Tengu Temples
Four mountains where the tengu is a guardian, not a kidnapper
4 places
The tengu of the village records carries children off and leaves their sandals in a row. The tengu of the temples is another creature with the same name: a monk reborn with wings, a servant of the mountain’s deity, a master of the sword. These four temples are where that second tengu is at home, three of them a short train ride from a city and the fourth a climb in the Gunma hills, each with the tengu’s face at its gate.
Takaosan Yakuōin 高尾山薬王院
The temple on Mount Takao whose guardian deity is served by tengu, with the great and small tengu in bronze before its hall.
Yokai you will meet: Tengu
Daiyūzan Saijōji 大雄山最乗寺
A Zen temple in a cedar forest, guarded by the monk who became a tengu, with giant iron sandals left as offerings.
Yokai you will meet: Tengu
Kurama-dera 鞍馬寺
The mountain temple north of Kyoto where the king of the tengu taught a boy to fight, reached past a giant tengu head at the station.
Yokai you will meet: Tengu
Kashōzan Mirokuji 迦葉山弥勒寺
The third of Japan's great tengu mountains, with a tengu mask taller than a house and a custom of borrowing a mask and bringing two back.
Yokai you will meet: Tengu
Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.