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TheNue (鵺, 鵼, 恠鳥, or 奴延鳥) is alegendaryyōkai ormononoke fromJapanese mythology.
In theTale of Heike, it is described as a JapaneseChimera having the head of amonkey, the limbs of atiger, the body of aJapanese raccoon dog, and the front half of asnake for a tail. In other writings nothing is stated about its torso, so it is sometimes depicted to have the torso of a tiger. TheGenpei Jōsuiki describes it as having the back of a tiger, the limbs of a tanuki, the tail of a fox, the head of a cat, and the torso of a chicken.[1]
It is said to make terribly eerie bird cry "hyoo hyoo" noises that resemble that of thescaly thrush. In the movieAkuryōtō (originally bySeishi Yokomizo), the catchphrase "nights where the nue cry are dreadful" refers to this fact. The nue is also said to have the ability of shape-shifting, often into the form of a black cloud that can fly. The yokai is also thought to be nocturnal as most of its sightings happen at night. Its name written inkanji translates tonight andbird.[2]
The nue is thought to have started appearing in the lateHeian period. For a more precise dating, different sources claim different periods, like theEmperor Nijō period, theEmperor Konoe period, theEmperor Go-Shirakawa period, or theEmperor Toba period.[3]
The visual appearance may be a combination of the animals in theSexagenary cycle, with a northeastTiger, a southeastSnake, a southwestMonkey, and a northwestQian (Dog andWild Boar).
Originally, the nue were stated to be a bird that resembles thegreen pheasant,[4] but their precise identity is unknown. The 夜 within the 鵺 character isphonetic component and thus does not carry a meaning with it. The character 鵼 (kou or kuu) is determined to be a kind of strange bird.[4] Due to the use ofMan'yōgana, thehistorical spelling is known to have beennuye. At this early time, although, it had a different semantic meaning. It referred to a bird known asWhite's thrush.
In Japan, they are considered a bird that makes cries at night, and the word can be seen in theKojiki and theMan'yōshū.[3] The owner of this crying voice was traditionally described as a yellow-red bird as big as aColumbidae,[4] but nowadays there is the accepted theory that it is thescaly thrush.[3] Since the people of the Heian Period regarded the sorrowful sounding voices of this bird as an illomen, they were considered to be a wicked bird,[5]and it is said that when the emperor or nobles heard its crying voice, they would make prayers that nothing disastrous would happen.[3]
The monster in theHeike Monogatari, in the end, was merely "something that cries with the voice of a nue, its true nature unknown", and was not given a name. But nowadays, this particularly famous monster is usually identified as a "nue".
In a derived sense the word "nue" is also used to refer to entities of unknown true form.
Thenoh playNue, byZeami Motokiyo, based on thesetsuwa, the Heike Monogatari. They are a regular feature of theKiri-noh (fifth performance of a noh).
Nue-harai Matsuri ("Nue-warding festival") – a festival performed every year on January 28 at theIzunagaoka Onsen inIzunokuni,Shizuoka Prefecture. Among other things thenue-odori (nue-dance) and themochi-maki (mochi-scattering) are performed.[6]
AtOsaka Harbor, the Nue is used as a motif in its emblem design. From the legend of Nuezuka, it was selected for its relation to Osaka bay.[7][8]
TheHeike Monogatari and theSettsu Meisho Zue from theSettsu Province, tell the following tale of the killing of the Nue:
In the closing years of theHeian period, at the place where theemperor (Emperor Konoe) lived, theSeiryō-den, there appeared a cloud of black smoke along with an eerie resounding crying voice, making Emperor Nijō quite afraid. Subsequently, the emperor fell into illness, and neither medicine nor prayers had any effect.
A close associate rememberedMinamoto no Yoshiie using an arrow to put a stop to the mystery case of some bird's cry, and he gave the order to a master of arrows,Minamoto no Yorimasa, to slay the monster.
One night, Yorimasa went out to slay the monster with his servantIno Hayata (written as 猪早太 or 井早太[9]), and an arrow made from an arrowhead he had inherited from his ancestorMinamoto no Yorimitsu and the tailfeathers of a mountain bird. An uncanny black smoke started to cover the Seiryō-den. Yorimasa shot his arrow into it, there was a shriek, and a nue fell down around the northern parts ofNijō Castle. Instantly Ino Hayata seized it and finished it off.[10][11]
In the skies above the imperial court, two or three cries of thecommon cuckoo could be heard, and it is thus said that peace had returned.[10] After this, the emperor's health instantly recovered,[12] and Yorimasa was given the swordShishiō as a reward.
There are several accounts of what was done to the nue's corpse. According to some legends, like theHeike Monogatari, as the people in Kyoto were fearful of the curse of the nue, they put its corpse in a boat and floated it down theKamo River. After the boat floated down theYodo River and temporarily drifted upon the shore ofHigashinari County,Osaka, it then floated into the sea and washed up on the shore betweenAshiya River andSumiyoshi River. It is said that the people in Ashiya courteously gave the corpse a burial service, and built a commemorating mound over its tomb, theNuezuka.[10] TheSettsu Meisho Zue states that "the Nuezuka is between Ashiya River and Sumiyoshi River."[10]
According to theAshiwake bune, a geography book from theEdo period, a nue drifted down and washed ashore on the Yodo River, and when the villagers, fearful of a curse, notified the head priest of Boon-ji about it, it was courteously mourned over, buried, and had a mound built for it.[3][7] It is further said that as the mound was torn down at the beginning of theMeiji period, the vengeful spirit of the nue started tormenting the people who lived nearby, and so the mound was hastily rebuilt.[11]
According to theGenpei Seisuiki and theKandenjihitsu the nue was said to be buried at theKiyomizu-dera in Kyoto Prefecture, and it is said that a curse resulted from digging it up in the Edo period.[3]
Another legend relates the spirit of the dead nue turning into a horse, which was raised by Yorimasa and named Kinoshita. As this horse was a good horse, it was stolen byTaira no Munemori, so Yorimasa raised an army against the Taira family. As this resulted in Yorimasa's ruin, it is said that the nue had taken its revenge in this way.[3]
Another legend says that the nue's corpse fell in the western part ofLake Hamana inShizuoka Prefecture, and the legend of the names of places inMikkabi ofHamana-ku,Hamamatsu, such as Nueshiro, Dozaki ("torso"-zaki), Hanehira ("wing"-hira), and Ona ("tail"-na) come from the legend that the nue's head, torso, wings, and tail respectively fell in those locations.[13]
InKumakōgen,Kamiukena District,Ehime Prefecture, there is the legend that the true identity of the nue is Yorimasa's mother. In the past, in the era when the Taira clan was at its peak, Yorimasa's mother lived in hiding in this place that was her home land, and at a pond called Azoga-ike within a mountains region, she prayed to the guardian dragon of the pond for her son's good fortune in battle and the revival of the Genji (Minamoto clan), and thus the mother's body turned into that of a nue due to this prayer and hatred against the Taira family, and then she flew towards Kyoto. The nue, who represented the mother, upon making the emperor ill, thus had her own son, Yorimasa, accomplish something triumphant by being slayed by him. The nue that was pierced by Yorimasa's arrow then came back toAzoga-ike and became the guardian of the pond, but lost her life due to wounds from the arrow.[14]: 337
Other than these, inBeppu,Ōita Prefecture, it is said that there was a mummy of the nue in a theme park, the "Monster House (Kaibutsu-kan)" at theHachiman Jigoku (one of the no-longer presently existing hot springs at the Hells of Beppu), and it was also said to be a precious treasure without parallel, but this theme park no longer presently exists, and the mummy's present whereabouts are unclear.[19]
