The Legendary Tengu

Japanese legends describe a creature, in most cases, a class of supernatural creatures, called the tengu, a bird with four limbs in addition to wings that lives in the mountains and forests of Japan. It often looks somewhat humanoid generally being depicted in Japanese folklore as anthropomorphic birds of prey - typically crows. In fact, this creature is thought to be a shapeshifter, a creature able to assume human form whenever it wants. Different tengu resemble various types of bird, including crows, ravens and eagles. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is widely considered the tengu’s defining characteristic in the popular imagination.

The legendary Tengu were often seen as avian-man mountain gods, but there are many traditions for what they are. They are variously described as being cursed humans, demigods, demons, spirits, or a separate race of living beings. Tengu is one of the most famous and ubiquitous creatures in Japanese folklore and originally Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war, however, their image gradually softened into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests.

Tengu are born from giant eggs and stories abound of travelers coming across Tengu nests filled with their giant eggs high in the remote mountains. One egg was said to be enough to feed an entire family, but few would dare to disturb them for fear of the Tengu’s wrath. Tengu have been known to possess a wide array of supernatural powers, including teleportation, telepathy, premonition, thought projection (they were thought to be able to invade a person’s mind and drive them insane).


Drawing of a Tengu

In their last incarnation as humans, tengu were arrogant samurai or priests-that is why they have beaks or long noses. The expression tengu ni naru is thus an admonition to avoid being arrogant. If they do good deeds, however, tengu can be reborn as humans.

Tengu, unlike obake (ghosts), are always shown with feet. Yamabushi tengu usually have extremely wrinkled feet to show their old age. The wings of bird tengu are usually shown with ordinary feathers. However, some authorities describe the wings as shimmering, like those of a hummingbird. This would be in keeping with their heavenly origin.

The original incarnation of the Tengu was animalistic, more avian than human, and was typically portrayed as looking variously like anything from simply a giant bird of prey, to a vaguely humanoid form covered in feathers, with wings, piercing eyes, a compact head with a prominently beaked face, and heavy, vicious looking talons. They are depicted both with clothing and without. These animal-like beings were known as the “Karasu Tengu,” or literally “Crow Tengu,” although they could just as often look like eagles or other birds. The Karasu Tengu were known as evil creatures, prone to abducting children, starting fires, and savagely killing anyone foolish enough to do damage to their forest lair. These were violent creatures, said to enjoy ripping travelers limb from limb, and they were thought to be heralds of disaster, war, and doom wherever they went.

Relics relating to Tengu can be found in temples around Japan. For instance, the Hachinohe Museum in Aomori prefecture houses the alleged mummified remains of a Tengu. The skull of these remains is humanoid, while the body is covered with feathers and the feet are like that of a bird. Another temple in Saitama prefecture keeps what is said to be the talon of a Tengu, while still another supposedly has the beaked skull of one.

Could any real animal be behind these legends? If we go the other route and look at the humanoid characteristics that are sometimes present, we run into the realm of winged men.

Japanese Mythology Meets Modern Sightings

There was a story about an incident in 1952, U.S. Pvt. Sinclair Taylor had the experience while on guard duty. This took place at Camp Okubo in Kyoto Japan. The Pvt. heard a loud flapping sound and scanning the sky found what first appeared to be a large bird in the moonlight. It came closer and he put a round in his rifle.

The thing in the air watched the Pvt. for a few moments, not coming closer then continued its descent. He could see a man like body, one 7 ft tall or more . It’s wingspan from his position seemed very near the height. As it made contact with the ground he emptied his rifle. When he checked to see the condition of his target, if he’d struck it, it was gone.

The Sargent of the Guard investigating the gun fire told him he believed his story and that a year earlier another guard had seen the same thing. In a singular case it would have less impact and believability. There is also the point that military personnel, like Police officers, are not likely to discharge their weapons in a haphazard way. There is a stringent set protocol for their use, and the bearer of the weapon is responsible for each round fired.

There is also the fact that in Asia, these winged figures are more common than you’d think. Ufologist Don Worley also related a tale from Earl Morrison, who was among the First Marine Division in Vietnam. His story is of the same eerie sort, a winged object that once closer, could be identified as a humanoid figure. In this case the soldier claimed it was woman, a naked woman, completely black, hair, skin, wings all the same, yet there was the added feature of a greenish glow about her. It illuminated her in the night.

