Karasu-tengu

The karasu-tengu, «crow tengu», is the oldest and most bestial form of the tengu in Japanese folklore. It is described as a being with a humanoid body, wings, claws, and the head and beak of a bird of prey, halfway between man and the crow or the kite. The Buddhist tradition, spread in the Heian period, associated it with the souls of proud or corrupt monks who, upon dying without having achieved enlightenment, were reborn in this monstrous form as punishment, remaining confined in their own realm. In this initial phase, the tengu is a wild and dangerous creature that inhabits the coniferous forests of the mountains, before, according to the cycle of the archetype, asceticism elevates it to higher forms.

The karasu-tengu dominates flight and possesses a strength, an agility and a supernatural sight that make it a fearsome inhabitant of the peaks. Tradition attributes to it the power to cause gusts and gales, to move at great speed among the trees and to handle weapons, especially the sword, in which the tengu are considered masters. It is also attributed the ability to deceive and disorient travelers, to kidnap those who venture into their forests (the motif of tengu-kakushi, «ocultamiento por el tengu», with which disappearances were explained) and to possess people. Although fierce, it is not an absolute demon: it respects true ascetics and punishes impiety.

The karasu-tengu represents the starting point of the tengu cycle, from which, through discipline, the superior forms can emerge: the ascetic konoha-tengu and, at the top, the long-nosed daitengu like Sōjōbō of Mount Kurama. Its crow-man iconography appears in numerous works of Japanese art, such as Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, and in tales from the Konjaku Monogatari and other collections. Linked to the mountains and sacred forests, the karasu-tengu condenses the ambivalent fear and respect that Japanese folklore professes towards mountains and the spirits that inhabit them, between the wild threat and the guardian of the sacred.