Hubbry Logo
NueNueMain
Open search
Nue
Community hub
Nue
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Nue
Nue
Nue
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia
"Kyoto Nue Taibi (The End)" (京都 鵺 大尾) (among The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō one that is by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, in Kaei 5 (1852), October)

The Nue (鵺, 鵼, 恠鳥, or 奴延鳥) is a legendary yōkai or mononoke from Japanese mythology.

Appearance

[edit]
"Nue" (鵼) from the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki by Toriyama Sekien

In the Tale of Heike, it is described as a Japanese Chimera having the head of a monkey, the limbs of a tiger, the body of a Japanese raccoon dog, and the front half of a snake for a tail. In other writings, nothing is stated about its torso; in these versions, it is sometimes depicted to have the torso of a tiger. The Genpei 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 the scaly thrush. In the movie Akuryōtō (originally by Seishi 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 in kanji translates to night and bird.[2]

History

[edit]

The nue is thought to have started appearing in the late Heian period. For a more precise dating, different sources claim different periods, like the Emperor Nijō period, the Emperor Konoe period, the Emperor Go-Shirakawa period, or the Emperor Toba period.[3]

The visual appearance may be a combination of the animals in the Sexagenary cycle, with a northeast Tiger, a southeast Snake, a southwest Monkey, and a northwest Qian (Dog and Wild Boar).

Originally, the nue were stated to be a bird that resembles the green pheasant,[4] but their precise identity is unknown. The 夜 within the 鵺 character is phonetic 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 of Man'yōgana, the historical spelling is known to have been nuye. At this early time, although, it had a different semantic meaning. It referred to a bird known as White's thrush.

In Japan, they are considered a bird that makes cries at night, and the word can be seen in the Kojiki and the Man'yōshū.[3] The owner of this crying voice was traditionally described as a yellow-red bird as big as a Columbidae,[4] but nowadays there is the accepted theory that it is the scaly thrush.[3] Since the people of the Heian Period regarded the sorrowful sounding voices of this bird as an ill omen, 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 the Heike 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.

The noh play Nue, by Zeami Motokiyo, based on the setsuwa, the Heike Monogatari. They are a regular feature of the Kiri-noh (fifth performance of a noh).

Nue-harai Matsuri ("Nue-warding festival") – a festival performed every year on January 28 at the Izunagaoka Onsen in Izunokuni, Shizuoka Prefecture. Among other things the nue-odori (nue-dance) and the mochi-maki (mochi-scattering) are performed.[6]

At Osaka 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]

The slaying of the Nue

[edit]
From the Shinkei Sanjūrokkaisen: Ino Hayata and the Nue (猪早太と鵺) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

The Heike Monogatari and the Settsu Meisho Zue from the Settsu Province, tell the following tale of the killing of the Nue:

In the closing years of the Heian period, at the place where the emperor (Emperor Konoe) lived, the Seiryō-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 remembered Minamoto 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 servant Ino Hayata (written as 猪早太 or 井早太[9]), and an arrow made from an arrowhead he had inherited from his ancestor Minamoto 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 of Nijō Castle. Instantly Ino Hayata seized it and finished it off.[10][11]

In the skies above the imperial court, two or three cries of the common 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 sword Shishiō as a reward.

The Nue's remains

[edit]

There are several accounts of what was done to the nue's corpse. According to some legends, like the Heike 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 the Kamo River. After the boat floated down the Yodo River and temporarily drifted upon the shore of Higashinari County, Osaka, it then floated into the sea and washed up on the shore between Ashiya River and Sumiyoshi River. It is said that the people in Ashiya courteously gave the corpse a burial service, and built a commemorating mound over its tomb, the Nuezuka.[10] The Settsu Meisho Zue states that "the Nuezuka is between Ashiya River and Sumiyoshi River."[10]

According to the Ashiwake bune, a geography book from the Edo 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 the Meiji period, the vengeful spirit of the nue started tormenting the people who lived nearby, and so the mound was hastily rebuilt.[11]

