Season 9, Episode 7: Demons - Harbingers - Protectors (Patreon)

On the podcast this week, Nina was inspired to answer once and for all whether Lt. J.G. Bernard Monsha, veteran of the One Year War and future member of the Titans, is in fact a mythical bird-demon from Japanese folklore. Along the way she discovered that the answer to the question "what is a tengu?" is actually pretty complex. Join us for MSB 9.7: Demons - Harbingers - Protectors for the definitive answer.

Show Notes

• Wikipedia pages for tengu (mythical creature), Sarutahiko Ōkami (Shinto deity), Shugendō (religion), En no Gyōja (ascetic and mystic, considered the founder of Shugendō), and Sōjōbō (mythical king/god of tengu, famous in legend for teaching Minamoto no Yoshitsune).
• Books and articles consulted for this piece:
  - Ashkenazi, Michael. Handbook of Japanese Mythology. ABC-CLIO, 2003.
  - Ashcraft, Brian, and Hori Benny. “Tengu.” Japanese Tattoos: History, Culture, Design, Tuttle Publishing, Tokyo, Japan, 2016, pp. 118–118.
  - Blacker, Carmen. “Supernatural Abductions in Japanese Folklore.” Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, 1967, pp. 111–47. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1177730. Accessed 7 Sept. 2023.
  - Chozanshi, Issai. The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts: A Graphic Novel. Adapted by Sean Michael Wilson from the translation by William Scott Wilson. Illustrated by Michiru Morikawa. Shambhala, 2013.
  - Piggott, Juliet. “Creatures and Spirits - Tengu.” Japanese Mythology, Hamlyn Publishing Group, London, England, 1969, pp. 61–62.
  - Kimbrough, R. Keller. “Battling ‘Tengu’, Battling Conceit: Visualizing Abstraction in ‘The Tale of the Handcart Priest.’” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, 2012, pp. 275–305. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23343741. Accessed 7 Sept. 2023.
  - Roberts, Jeremy. “Tengu.” Japanese Mythology A to Z, Facts On File, New York, NY, 2004, pp. 108–109.
  - Sekien, Toriyama, et al. Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien, p v-10. Dover Publications, 2017.
• Wikipedia pages for several noh plays for that feature or mention tengu (not an exhaustive list): Kurama Tengu, Matsuyama Tengu, Eboshi-ori, and Benkei on the Bridge. 
• The Nō Plays of Japan, translated and with commentary by Arthur Waley, 1921. Includes a translation of the text of Eboshi-ori and of Benkei on the Bridge.

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