech, are:
A powerful mountain goblin, originally portrayed with a long beak and wings but gradually becoming more human-like, with a long nose instead of a beak. Tengu can assume various forms and can be kind protectors or cruel tricksters, carrying off small children, starting fires, and even inciting wars.
I’m not familiar with Dr. Screech’s work. I will have to check into this more. But I did go to his website at the University of London
As usual, I am going to send anyone who is interested in learning more directly to Wikipedia to learn more. To be honest, I just glanced over the article on Tengu, but I will read it more carefully later. You can check it out yourself here.
To be continued…
