16

Tengu Weapons and Other Items

e are now at the threshold of the appearance of the tengu in Wthe bugei iconography, still totally associated with the yamabushi, as direct messengers from Marishi-ten, bringers of expert guidance and weapon skills that were always preserved in the gokui, the inner teach- ings, of each ryu¯ . Earlier in this discussion I listed for comparison the weapons and other attributes held in common by the proto-yamabushi and the tengu. Some of those weapons traditionally carried by the for- mer probably belong to the folklore that surrounded them, deriving in the case of the kumade (rakes), the saws and the ono (axes) from tools required by foresters or those groups who found a living fi shing.

Tachi (Ken) and Tantoˉ (Shibauchi) It is evident that through their recognized warrior origins, the proto- yamabushi habitually wore tachi, slung swords, as well as the warrior’s heavy tanto¯ , sometimes called a shibauchi. We are told that the reason for them being so armed right through the medieval period was that the sword was needed ‘to kill dangerous animals such as snakes or wild boar that they might encounter in their long peregrinations in the wilds’, or, allegedly, to kill themselves should they fail to complete such arduous asceticism of vowing to successfully perform certain ‘circling the moun- tains’ known as kaiho¯ gyo¯ .209 Again, the true origin probably came with the necessity of being armed when they withdrew into areas still inhab- ited by the remnants of the emishi. This leads us quite logically to one of the reasons that these mountain settlers living in the remotest regions like Kumano, around Daisen, in the Hide-hiko-yama, and elsewhere, 120 TENGU maintained their ancient military skills. Another aspect that requires further study is the fact that during the Muromachi and early-Edo periods, many tengu, of both high and ordinary ranks, have tora-no-tachi saya (sheaths or scabbards) covered with tiger skin. The use of tiger skin in medieval Japanese military equipment always indicates high rank. In Shugendo¯ , the shibauchi210 is employed during the saito¯ go¯ ma fi re rituals. It represents the power of Fudo¯ -myo ¯ - o¯ . The term ken usually means a straight sword, often double-edged, which in Buddhist sym- bolism gives protection and the victory of Knowledge over error. The ‘Sword of Wisdom’, called e-ken, is that weapon carried by Fudo¯ in his right hand and is also termed the chi-no-ken, ‘Knowledge sword’, or go¯ ma-no-ken, ‘Demon-suppressing sword’. While it is easy to understand the adaptation of the sword’s symbolism to the esoteric Buddhist concepts, the warrior-shaman in the Yamato period and their successors, the ‘Zenki’ and ‘Goki’, were armed with straight swords as the curved blade form was not introduced until some- time in the eighth century. It is an interesting fact that in the Heijutsu of several of the oldest extant traditions, the wooden practice sword, the bokuto¯ , has no sori or curve at all. Each one of these transmissions sprang from the teachings of Marishi-ten and include tengu-sho¯ forms.

Naginata and Nagamaki Both the so¯ hei and the yamabushi of the Heian period to the Sengoku- jidai favoured that formidable polearm, the naginata, with its strongly curved trenchant blade. In the early records onwards to the end of the Muromachi period, the naginata is often referred to simply as a long sword, cho¯ to¯ , but it was the fi ghting weapon of choice of both these disparate groups from at least the Nara period in the eighth century. Five examples of wooden proto-naginata are preserved in the Sho¯ so¯ - in repository in Nara. These fi ve are odd-looking weapons with short nakago shafts.211 The long-bladed long- or short-shafted polearm soon evolved into the nagamaki with its very long ‘sword-like’ blade form, also becoming very popular with all types of warriors from the Heian to the mid-Muromachi. The shobu-zukuri-naginata of this period, too, had a very long blade. There is no reason to suppose that in the minds of the warrior groups that these, too, were outside the fi eld of expertise of the tengu. There is an interesting link here between one famous ryu¯ -ha of the six- teenth century, the Taisha-ryu¯ , and the tengu transmissions from Mari- shi-ten. This tradition preserves a crudely forged nagamaki that clearly harks back in form to the nagamaki in the Sho¯ so¯ -in, very different from all later blades. Whilst we shall take a closer look at the Taisha-ryu¯ later, suffi ce it to say that this tradition also uses in its heiho¯ penetrating kiai, or intense shouts, that mimic the harsh cries of tengu-karasu.