Media: Japanese woodblock print using watercolors - 3 blocks, 6 impressions
This print is based on one of the Karasu Tengu (or Crow Tengu) statues at
the Hansobo Shrine in the Kenchoji at Kamkura, Japan. The karasu tengu
act as servants and messengers for the yamabushi tengu. At the top sits the
tengu hierarchy, sits the tengu king, the white-haired Sojobo who lives on
Mt. Kurama. Karasu as portrayed as a crow-faced creature with the body of
a man, a small compact head, feathered wings and heavy claws. The Karasu
are capable of kidnapping adults and children, starting fires, and ripping
apart those who willfully damaged the forest, for the tengu live in trees.
Tengu are capricious creatures, and legends alternately describe them as
benevolent or malicious. In their more mischievous moods, tengu enjoy playing
pranks that range from setting fires in forests or in front of temples to
more grave offenses, such as eating people (though this is rare). More mischievous
than evil, tengu are proud, vengeful, and easily insulted. They are particularly
intolerant of the arrogant, blasphemous, those who misuse power or knowledge
for their own gain, and those who disrupt tengu-inhabited forests.
It was also believed that when a child went missing, a tengu had stolen
it. The origin of this idea comes from the Chinese origin of the word "tengu." The
kanji that are pronounced "tengu" in Japanese can also be read as Chinese
for heavenly dog: "T'ien-kou," which refers to the Dog-star of ancient Chinese
astronomy, and was thought to be the soul of a young virgin eager to seize
a child to take her place in the sky and thus allow her to be reincarnated
as a mortal. Thus, tengu are quite an appropriate subject for an exchange
in this Year of the Dog.
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