Japan, like any country adapts and changes with the passage of time through various means such as shifting social class and industrialization. With these changes folklore and stories change as well, adapting to the new environment to remain relevant in the current time. This is seen by the evolution in Japan’s popular monsters such as the Tengu and the Oni, from evil or malicious to benevolent or guardian-like figures. These types of changes reflect the changing roles of yokai and monsters of being explanations for fears or natural disasters into exhibiting good character traits through oppositions, showing immense social change in Japan’s needs and expectations of its people.
Firstly, one of the oldest and most recognizable monsters in Japanese lore is the tengu. The tengu began as crow-like yokai, named Karasu (Crow) tengu, that would trick travelers as well as kidnap children which …show more content…
The tengu had various abilities and powers one of which was the ability to transform themselves into human forms to deceive travellers where they often took on the form of Shugendo monks, or Yamabushi, as the monks frequented the mountains for spiritual ascension. The tengu and Shugendo monks began to form a strong association to one another especially when many of the monks began to take advantage of others by offering to cure disease and exorcise demons for payment, causing many to believe that, like the tengu, the monks were deceivers who preyed on the desperate (Fister 108). This lead to the creation of different types of tengu; the humanoid tengu which resembled the yamabushi monks except with elongated noses and the classic karasu tengu, who were half-bird, half-human yokai. This distinction of different tengu also began a change in how the were perceived, where the good, humanoid tengu would control the smaller, mischievous ones. Where once the tengu were blamed for any