/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>48466240
>>48466244
>>48466252
You've really gone above and beyond with all these posts. Really interesting stuff!

The history and origins of the Tengu are really convoluted. The name itself is from Tian Gou, "Heavenly Dog", which is a type of Chinese spirit entity associated with shooting stars. (Recall Megumu's spellcards here...) Garuda giving some of characteristics to Tengu is really interesting and it would kind of make sense, but I have also read that the Tian Gou became conflated with various native air/mountain spirits and became the Tengu.

The whole thing about "people of impairments" splitting into the Tengu and people who took refuge in Buddhist temples is really fascinating but I don't know what is the exacty source for it.


>This divinity is on the same wavelength as the sun.
Is enormously fascinating considering how much ZUN uses all kinds of wave and sound related metaphors.

It's interesting how much symbol the yamabushi have packed into their outfits. Regarding the color, it should be said that in Japan the color white is associated with death. Some of the videos on yamabushi have underlined this "death and rebirth" quality to their activities. Dewasanzan in particular appears to be associated with spirits of the death on their journey to rebirth, but I do remember reading about wider Japanese beliefs about ancestral spirits going to the mountains to become kami.

There are indeed women shugenja, there are quite a number of them in that fire walking ritual I posted. There might be some regional variation in this, there's a relatively new video which says that the shungendo sect in Yamagata doesn't accept women in their journeys - but this too might have changed.

About Sarutahiko Ookami, a possibly noteworthy tangent is that the Tsubaki Grand Shrine is dedicated to him and his wife, Ame no Uzume no Mikoto. People associated with this shrines have published materials arguing for universal features of Shinto, and published Shinto norito and kind of...more universalized forms of practice aimed for non-Japanese both books which I happen to own. This might be getting to the "schizokino" territory, but there was a point in Japanese history when the Tengu were used as a stand-in for Westerners. So if Sarutahiko Okami is the kami of Tengu too, he would also be...the kami of...Westerners. I have no idea which direction this self-fulfilling prophecy flows.

As for Shugendo being unused by ZUN...maybe he thinks it hasn't yet passed into fantasy.

It might be of interest that the shugendo community in Yamagata apparently has at least one native English speaking member and that they are open to teaching non-Japanese visitors.
>>48468344
I think it's pretty interesting that the Tengu are seen to be intermediaries between the humand and divine realms. While not all Tengu have raven-like characteristics, some do, and ravens are considered to have a connection to the spirit world in many cultures. The way they see Tengu both as protectors, guardians and kind of mentors while being also need of help to overcome their ego is really fascinating and very...mature?

>>48311953
Not really an authority in dreams anon, but damn what a wild dream. I had a dream for the first time in months yesterday but forgot to write it down... I'm pretty sure it was uninteresting anyway.
Anywa, with dreams like these it's always important to open the backdoor of interpretation! I'd say that it sounded like you realized that a shitty situation was actually your fault, and there was some trouble in dealing with this. At least that's how I see it, again, not an expert. My dreams are all realistic, they're just an alternate reality that's 99% similar to ours, I never get anything interesting anymore.