According to the Genpei Seisuiki and the Kandenjihitsu the nue was said to be buried at the Kiyomizu-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 by Taira 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 of Lake Hamana in Shizuoka Prefecture, and the legend of the names of places in Mikkabi of Hamana-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]

In Kumakōgen, 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 to Azoga-ike and became the guardian of the pond, but lost her life due to wounds from the arrow.[14]: 337 

Landmarks

[edit]
The mound where the nue that floated down the river in the Heike Monogatari was buried.[10] The name of a nearby bridge, the Nuezuka-bashi originated from this Nuezuka.[12]
The mound where the nue that floated down Yado river in the Ashiwakebune was buried. The present mound was, as previously described, repaired in 1870 by Osaka Prefecture, and the small shrine was repaired in 1957 by the locals.[15]
Near the athletic field at Okazaki park. It is unknown how this is related to the legend of how the nue was buried at the Kiyomizu-deru in Kyoto.[3][16]
A pond at Nijō park, Chikara Town, Kamigyō-ku to the northwest of Nijō Castle. It is said that in this pond Yorimasa washed the blood-smeared arrow that went through the nue and killed it.[17] Presently, the remains of this pond has been remodeled into a water garden.[14]: 229–230 [18]
  • Shinmei-jinja
Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto. It is said that Yorimasa made a prayer here before killing the nue and subsequently donated the head of the lethal arrow as thanks. The arrowhead is kept as the treasure of the shrine. A photo is permanently exhibited, with the actual arrowhead shown to the public during an annual festival in September.[14]
  • Yane-jizō
Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture. When Yorimasa prepared to kill the nue, he offered a prayer to his proctive god, Jizō Bodhisattva. Jizō promptly appeared in his dream and instructed him to make an arrow with the feathers of swans at Mt. Tori in Yada. Related to this legend, Jizō has the appearance of holding an arrowhead, but it is usually not exhibited to the public.[3][12]
  • Chōmyō-ji
Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. This land was originally the territory of Yorimasa. The temple features a statue of Yorimasa killing the nue. The nearby bamboo grove Ya-takeyabu (lit. "arrow bamboo grove") is said to be the place where Yorimasa picked the bamboo used for the lethal arrow.[14]

Other than these, in Beppu, Ōita Prefecture, it is said that there was a mummy of the nue in a theme park, the "Monster House (Kaibutsu-kan)" at the Hachiman 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]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Nue

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
The Nue (鵺, also written 鵼 or 奴延鳥) is a legendary yōkai, or supernatural creature, from Japanese folklore. The term originally referred to a nocturnal bird with a mournful cry resembling that of White's thrush (Zoothera dauma), but it later evolved into a depiction as a fearsome chimera with the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki (raccoon dog), the legs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake. First mentioned in ancient records such as the Kojiki (712 CE), the nue was portrayed as a bird whose eerie nighttime calls prompted purification rituals in imperial palaces to ward off ill omens. The Wamyō Ruijūshō (938 CE) describes it similarly as a bird that cries at night. By the late Heian period, in legends like that in the Heike Monogatari (composed late 14th century, recounting 1153 CE events), the nue became associated with malevolent forces: a chimera capable of appearing in a black cloud, bringing nightmares, illnesses, and unrest, such as the affliction of Emperor Konoe. In this tale, the warrior Minamoto no Yorimasa shoots down the nue plaguing the imperial palace, symbolizing tensions between his poetic and martial identities amid political turmoil. The nue endures in Japanese culture as a symbol of misfortune and dread, appearing in Noh theater (e.g., Zeami Motokiyo's 15th-century Nue), ukiyo-e prints, and other arts that highlight its chimeric form and themes of chaos and the supernatural.

