Nue-taiji Legend

The Nue-taiji legend tells how Minamoto no Yorimasa (1104-1180) shot down a composite creature called nue that troubled the Heian court at the close of the Heian period. In the Ninpei era (1151-1154), under Emperor Konoe, a black cloud and an eerie cry rose nightly over the Shishinden, and the emperor fell ill at night. With prayers and rites ineffective, Yorimasa, known for his skill in archery, was summoned. With his retainer I no Hayata and two whistling arrows, he kept watch at the palace; when the black cloud appeared, he shot the creature down with an arrow fletched in mountain-pheasant feathers and Hayata struck the killing blow. The body had the head of a monkey, the trunk of a tanuki, the limbs of a tiger and the tail of a snake; its cry resembled that of the tora-tsugumi, whose name nue gave to the creature. The emperor recovered and Yorimasa received the sword Shishio. The structure has three parts: the creature's appearance and the emperor's illness; the summons of Yorimasa and the night kill; and the identification of the corpse and the reward. The cycle stands with Shuten-doji and the great centipede of Tawara Toda as a standard medieval monster-subjugation tale. The setting is the Shishinden in the Kyoto palace; sites associated with the disposal of the corpse include the Nuezuka at Nuezuka-bashi in Miyakojima, Osaka, and Nue Daimyojin near Kiyomizu in Higashiyama, Kyoto. The sword Shishio is held by the Tokyo National Museum and designated an Important Cultural Property. Sources include the Nue section of book 4 of the Heike Monogatari (early Kamakura), book 16 of the Genpei Joi-suiki, the Jikkinsho and the Kokon Chomonju, with the noh play Nue by Zeami and Edo ukiyo-e by Utagawa Kuniyoshi ('Minamoto no Yorimasa Shoots the Nue').