Nue

For other uses, see NUE (disambiguation).

File:Kuniyoshi Taiba (The End).jpg

"Kyoto Nue Taibi (The End)" (京都 鵺 大尾) (among the The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō one that is by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, in Kaei 5 (1852), October)

Nue (鵺, 鵼, 恠鳥, or 奴延鳥) is a legendary Japanese yōkai or mononoke.

Appearance

File:SekienNue.jpg

"Nue" (鵼) from the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki by Toriyama Sekien

Appearing in the Heike Monogatari, it has the face of a monkey, the legs of a tiger , the body of a Japanese Raccoon Dog and the front half of a snake for a tail. According to which writing it is, sometimes nothing is stated about its torso, or is sometimes depicted to have the torso of a tiger. Also, there are documents such as the Genpei Jōsuiki that state that it has the back of a tiger, the legs of a tanuki, and the tail of a fox, and furthermore the head of a cat, and the torso of a chicken. Due to its appearance, it is sometimes referred to as a Japanese chimera.

Concerning how it appears when it is depicted visually, there is also the thought that it is a combination of the animals in the Sexagenary cycle, with a northeast Tiger, a southeast Snake, a southwest Monkey, and a northwest Qian (dog and wild boar).

Behavior

It is stated to make terribly eerie bird cry "hyoo hyoo" noises that resemble that of the scaly thrush bird. In the movie Akuryōtō (originally by Seishi Yokomizo), the catchphrase "nights where the nue cry are dreadful" refers to this fact.

The nue is thought to have started appearing in the late Heian period, but as for when in the Heian period, there are several theories depending on the writing, like in the Emperor Nijō period, the Emperor Konoe period, the Emperor Go-Shirakawa period, the Emperor Toba period, among other theories.

Name

Originally, the nue were stated to be a bird that resembles the green pheasant, but their precise identity is unknown. The 夜 within the 鵺 character is phonetic component and thus does not carry a meaning with it. The character 鵼 (kou or kuu) is determined to be a kind of strange bird. Due to the use of Man'yōgana, the historical spelling is known to have been nuye. At this early time, although, it had a different semantic meaning. It referred to a bird known as White's thrush.

In Japan, they are considered a bird that makes cries at night, and the word can be seen in the Kojiki and the Man'yōshū. The owner of this crying voice is thought to be a yellow-red bird as big as a Columbidae, but nowadays there is the accepted theory that they are scaly thrush. Since the people of the Heian Period heard the sorrowful sounding voices of this bird as some ill-omened, they were considered to be a wicked bird, and it is said that when the emperor or nobles heard its crying voice, they would make prayers that nothing disastrous would happen.

The monster in the "Heike Monogatari," in the end, was merely "something that cries with the voice of a nue, with its true nature known," and was not given a name. But nowadays, that monster's name is thought be "nue," and this one is particularly famous.

Borrowing this word for other meanings, it is also used to refer to entities of unknown true form.

Nue extermination

According to the Heike Monogatari and the Settsu Meisyo Zue from the Settsu Province, there is the following story of nue extermination. In the closing years of the Heian period, at the place where the emperor (Emperor Konoe) lived, the Seiryō-den, there was black smoke that came along with an eerie resounding crying voice, and Emperor Nijō was quite fearful of this. Finally, the emperor fell into an illness, and neither medicine nor prayers had any effect.

File:Yoshitoshi Killing of a Nue.jpg

From the Shinkei Sanjūrokkaisen: "Ino Hayata and the Nue (猪早太と鵺)" by illustrated by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

A close associate finally used the precedent of Minamoto no Yoshiie using an arrow to put a stop to the mystery case of some bird's cry, and gave an order to a master of arrows, Minamoto no Yorimasa, to slay the monster. One night, Yorimasa brought along his retinue Ino Hayata (written as 猪早太 or 井早太), and taking along the arrow he received from his ancestor Minamoto no Yorimitsu, he went out to slay the monster. In doing so, some eerie black smoke started to cover the Seiryō-den, and so when Yorimasa shot a sharp arrow made from a mountain bird's tail at it, there was the sound of a shriek, and a nue fell down around the northern parts of Nijō Castle, and without a moment's delay Ino Hayata seized it and finished it off. At that time, in the skies above the imperial court, two or three voices of the cries of the common cuckoo could be heard, and it is thus said that peace has returned. From this, the emperor's health instantly recovered, and Yorimasa was given the sword, the Shishiō, as a reward.