Origins and Etymology

Early Historical References

The earliest documented appearance of the nue occurs in the Kojiki (712 CE), the oldest surviving Japanese chronicle, where it is depicted as a bird emitting cries in the mountainous night. In Section XXXI, during the deity Takemikazuchi's poetic address to the Izumo gods, the nue is invoked as part of the natural landscape: "While I am standing here, the nuye sings upon the green mountain, and the voice of the true bird of the moor, the pheasant, resounds." This reference portrays the nue solely as an ordinary avian species, akin to a thrush, without any supernatural or ominous attributes. The term "nue" (historically spelled "nuye" in man'yōgana script) reappears in the Man'yōshū (c. 759 CE), the earliest anthology of Japanese poetry, continuing its characterization as a nocturnal bird whose melancholic calls evoke the quiet of the forest at night. Poems in this collection, such as those in Book III, describe the nue's voice alongside other wildlife sounds, embedding it within the aesthetic of waka poetry that celebrates seasonal and natural phenomena.[http://no-sword.jp/blog/2010/09/ongoing_lexical_tragedy_of_the_nue.html) The Wamyō Ruijūshō (c. 938 CE), an early Japanese encyclopedia from the Heian period, further references the nue, beginning to associate it with mysterious and potentially malevolent nocturnal cries, marking an early step in its transformation toward yōkai status. By the medieval period, as seen in folklore compilations, the nue transitioned from a simple bird in these ancient narratives to a multifaceted creature in Buddhist-influenced tales, increasingly viewed as a portent of calamity and imperial unrest. This evolution reflects broader syncretic shifts in Japanese mythology, blending indigenous Shinto elements with imported Buddhist concepts of malevolent spirits.

Linguistic Origins

The term "nue" is represented in kanji as 鵺, literally meaning "night bird," highlighting its longstanding association with nocturnal avian phenomena. This word is commonly represented in kanji as 鵺, literally meaning "night bird," or alternatively as 鵼, with phonetic variations including the elongated "nūe" in historical texts. Originally, "nue" referred to a literal bird species, such as the White's thrush (Zoothera dauma), noted for its eerie nighttime cries, but by the Heian period (794–1185 CE), its semantic scope shifted to encompass a supernatural yōkai—a chimeric entity embodying mystery and calamity.

Physical Description

Traditional Form

In classical Japanese folklore, the nue is portrayed as a chimeric yōkai composed of disparate animal parts: the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki (raccoon dog), the legs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake. This composite form is detailed in the early 13th-century epic The Tale of the Heike, where the creature manifests during the reign of Emperor Konoe as a monstrous entity with a monkey's head, a tanuki's (raccoon dog's) body, a snake's tail, and tiger's feet. The nue lacks wings yet achieves flight through mysterious means, often appearing as a swirling black cloud that hovers over structures at night. It is strictly nocturnal, emerging around the second watch of the night (approximately 2 a.m.) and remaining unseen except in its cloudy form until provoked. The creature emits a haunting cry resembling that of the nue bird, a thrush known for its eerie, mournful call that echoes like "hyoo hyoo" through the darkness.

Symbolic Interpretations

The nue's chimeric physical features carry deep symbolic weight in Japanese folklore, each element evoking aspects of chaos and supernatural dread. The monkey head is interpreted as a symbol of mischief and deception, drawing on the primate's association with cunning and unpredictable behavior in traditional tales. The tanuki body represents shapeshifting trickery, reflecting the raccoon dog's folklore role as a master of illusion and transformation that blurs the boundaries between reality and deception. Tiger legs symbolize ferocity and raw power, underscoring the creature's potential for swift, destructive action that disrupts peace. The snake tail denotes poison and betrayal, evoking the serpent's archetypal role as a hidden threat laden with malice and treachery in cultural narratives. As a composite being, the nue embodies disharmony and the disruption of natural order, aligning with Shinto beliefs where yōkai like it serve as manifestations of imbalance in the cosmos. This patchwork form—combining disparate animal parts—metaphorically illustrates chaos, where incompatible elements coexist in unnatural tension, challenging the harmonious purity central to Shinto cosmology. In this view, the nue acts as a disruptor, symbolizing the intrusion of the anomalous into the structured world and evoking dread through its defiance of categorical norms. The nue's presence is further linked to illness and nightmares, reinforcing its role as a carrier of spiritual pollution known as kegare in Shinto tradition. These afflictions are seen as signs of impurity invading the human realm, with the nue's nocturnal cries and shadowy flights heralding physical and mental torment that pollutes the soul and body alike. This association underscores the creature's symbolic function as a harbinger of kegare, where supernatural dread manifests as tangible harm, demanding ritual purification to restore balance.

