2007年は天狗の年！

2007年は天狗の年でした！ 2007年に、大杉ミュージカルシアター（石川県小松市）は、「よくばり天狗Ⅲ：天狗惑星の大冒険」という創作ミュージカルを上演いたしました。パブリック・アート・プロジェクトとして、「宇宙天狗舞台衣装デザインコンテスト」を行い、たくさんの方々からご応募いただき、上位３名のデザインを衣装として作成し本番で着用しました。

From There to Here

From Here to There

We Send Tengu Everywhere!*

In 2007 Osugi Musical Theatre put on an original musical called The Greedy Goblin III: Adventures on the Tengu Planet. People from all over the world contributed to and participated in our production. The Public Art Project began with our Space Tengu Costume Design Contest.

(Guidelines here. Winning costumes are here. )

In 2007 we sent two tengus around the globe. In 2008-09 the two of them and their souvenirs, diaries, photos, etc are on a touring exhibition of Komatsu elementary schools. In addition, two other little tengus are currently travelling the globe.

One is accompanying our friend Talie in her world wanderings. (she and tengu have been to: Antartica, New Zealand, Australia (Tasmania),USA (California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Alaska), Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Australia (Northern Territory, Western Australia), and currently back in New Zealand.

The other is on a cycling odyssey with Isabelle and Bruno, who he joined last fall in Noto, and they are now back in France.

-OMT has produced a picture card theatre version of our first Yokubari Tengu show. To share it around the world, we have had it translated into 18 languages so far. See them here!

*with apologies to Dr Seuss!

The Tengu statue in Osugi

We have sent two tiny Tengu on trips around the world!

NEW !! Some traditional tengu stories from Japan in English are here!

A 15 cm statuette which will be a core of our public art project.

Winking tengu courtesy of Tengu Natto.

What is a Tengu?

Tengu are minor kami (Gods) or yokai (goblins, monsters) found in Japanese folklore. Tengus are popular subjects of Japanese art, theater, and literature, and come in two basic varieties. Karasu (crow) tengus have the body of a man, but with a beak and wings. Yamabushi (mountain hermit) tengus are tall beings with red faces and extremely long noses. They often carry a staff, a small mallet, or a magical fan, and sometimes have wings or a feathered cloak. Tengus are almost always portrayed in the dress of Buddhist monks or priests. See our gallery pages for various yamabushi tengu images.

Why a Tengu ?

In our village of Osugi there is a statue of a Tengu, made by Kurakichi Okura in the 1970's. This statue is the inspiration for our tengu musicals and projects. We first produced Yokubari Tengu (The Greedy Goblin) in 1997, a "new legend" about how he turned to stone. In 2004, we put on Yokubari Tengu II: I'm Back! This year the saga continues with Yokubari Tengu III: Adventures on the Tengu Planet.