Mt. Takao Part 2: Tengu Legends in Western Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Tengus are Japanese goblins. They have a long nose, a beak and wings and are wearing Shugen ascetics’ costume.

They have been considered to be spirits of a mountain since old times. Since the middle age, Tengus have been those of today, being mixed up with Shugen-do, which is a mixture of Buddhism and the Japanese spiritualism to mountains, well. So they are highly-originated in Japan.

Mt. Takao is famous for its rich forest with many kinds of trees and it was one of the reasons why Michelin Voyager Pratique gave Mt. Takao 3 Stars as a tourist spot. Here are the great views from Mt. Takao.

And many kinds of birds and animals are inhabiting in the forest as well. Bird watchers visit there to find rare birds and young students on a school trip enter the monkey park in the trail.

In Mt. Takao, they are guardians of justice living with sacred trees. They are often with Buddha statues, and sometimes the Buddha statues take in Tengu styles. They also have Shugen tools in their hand.

In some folk tales, Tengus are scary with being considered to kidnap humans, blow down tall trees, throw stones from somewhere, and laugh at people with hiding. But anyway, they are more powerful than humans and respected in that way. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).