Legendary Narrative

Affliction of Emperor Konoe

In the summer of 1153 CE, during the reign of Emperor Konoe (1139–1155 CE), the imperial court in Kyoto was beset by supernatural disturbances that afflicted the young emperor with a mysterious illness. Night after night, Konoe was tormented by terrifying nightmares that left him in a state of profound fear and exhaustion, leading to a rapid decline in his health. Court physicians, despite exhaustive examinations, could identify no natural cause for his symptoms and were powerless to alleviate his suffering. The disturbances manifested audibly and visually around the Seiryōden, the emperor's primary residence within the imperial palace. Guards reported hearing an eerie cry emanating from the roof each evening, followed by the appearance of a dense black cloud that enveloped the building, obscuring it from view and intensifying the atmosphere of dread. This phenomenon, later identified in legend as the nue—a chimeric yōkai whose cry resembled that of a mountain thrush—hovered invisibly, defying direct observation and exacerbating the emperor's condition. The courtiers, alarmed by the escalating torment, informed Konoe, who grew increasingly despondent as his vitality waned. Desperate measures were taken to combat the unseen entity, but all initial efforts failed. Onmyōji, the court diviners and exorcists, were summoned to perform rituals invoking protective spells and Buddhist incantations, yet the black cloud persisted undeterred, rendering their ceremonies ineffective. The emperor then commanded archers to loose arrows at the cloud in an attempt to dispel it physically, but with no visible target, the projectiles simply fell back to the ground harmlessly, achieving nothing. These futile interventions only heightened the court's anxiety, as the nue's nocturnal visitations continued unabated, plunging the palace into a deepening sense of helplessness.

Confrontation and Slaying

Minamoto no Yorimasa (1104–1180 CE), a distinguished warrior-poet of the Minamoto clan, took up the task of confronting the nue responsible for Emperor Konoe's mysterious affliction during the late Heian period. Stationed on the verandah of the Shishinden in the imperial palace alongside his loyal retainer I no Hayata, Yorimasa prepared for the creature's nocturnal appearance, which typically occurred around 2 a.m. accompanied by an eerie, bird-like cry and an enveloping black cloud that obscured its form. As the nue's cry resounded one night, Yorimasa invoked the protective deity Hachiman Dai-Bosatsu, nocked a sacred barbed arrow to his bow, and loosed it blindly into the impenetrable cloud, successfully wounding the beast. The nue plummeted to the ground within the palace grounds, where I no Hayata pursued and dispatched it by thrusting his sword into its body nine times. Examination of the fallen corpse confirmed the nue's chimeric nature, revealing a monkey’s head, the body of a badger, feet like a tiger, and the tail of a snake—elements that had previously been hidden by the darkness and cloud. In the aftermath, a cuckoo's song echoed across the palace grounds, signifying the restoration of tranquility. A courtier honored Yorimasa's valor with a waka poem: Hototogisu / Na omo kuomi ni / Aguru kana ("The cuckoo bird / His name to cloud-bound heaven / Raised, calling aloud"), alluding to how Yorimasa's arrow had elevated his renown like the bird's call piercing the clouds. As a tangible reward, Emperor Konoe granted Yorimasa the revered sword Shishiō (Lion's Roar), delivered through Sadaijin Fujiwara no Yorinaga on the tenth day of the fourth month in the third year of Ninpei (1153 CE).

