Ushiwakamaru at Mount Kurama

The Gikeiki, Book One, records that the orphaned son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, Ushiwakamaru, was sent at the age of seven (Shoan 1 / 1171) to Kurama-dera and placed under the instruction of Renbō of the Tōkō-bō, where he was given the name Shanaō. By day he studied sutras and letters; by night, the legend holds, he received martial training from a great tengu in Sōjō-ga-tani. In Shoan 4 (1174) he resolved to leave Kurama and journey to Hiraizumi. The Muromachi-period Noh play "Kurama Tengu," attributed to Miyamasu, dramatizes the encounter with the great tengu, who reveals himself and imparts swordsmanship to the boy.

The episode runs as entry into Kurama, study as Shanaō, the tengu encounter and martial training, departure from Kurama, and the journey to Mutsu.

Kurama-dera (the head temple of the Kurama-kōkyō tradition) in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, is the place of the training, with Sōjō-ga-tani named as the site of the tengu encounter. Traces such as the Tōkō-bō ruins and the "height-comparison stone" survive at the temple.

Gikeiki, Book One, "Ushiwaka enters Kurama" and "Shanaō leaves Kurama" (Muromachi mid-period). Noh play "Kurama Tengu" (attributed to Miyamasu, Muromachi). The Iwanami Bunko edition (Shimazu Hisamoto, 1939) preserves a pre-1945 critical text.