Tenaga-Ashinaga (Fukushima)

Tenaga (Long-arm) and Ashinaga (Long-leg) are a paired figure with extremely long arms and legs, derived from a Chinese classical source. In Japan the figure is widely transmitted around Mount Bandai and Lake Inawashiro in the Aizu region of Fukushima. Tenaga has only arms grown unnaturally long, used to reach across the sea or the lake to catch fish, while Ashinaga carries Tenaga on his back and crosses vast distances on foot. In the Aizu tradition, the pair is said to have lived on Mount Bandai, reaching across the lake to catch fish and raising clouds to block the sun, until Kobo Daishi (Kukai) by prayer summoned Bandai Myojin to subdue them. Cognate cases are recorded around Inawashiro in Fukushima and in Yamato-gun and Aizu-Wakamatsu. As a separate strand, the figure descends from the Long-arm Country and Long-leg Country of the Shanhaijing, Outer Eastern Mountains and Greater Wilderness Eastern Mountains chapters, an alien-form image entered into Japan through Chinese books. The Shanhaijing, Outer Eastern Mountains and Greater Wilderness Eastern Mountains chapters, record the Long-arm and Long-leg Countries. In Japan, Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo, "yo" volume, figures the pair as Chinese-styled figures; the Aizu tradition is set out in the Shinpen Aizu Fudoki-ko (1809) of the Aizu domain and in modern Fukushima local-history materials. The Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database and Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) treat the figure as an independent entry. The Chinese figures are drawn as paired figures of long-arm and long-leg in Japan; Sekien's figures are Tang-styled and stand in a separate lineage from the Mount Bandai Aizu tradition. The Aizu tenaga-ashinaga tradition connects with the Kobo Daishi legend cycle and the cult of Bandai Myojin.