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In Japan, a long nose isn't for liars. It's for the proud.
On the shelf · Kugetsu Carved Tengu Mask, Red Lacquer · $139 →A tengu is a mountain spirit: a red face, wings, and a nose that keeps growing. The word is still used for people, not only for monsters. When someone's pride gets out of hand, the Japanese say he has become a tengu: tengu ni naru.
In medieval Japan, tengu were not born. They were made. Buddhist tales told of monks whose learning had turned to arrogance, and who after death went not to paradise but to the mountains, with wings. And they came back for their own kind: priests vanished from their temples and, the tales say, were found days later tied to the top of a tall tree.
In Japan, a long nose isn't for liars. It's for the proud. This is a tengu: a mountain spirit with a red face, wings, and a nose that grows with his ego. Medieval Japan believed tengu weren't born. They were made, from monks who grew too proud. Instead of paradise, they got wings, and the mountains. And they came back for their own kind. Proud priests vanished from their temples, and were found days later, tied to the top of a tree. The Japanese still say it. When someone's ego gets too big, he's "become a tengu." So a tengu mask by the door does two jobs. It keeps evil out. And it keeps the house humble. Pinocchio's nose grows when he lies. A tengu's grows when he brags.
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A block of light wood is chosen; the long nose is often roughed out with the face, so it does not snap off.
Brows, eyes and the set of the mouth are cut — this is where the face decides how proud it is.
A white ground first, then the red laid on thick, and gold around the eyes.
White hair is fixed round the edge for the brows, the beard and the sides.
Over the centuries the tengu softened, from punisher into protector. On Mount Kurama above Kyoto lives Sojobo, king of the tengu, who in legend taught the boy Ushiwakamaru, later the general Minamoto no Yoshitsune, to fight with a sword. On Mount Takao outside Tokyo, tengu are said to guard the temple.
The long-nosed mask is the face most people know: red, fierce, white hair round the edge, a nose as long as a hand. It is worn in festival processions and hung up as a guardian. In a house it does two jobs. It keeps evil out, and with that nose, it reminds everyone inside not to grow one of their own.
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