File:Tengu at festival of Japan (1914 by Elstner Hilton).jpg

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Summary

Description

The photographer described this photo as "Tengu."

According to Wikipedia,

"Tengu (天狗?, "heavenly dogs") are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature."

"They are one of the best known yōkai (monster-spirits) and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami (revered spirits or gods)."

"Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon (Tiangou), the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics."

"They appear in the children's story 'Banner in the sky' when the main character trips over one and falls off the face of the mountain."

"The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is practically the tengu's defining characteristic in the popular imagination."

"Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests."

"Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice known as Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the distinctive garb of its followers, the yamabushi."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu

This photo is from an album Elstner Hilton compiled in Japan between 1914 and 1918. Elstner was my spouse's uncle.

While Uncle Elstner was pretty good about annotating the photos that required an explanation of some sort, he did not date the pictures. So all we know is they were taken between January, 1914 and December, 1918.

日本語: 神輿を先導する猿田彦(鼻高)、大正時代。神社の祭礼で神輿が氏子町を渡御する時、猿田彦(または鼻高とも)が神輿を先導する。その姿は狩衣に指貫袴(または大口袴)、雅楽で用いる鳥兜を頭にかぶり、手には鉾を持ち、足には一本歯の下駄を履く。顔には赤面で鼻の高い人物の面を付けるが、天狗ではない。この姿で渡御する神輿の前を歩む。どこの神社の祭礼かは不明。
Date
Source Tengu
Author A.Davey from Portland, Oregon, EE UU
Flickr albums
InfoField
  • Japan 1914 - 1918
    I own the originals of these unpublished family photos. ... As a salesman for Atkins Saw Company, Elstner Hilton traveled to the Far East to sell commercial sawmills in the early years of the 20th century. ... Elstner Hilton was my father-in-law Frank Hilton's* brother, which makes him my spouse's uncle. ...
    * Elstner Hilton's brother Frank Hilton compiled a scrapbook of photographs, clippings and other ephemera at Stanford University between 1907 and 1911. ...
    ps: I now have reason to believe that the photos of Japan may be stock photos that Uncle Elstner purchased and pasted into his album. There may be some exceptions: the images of his sister, Miriam, and photos of logging operations in the Phillippines.

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by A.Davey at https://flickr.com/photos/40595948@N00/4864117478. It was reviewed on 20 July 2017 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

20 July 2017

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1 September 1914Gregorian

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current08:56, 20 July 2017Thumbnail for version as of 08:56, 20 July 20171,267 × 1,785 (624 KB)ClusternoteTransferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons
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