Legacy and Remains

Post-Slaying Events

Following the slaying of the nue by Minamoto no Yorimasa, the inhabitants of Kyoto, fearing a retaliatory curse from the creature's corpse, loaded the body onto a ship and set it adrift down the Kamo River. The vessel eventually washed ashore near the village of Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture, where local residents, apprehensive of the supernatural repercussions, removed the body and interred it in a burial mound known as Nuezuka to appease the spirit and avert further calamity. The mound, rebuilt in 1917 at its current location in Ashiya Park, remains visitable today. Emperor Konoe's health showed marked improvement immediately after the nue's death, as the nightmares and illness that plagued him ceased. However, he passed away two years later in 1155 CE at the age of 16.

Associated Sites

Several sites claim association with the nue's remains due to variations in the legend. The burial mound known as Mikasayama Nue no Tsuka, located in Kyoto near Okazaki Park, is traditionally linked to the creature's burial following its slaying in the 12th century, though the exact connection remains unclear in historical records. This ancient tumulus, marked by a simple stone monument, preserves the site's cultural significance. In Osaka's Minami district, a site behind Namba Yasaka Shrine marks a claimed burial place of the nue. This modest stone marker, surrounded by overgrown vegetation, is associated with the legend of the creature's defeat. Other notable sites include the Ashiya River in Hyogo Prefecture, where the nue's corpse is said to have drifted after being sent down the Kamo River from Kyoto, eventually beaching near the village and prompting a local burial. The riverbanks, now part of Ashiya Park, preserve this as the disposal and discovery location in the legend, with a commemorative mound (Nuezuka) still visible today. Similarly, the ruins of Seiryōden Palace in Kyoto's Okazaki area mark the original site of the nue's nocturnal visitations to Emperor Konoe in 1153, as described in classical accounts; though the structures are long gone, the grounds evoke the affliction's historical epicenter. In modern Kyoto, the area within Nijo Park, including the adjacent Nue Daimyojin Shrine built in 1929, offers a landmark related to the legend, where a small shrine dedicated to the slayer Minamoto no Yorimasa stands near Nue Pond amid green spaces, blending folklore preservation with public recreation.

Cultural Representations

In Classical Literature and Art

The Nue features prominently in classical Japanese literature as a chimeric yōkai symbolizing supernatural disruption to imperial order, most notably in the 13th-century epic The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari), a poetic narrative of the Genpei War that chronicles the rise and fall of the Taira and Minamoto clans. In this text, the Nue is described as "a most horrible monster with a monkey’s head, the body of a tanuki (raccoon dog), the tail of a snake and feet like a tiger, its voice being like a Nue bird," manifesting as a black cloud that nightly afflicted Emperor Konoe during the Ninpei period (1151–1154) by entering the palace around 2 a.m. and causing cries of distress. This affliction, detailed on pages 206–209, underscores themes of impermanence (mujō) and retribution, with the creature's intrusion representing the erosion of courtly authority amid rising warrior influence. The Heike Monogatari's account of the Nue, where Minamoto no Yorimasa shoots it with an arrow invoking the deity Hachiman before his retainer I-no-Hayata finishes it off by cutting off its head with his sword, established the legend's core narrative and influenced subsequent medieval tales. Literary motifs surrounding the Nue often portray it as an omen of imperial decline and the ascendance of martial prowess, echoing broader Genpei-era concerns with Buddhist notions of transience and karmic justice seen in related collections like the Konjaku Monogatarishū (ca. 1120), a compendium of over 1,000 tales that includes supernatural disturbances at court to highlight shifts in power dynamics. In poetry and prose variants, the Nue's eerie cry—likened to the white's thrush—evokes nocturnal terror and the fragility of the Heian aristocracy, reinforcing its role as a harbinger in warrior epics. In visual arts from the medieval to Edo periods, the Nue appears in ukiyo-e woodblock prints that dramatize its slaying, capturing the creature's hybrid form to convey horror and heroism. Artists like Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) depicted the confrontation in series such as Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (1852), showing Yorimasa's arrow piercing the monkey-headed beast amid palace shadows, emphasizing dynamic action and yōkai lore's blend with historical legend. These prints, produced during the Edo era's popularization of supernatural themes, often highlight the Nue's serpentine tail and tiger limbs in bold colors and exaggerated poses to symbolize chaos subdued by valor. The Nue also manifests in Noh theater, particularly in the fifth-category (kiri) play Nue attributed to Zeami Motokiyo (c. 1363–1443), a foundational figure in Noh who drew from The Tale of the Heike to explore yūrei (ghostly) lamentations. In this work, set in Ashiya village along the Yodogawa River, a traveling monk encounters a mysterious boatman revealed as the Nue's vengeful spirit, which transforms into its true chimeric form—head of a monkey, tiger legs, snake tail—and narrates its fatal encounter with Yorimasa, culminating in a dance of sorrow under the autumn moon. Performed with a specialized hannya-style mask adapted for the monster's grotesque features, the play uses sparse staging, chanted verse, and rhythmic movement to evoke the Nue's tragic isolation, portraying it not as mere villainy but as a poignant embodiment of doomed otherworldliness in Zeami's aesthetic of yūgen (subtle profundity).