There are several theories about what happened next concerning the exterminated nue. According to things like the "Heike Monogatari," as the people in Kyoto were fearful of the curse of the nue, they put its corpse in a boat and floated it down the Kamo River. After the boat floated down the Yodo River and temporarily drifted upon the shore of Higashinari County, Osaka, it then floated into the sea and washed up on the shore between Ashiya River and Sumiyoshi River. It is said that the people in Ashiya courteously gave its corpse a burial service, and built a mound mourning it, the Nuezuka. Concerning the Nuezuka, which was stated to have been built in order to give mmorial to the nue, is stated in the "Settsu Meisho Zue" that "the Nuezuka is between Ashiya River and Sumiyoshi River."

Also, according to the geography book from the Edo period, the "Ashiwake bune," a nue drifted down and washed ashore on the Yodo River, and when the villagers fearful of a curse thus notified the head priest of Boon-ji about it, it was courteously mourned over, buried, and had a mound built for it, but as the mound was torn down going into the Meiji period, it is said that the vengeful spirit of the nue tormented the people who lived nearby, and so in a panic the mound was rebuilt. On the other hand, according to the "Genpei Seisuiki" and the "Kandenjihitsu," the nue was said to be buried at the Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto Prefecture, and it is said that since it was dug out in the Edo period, a curse resulted from that.

According to another theory, the spirit of the dead nue turned into a horse, was named Kinoshita and raised by Yorimasa. As this horse was a good horse, it was taken away by Taira no Munemori, and it was for this reason that Yorimasa raised an army against the Taira family, and ruined himself, and it is said that it is in this way that the nue took its revenge.

It is also said that the nue's corpse fell in western part of Lake Hamana in the Shizuoka Prefecture, and the legend of the names of places in Mikkabi of Kita-ku, Hanamatsu, such as Nueshiro, Dozaki ("torso"-zaki), Hanehira ("wing"-hira), and Ona ("tail"-na) come from the legend that the nue's head, torso, wings, and tails respectively fell in those locations.

In Kumakōgen, Kamiukena District, Ehime Prefecture, there is also the legend that the true identity of the nue is Yorimasa's mother. In the past, in the era when the Taira clan was at its peak, Yorimasa's mother lived in hiding in this place that was her home land, and at a pond called Azoga-ike within a mountains region, she prayed to the guardian dragon of the pond for her son's good fortune in battle and the revival of the Genji (Minamoto clan), and thus the mother's body turned into that of a nue due to this prayer and hatred against the Taira family, and then she flew towards Kyoto. The nue, who represented the mother, upon making the emperorr ill, thus had her own son, Yorimasa, accomplish something triumphant by being slayed by him. The nue that was pierced by Yorimasa's arrow then came back to Azoga-ike and became the guardian of the pond, but lost her life due to wounds from the arrow.

Landmarks

Nuezuka (Near Hashin Ashiya Station, at Matsuhama Park, Hyōgo Prefecture)

It is the mound where the nue that floated down the river in the "Heike Monogatari" was buried. The name of a nearby bridge, the Nuezuka-bashi originated from this Nuezuka.

Nuezuka (Miyakojima-ku, Osaka)

It is the mound where the nue that floated down Yado river in the "Ashiwakebune" was buried. The present mound was, as previously described, repaired in 1870 by Osaka Prefecture, and the small shrine was repaired in 1957 by the locals.

Nuezuka (Kyoto Prefecture)

Near the athletic field at Okazaki park. It is unknown how related this is to the legend of how the nue was buried at the Kiyomizu-deru in Kyoto.

