Konoha Tengu

Ohara Donshu, Crow Tengu (detail).

Besides crow tengu, there are also konoha tengu. Michael Ashkenazi describes them as such: "The more powerful konoha-tengu (Tumbling-leaf tengu) have bright red human faces, long bulbous noses, wild white hair, and bulging eyes" (271). The 2003 Ruby and Sapphire versions of Pokemon introduced a new creature called Shiftry that closely resembles the konoha tengu.

The Pokemon Shiftry (Pokemon Ruby..., np).

Shiftry sports the long nose and white hair of konoha tengu, and though it's entirely brown and doesn't seem to have the characteristic red face, the rare alternate color of Shiftry paints its body entirely red, which aligns it with the mythical description.

(Pokemon Ruby..., np)

Interestingly, Ashkenazi translates "konoha tengu" as "tumbling-leaf" tengu. Shiftry happens to be a grass-based Pokemon (not to mention it wields a pair of leaf fans), which seems fitting considering its mythical inspiration. Tengu, though, can at times be viewed as evil, as Stephen Addiss mentions: "Until the fourteenth century, almost all of the legends connected with tengu had characterized them as evil. However, gradually a distinction was made between good and bad tengu" (109). Shiftry, in addition to being grass-based, also possesses a dark-type element, hinting at the notion that it's not necessarily a nice creature. Though nowadays there may be a "distinction...between good and bad tengu," Shiftry apparently falls just outside of that realm with its dark-based elemental makeup. Nevertheless, tengu were often viewed as forest goblins, and Shiftry definitely fills that role with its leafy, sinister look.