In Contemporary Media

The nue has become a prominent figure in modern Japanese video games, often reimagined as a formidable boss or summonable entity that retains its chimeric and mysterious traits. In the action-adventure game Ōkami (2006), developed by Clover Studio, the nue appears as a mid-game boss enemy localized as the "Chimera," depicted with a giant blue kettle for a body and attacking with fire breath, tail whips, and scalding water projectiles, symbolizing its traditional role as a harbinger of misfortune. In the Touhou Project bullet hell series by Team Shanghai Alice, Nue Houjuu is introduced in Undefined Fantastic Object (2009) as a youkai boss with the ability to render objects unidentifiable, where her elusive nature drives the plot involving unidentified flying objects. Similarly, in the Persona series within the Megami Tensei franchise by Atlus, the nue is recruitable as a demon of the Wilder arcana starting from Persona 2: Innocent Sin (1999) and recurring in titles like Persona 5 (2016), where it uses physical and electric attacks, embodying its folklore origins as an enigmatic beast. In anime and manga, the nue is frequently portrayed as a mischievous or malevolent youkai, adapting its legendary ambiguity into comedic or antagonistic roles within yokai-centric narratives. The long-running GeGeGe no Kitarō manga and anime series by Shigeru Mizuki, which popularized yokai folklore, features the nue as a recurring character known for its chimeric form and cry that brings illness, often clashing with the protagonist Kitarō in episodes across adaptations from the 1960s to the 2018 series. The Yo-kai Watch franchise by Level-5 depicts the nue as "Chymera," a Rank S Lightning-attribute yokai of the Mysterious tribe introduced in Yo-kai Watch 2 (2014), where it possesses players with confusing inspirations and evolves into more deceptive forms, emphasizing its prankster side in the game's collectible monster mechanics. Beyond games and animation, the nue influences other media, including live-action films and global fantasy adaptations. The 1960s Yokai Monsters trilogy by Daiei Film—comprising 100 Monsters (1968), Spook Warfare (1968), and Along with Ghosts (1969)—showcases yokai ensembles where chimeric creatures like the nue inspire hybrid monster designs in battles against human threats, contributing to the era's revival of folklore in kaiju-style cinema. Internationally, the nue's hybrid form draws comparisons to chimeras in Western fantasy, appearing in homebrew content for Dungeons & Dragons-inspired tabletop games and custom miniatures for campaigns blending Eastern mythology with RPG elements. In the 2020s, amid a broader yokai revival in media, the nue features prominently in Jujutsu Kaisen (manga 2018–2024, anime 2020–ongoing) by Gege Akutami, where it manifests as a winged shikigami summoned by the protagonist Megumi Fushiguro via the Ten Shadows Technique, using electrokinesis and flight to combat curses, reflecting contemporary trends in blending traditional yokai with urban fantasy action.
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.