Nue pond (Kyoto Prefecture)

It is a pond at Nijō park, at Chikara Town, Kamigyō-ku to the northwest of Nijō Castle. It is said that it was in this pond that Yorimasa washed the blood-smeared arrow that shot and went through the nue. Presently, the remains of this pond has been remodeled into a water garden.

Shinmei-jinja

In Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto. It is said that Yorimasa made a prayer here before exterminating the nue, and devoted the arrow head here as thanks for successfully being able to exterminate it. This arrowhead is kept as the treasure of the shrine, with only its photo exhibited to the public at normal times, with the real thing exhibited to the public every year in September at an annual festival.

Yane-jizō

Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture. When Yorimasa was going to exterminate the nue, Yorimasa offered a prayer to his proctive god, Jizō Bodhisattva, and as he did so, Jizō appeared in his dream and instructed him to make an arrow with the feators of swans at Mt. Tori in Yada. Related to this legend, this Jizō makes an appearance of holding onto an arrowhead, but it is usually not exhibited to the public.

Chōmyō-ji

Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. This land was originally the territory of Yorimasa, and the grounds of this temple, in addition to having a statue of the Yorimasa performing the nue extermination, it is said that it is at the Ya-takeyabu (lit. "arrow bamboo grove") near the temple where Yorimasa picked the bamboo used in the arrow in the nue extermination.

Other than these, in Beppu, Ōita Prefecture, it is said that there was a mummy of the nue in a theme park, the "Monster House (Kaibutsu-kan)" at the Hachiman Jigoku (one of the no-longer presently existing hot springs at the Hells of Beppu), and it was also said to be a precious treasure without parallel, but this theme park no longer presently exists, and the mummy's present whereabouts are unclear.

Culture related to nue

• The noh program, Nue―by Zeami Motokiyo, and based on the setsuwa, the Heike Monogatari. They are the livestork of the Kiri-noh (fifth performance of a noh).
• Nue-harai Matsuri ("Nue-warding festival")―a festival performed every year on January 28 at the Izunagaoka Onsen in Izunokuni, Shizuoka Prefecture. The "Nue-odori (nue-dance)" and the "Mochi-maki (mochi-scattering)" among other things are performed.
• At Osaka Harbor, the nue is used as a motif in its emblem design. From the legend of Nuezuka, it was selected due to how the nue was related to Osaka bay.

In popular culture

• In the Nagasarete Airantō manga Nue is the number one rival of the lord of the East
• In the manga/anime series Nurarihyon no Mago (known as Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan in the United States), Nue is the first offspring of the Hagoromo-Gitsune (a type of nine-tailed fox demon).
• A Nue appears in Volume 5 of the manga Genju no Seiza, by Matsuri Akino; when the characters unintentionally time travel back to the Heian period in Japanese history, they are attacked by one.
• Nue Houjuu, one of Touhou Project characters, is based on a Nue.
• In the manga/anime series Clannad, Fuko and Sunohara need to sculpt a Nue to decide Sunohara's fate.
• In the manga/anime series Bastard!!, Arshes Nei contains a Nue in her magic sword, the Thunder God Sword.
• In the manga series Black Bird, Misao had been targeted by a clan of Nue possessing humans.
• In the manga/anime series Air Gear, Nue the leader of team "Black Crow" is a Thunder King of Genesis
• In the tokusatsu TV series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, one of the Yokai army was Nue, who became a central plot point for one of the main characters; Jiraiya AKA Ninja Black.
• In the OVA anime series called "Karas" one of the main characters is called Nue who has a human/demon transformation (resemblance of a Nue) and controls lightning as one major ability besides being an expert gunner.
• In the manga/anime series Shrine of the Morning Mist the characters fight a Nue.
• In the manga/anime series Amatsuki, the main character is attacked by a Nue at the beginning of the series.
• In the manga/anime series Bleach, Renji Abarai's Zanpakutou appear at the beginning as a Nue, later separated as two entities.
• In the video game Breath of Fire III, the game's first boss encounter is with a Nue that has been terrorizing a local town.
• In the video game Muramasa: The Demon Blade a chimera who possessed a man is fought.