Nue - 鵺 - [Yokai]

 Nue - [yokai] - 鵺［ぬえ］

• About this Yokai:  An evil, chimera-like yokai, variously described in appearance but typically illustrated with the angry red face of a snow monkey, a sturdy body like a tanuki's, the powerful limbs of a tiger, and the tail of a vicious snake (often including the head.) It rides in on a dark thunder cloud and makes a terrible shrill, bird-like-cry that sounds like "HYOO-HYOO!" that resounds like a crash of lightning. It’s a bad omen which causes nobles to immediately fall ill. 

• History: The most famous tale of the Nue was included in "The Tale of the Heike" where it attacked Emperor Nijō and was vanquished by legendary samurai Minamoto no Yorimasa but the Nue itself dates back well before this story is set. Each version of the story has a slightly different take on the creature's appearance, time period, death as well as the creature's final resting place. - The nue once shared its name with the white thrush because their cries were said to sound very similar. Today the white’s thrush is known in Japanese as the toratsugumi and the nue is still the nue.

• The legend goes something a bit like this so:

"Long ago in the Heian period during the reign of Emperor Nijō in Japan’s then capital of Kyoto, between the hours of 2 and 3am - a time the Japanese call “the hour of the ox” and a little before what Westerns call “the witching hour” - a dark cloud engulfed the palace and its smoke had filled the emperor's residence.

A mysterious call of "HYOO HYOO HYOO" could be heard throughout the palace. Upon hearing it, the emperor fell ill and nothing could awaken him!!

Fortunately, a record was found where-in a similar sounding creature was slain in past by Minamoto no Yoshiie And so Yoshii’s descendant, master archer & samurai Minamoto no Yorimasa was called in to help. Yorimasa readied his inherited bow & arrow from his ancestor Yorimitsu (you'll remember him from such tales as Shuten doji, Kintaro,, and others) along with his right hand man Ino Hayata,the two set out and prepared to vanquish the mysterious beast. 

The men waited outside the palace until 2 am when a sudden bolt of lightning struck the roof of the palace. After a quick prayer to Hachiman, Yorimasa let his arrows fly into the clouds. The beast plummeted from the clouds into the city below. Hayata then ran across town to finish the job, doing so with just nine swings of his sword.

All at once the smoke vanished from the skies above the imperial court, the pleasant cries of morning birds could be heard, and peace had finally returned. The Emperor recovered instantly. The next day Yorimasa was awarded the legendary blade Shishiō (獅子王) as thanks.

To prevent any kind of post-mortem curse, the people of Kyoto loaded the nue’s corpse onto a small boat and sent the body down the Kamo River. It travelled downstream to Ashiya where it was given a proper burial by the locals."

[Nue flies in on stormclouds to fight yorimasa and his men on the roof of the capital, Edo period print - Utagawa Yoshikazu - 1852. ]

[ino slaying the Nue by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi]

• Nuezuka: Over the years, there have been several landmarks along the Kamo river which where given the title 'Nuezuka' - a grave/mound where Nue was said to be buried; A couple of these include  Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture & Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture and various spots across Kyoto. - a small shrine called Nue Daimyōjin was also erected to appease the creature's spirit.irit. In addition, There are also a few shrines that claim to house nue mummies or the arrow that Yorimasa shot the nue with. However, most of these are modern claims without true merit. (Still, Many of these are officially advertised on the city websites as tourism destinations/power spots! What fun.)

The nue mound found near the Nuezukabashi bridge (鵺塚橋) in Ashiya. - [Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus.]

supposedly the legendary arrows housed at Shinmei Shrine in kyoto - [Photo credit: https://www.gmo.media/teacup/]

[the Yorimasa vs Nue statue at Chomeji temple.]

• Early appearances: Nue and variants to the above legend appear widely across picture scrolls, paintings, ukiyo-e, etc. The Nue was also one of the many yokai included in Toriyama Sekien’s famous bestiary Gazu Hyakki Yagyo [1771] in which he referred to it as a “bird-beast” despite his depiction bearing no apparent bird-like features. He does mention that “it was so named because its cry resembled that of the nue thrush” so perhaps he meant it a bird on the inside? Perhaps the nue is “bird brained”?

[Sekiens Gazu Hyakki Yagyo]

• in modern pop culture: Nue appears widely in pop culture, Manga, Anime & games (Often as a boss or a foe.) - The Legendary pokemon: raiko is thought to perhaps have partially inspired by this myth (but more likely takes inspiration from another yokai: "Raiju") – A baby nue also appears as a foe in Urusei Yatsura

[Urusei Yatsura story set in the Heian era featuring a cloud monster that is revealed to be a baby nue.]

[Art Sticker by @SamKalensky part of my hyakkiyagyo: Night parade of 100 yokai sticker collection follow and support for many more! big thanks go to cattype for helping with editing! if you enjoyed this please check out their work too!]