Ian Ropke writes:

The mountains throughout Japan are home to a very long-nosed creature known as a tengu or mountain goblin. The origins of tengu are not very clear. They can be found in both Shinto and Buddhist texts. Some scholars trace the origin of the tengu to one of the primary gods of Shinto: Susano-o, who shares many of the characteristics for which tengu are feared and celebrated. Others say the idea of tengu came from China where a similar mischievous mountain spirit has long preyed on men in similar ways. Regardless of their origins, tengu are feared and regarded as real. Even as late as the mid 19th century, government officials from Edo routinely put up official notices asking the tengu to leave a certain mountain area or to at least behave as the shogun was coming to visit.

Tengu are known to have an unusual sense of humor: they like to destroy things built in the mountains that show or are home to excessive human pride or arrogance, especially by burning them down. They are also especially fond of tormenting arrogant Buddhist priests that came to some remote mountain slope to study. They love to make fools of those who by their very arrogance or pride are clearly being foolish. [Read more…]