She flew directly over them, blotting out the moon for a moment, and then surprisingly, once 10ft away they could hear the flapping of her wings, something they had not heard before. She was watched as she flew away towards their encampment. Among the details of this story is the fact that she was completely silent when approaching and over them, and then heard leaving. This seems to point towards an effect she may have used on them. It could also be their shock, initially blocking the recognition of such sound out.

There is also a similarity to the large owls mentioned in abduction literature. The Tengu were seen at times as large birds and owls. They were like the Mothman harbingers of doom.

There is, among the Japanese, as much a familiarity with the tengu as the western world has with Angels.

The world over the frightening stories of winged figures seen by old and young, and the modern accounts from Air-force bases of all places, should grab our attention. What were the soldiers mentioned earlier in these Asian countries dealing with?

In Tengu Territory

Could any real animal be behind the Tengu legends? In the world of Japanese monsters, it does not seem likely that it represents a new species. Yet considering how prevalent they are in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature and even appearing in earliest representations of tengu appear in Japanese picture scrolls, such as the Tenguzōshi Emaki (天狗草子絵巻?), painted ca. 1296, there must be something to its origins.

One notorious tengu from the 12th century was said to be the ghost of an emperor. The Hōgen Monogatari tells the story of Emperor Sutoku, who was forced by his father to abandon the throne. When he later raised the Hōgen Rebellion to take back the country from Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he was defeated and exiled to Sanuki Province on Shikoku. According to legend he died in torment, having sworn to haunt the nation of Japan as a great demon, and thus became a fearsome tengu with long nails and eyes like a kite’s.

In stories from the 13th century, tengu began to abduct young boys as well as the priests they had always targeted. The boys were often returned, while the priests would be found tied to the tops of trees or other high places. All of the tengu’s victims, however, would come back in a state of near death or madness.

Could this be indicative of some parallels between the story of the Tengu and that of another well known phenomenon, the Mothman? When trying to find answers, there seem to be some similarities worth exploring.  Not only do the Mothman and Tengu resemble each other in physical appearance, but there are also similarities between the transformation both creatures underwent from earlier to later versions. In the case of the Mothman, there were the original eyewitness reports of a bird-like creature that later became the more humanoid, supernatural creature popularized by Keel. This later transformation into the more humanoid, paranormal, and generally more outlandish Mothman championed by Keel conflicted with the first eyewitness reports of winged creatures that could have been more grounded in cryptozoology. With Mothman, It is possible that what started out as sightings of a possibly real animal became something more with Keel’s involvement and perhaps further embellishment by later eyewitnesses.

Both Mothman and Tengu started out as winged mystery creatures that were more bird-like in their beginnings, and both share the current popular image as flying, winged distinctly humanoid beings. As fantastic as these current versions may seem, could there have been a real animal at the core of the origins of both of these creatures, indeed perhaps even behind many of the other winged humanoids reported around the world? If the story of Mothman could possibly have had its beginnings in sightings of a real animal, could the same not be true of Tengu? These similarities between the transformation of Mothman from winged cryptid to paranormal winged humanoid, and that of Tengu from animalistic versions to more humanized versions, both possessing increasingly vast supernatural powers, are worthy of consideration.

Even if the culprit was merely a large owl, as is often argued in the case of Mothman, there could be a similar influence on the early versions of Tengu as well. Japan is home to one of the largest species of owl, the Blakiston’s fish owl, which has a wing span of up to 180 cm (6 feet).


A Blakiston’s fish owl

Under the right circumstances, an owl this large seems like it certainly has the potential to give rise to sightings that, in conjunction with Buddhist folklore and mythology brought over from China, could fuel stories of something like the Tengu. Although the Blackiston’s fish owl is found only in Hokkaido today, perhaps it once enjoyed a larger range in Japan that we are not aware of. There are also other species of owl in Japan, such as the long eared owl, and an exceptionally large specimen could possibly have had something to do with the early accounts of Tengu as well. It seems worth considering that there could have even been some currently unknown species of large bird at work.

It also seems at least worth considering the cryptozoological possibilities behind this creature’s origins.

One hypothesis that has been suggested is that stories of the Tengu could have perhaps been influenced by birds that had demonstrated some sort of physical abnormality. For instance, there are quite a few documented cases of four legged chickens.

This sort of defect could maybe give the bird the appearance of having arms as well as legs. Perhaps this sort of abnormality could even have been seen in other birds such as crows as well, which would certainly give new importance to the term “Karasu Tengu.” Four legged chickens bear little resemblance to even the most avian looking Tengu, but perhaps deformities such as this had something to do with early stories of bird-like Tengu, which then became imbued with more folkloric elements and human characteristics over time and subsequent generations. Mutations that do this could occur in different species, leading to the variety shown in the legends. Mutations that produce four legs are actually quite well-known in chickens.

