Hikosan Tengu Legend

The Hikosan tengu legend is the Shugendo cycle on Mount Hiko (1,199 m) at the border of Fukuoka and Oita, centred on the great tengu Hikosan Buzenbo. Buzenbo is counted among the eight major tengu of Japan and serves as the guardian of Shugendo on Mount Hiko. With the Dewa Sanzan and the Kumano Sanzan, Mount Hiko is one of the three great Shugendo sites of Japan, and the medieval 'three thousand eight hundred lodges of Hikosan' phrase indicates the scale of the temple-complex training centre. Yamabushi were positioned as the retinue of Buzenbo and were said to receive his trials during their training. The structure has three parts: the establishment of Mount Hiko Shugendo and Buzenbo as the mountain's lord; the entry of yamabushi for mountain training and encounters with Buzenbo; and tests and transmissions of technique to martial visitors and pilgrims. The medieval growth of Hikosan Shugendo and the tengu cycle are inseparable; the strenuous trials of the ascetic were narrated as the deeds of Buzenbo. After the Edo Yamabushi controls (Shugendo Hatto), faith continued; after the Meiji Shugendo abolition order, it was reorganised into the Shinto shrine system. The site is Mount Hiko and Hikosan Jingu, midway up the mountain in Hikosan, Soeda, Tagawa-gun (Fukuoka), and Yamakuni, Nakatsu (Oita). Remains of yamabushi lodging, a copper torii and the cedar avenue testify to the Shugendo past. With Dewa Sanzan (Yamagata) and Kumano Sanzan (Wakayama), Hikosan forms one corner of the three great Shugendo sites of Japan and the centre of Kyushu Shugendo. Sources include the medieval Hikosan Ryuki (Kamakura period) and Hikosan Engi, the Edo Buzen-no-Kuni-shi, Inoue Enryo's Tengu-ron and Chigiri Kosai's Tengu-ko. Buzenbo's placement among the eight tengu also goes back to the medieval tengu setsuwa collections Tengu Soshi and Zegaibo Emaki. Shrine records and the cultural-property materials of Soeda-cho and Oita Prefecture provide further documentation.