Tengu (天狗)
"Tengu" (天狗, literally "dogs of heaven") are a sort of mountain-dwelling goblins commonly featured in Japanese folklore. They seem to have first appeared in Japan around the 7th or 8th century CE, more or less concurrently with the arrival of Buddhism from China and Korea. There is a roughly parallel concept in Chinese folklore of the tien-kou, also meaning "celestial hound", a sort of minor storm god. Conjecture is that this name derives from a meteor fall in China in the 6th century CE: the tail of the meteor was thought to resemble a dog's tail.
There are a few varieties of tengu, the main ones being the karasutengu (烏天狗), who appear as winged humanoids with crows' heads;, and the yamabushitengu (山伏天狗), also known as hanatakatengu (鼻高天狗), who dress as mountain hermits, are red-faced and have unusually long noses.
As late as 1860, the bakufu (Shogunate government)in Edō issued official requests to the tengu, asking in one instance that they vacate a particular mountain for a short time while the Shogun was visiting there.
In addition to being great mischief-makers, the tengu are renowned martial artists. There are a few reported cases of famous human warriors having been instructed by tengu.