In the end, we are left with a perplexing question. Is the Tengu simply pure fabrication, myth, and fantasy, or is there perhaps something more to it? Whether Tengu is a class of supernatural creatures, an giant owl species or mutant bird, there is still widespread belief all over the world in the existence of fabulous birds that include sinister, aggressive, birdlike creatures, so could the Tengu be known to other cultures but as a different myth or cryptid?


Tengu from 1776 bestiary, depicted as a goblin-kite.

The Tengu has such a prominent place in folklore and traditions in Japan, and is so steeped in supernatural imagery, that it is hard to say where the truth ends and the myth begins, as with all lore. However, considering the possible cryptozoological origins in the case of Mothman, as well as known animals of Japan such as the badger, fox, and raccoon dog, that over time were given a similarly mythical status and fantastical abilities, it certainly is interesting to speculate about.

Sources: newanimal.org/tengu.htm, themidnightobserver.wordpress.com/tag/loren-coleman/, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu, cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/tengu

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The Japanese Cryptid “Tsuchinoko”

The Tsuchinoko (ツチノコ), literally translating to “hammer’s spawn,” is a legendary snake-like cryptid from Japan. The name tsuchinoko is prevalent in Western Japan, including Kansai and Shikoku; the creature is known as bachi hebi in Northeastern Japan.

The cryptid Tsuchinoko is said to inhabit the deep, remote mountains of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu islands as well as the Korean peninsula. The Tsuchinoko is reported to be around 2 to 3 feet in length, most commonly reported as being a mottled black, grey or rust color, with scaly skin, a distinct neck and with a bright orange belly in many cases. The scales are said to be large and prominent, the mouth resembles a grin, and horns or ears above the eyes are often mentioned.

Perhaps the most unique characteristic of the Tsuchinoko is its appearance, specifically the shape of the body, which is somewhat flat, bulging and rounded in the middle, and tapering off to a short tail. It is similar in appearance to a snake, but with a central girth that is much wider than its head or tail. In some reports it is deadly, said to have fangs and venom similar to that of a viper.

Some reports describe the body as being triangular in the middle rather than round. It is highly poisonous, with the ability to spit venom a considerable distance, yet is peaceful and more likely to flee than attack. Another odd trait worth mentioning is that they are reported to have a particular odor like that of chestnut tree flowers.

The earliest known written record of the Tsuchinoko dates back to the 7th century, where it appears in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), the oldest surviving book in Japan. In some legends, the Tsuchinoko can speak, has a tendency to tell lies, and enjoys the taste of alcohol.

The Tsuchinoko has some peculiar ways of getting around. It is reported to move ahead in a straight line, spine undulating up and down as it goes rather than the side to side undulations seen in most other snakes.



The snake is also famous for making spectacular leaps of up to a few meters, often leaping along in one hop after another. Even more bizarre than this are some of the stories that describe the tsuchinoko putting its tail in it mouth and rolling along like a wheel, or even tumbling along end over end (see illustrations). They are also supposed to be good swimmers and very fond of water.



This snake supposedly has an incredibly wide range of vocalizations. It has been said to make chirps, snores, grunts, groans, moans, squeaks, and to even mimic human voices. Old legends claim it could actually converse with people. In fact, the tsuchinoko was mostly portrayed in folklore as being harmless to humans (despite its poisonous nature) except for its great propensity for telling lies and trying to befuddle travelers. The only true way to keep them quiet was to ply them with alcohol, which legends say they have a great fondness for.

The Tsuchinoko has been present in Japanese folklore throughout reported history on the islands. Their likenesses have been found on pottery dating back to the very earliest civilization on the islands, and they are mentioned in the Kojiki (or Hurukotohumi), which dates from 712 and is the oldest known book in existence on ancient Japanese history. In modern days, the Tsuchinoko is a major fixture in pop culture, appearing in commercials, video games, and on a large range of merchandise ranging from Tsuchinoko-shaped candies to hot water bottles. Interestingly they are not presented as evil or scary as Westerners might portray a type of snake. On the contrary, they are almost always made out to be cute, cuddly, and friendly creatures.

So do they really exist or are they just folklore? Some seem to think so.

The Tsuchinoko has been sighted by a wide range of people right up to the present day, usually deep in the mountains far from civilization. In response to the persistent sightings, many areas in Japan have offered huge rewards for the capture of one. The town of Yoshii in Okayama famously offered 20 million yen for one.

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