The Wrath of the Tangled Skein

First Published: June, 1996 by Dark Horse Comics

• Miyamoto Usagi
• Komachi Akiko
• Sanshobo

The Tangled Skein, Nue & Tanuki

In the summer of 1153 the emperor had fallen ill and complained of noises from the palace roof. The captain of the guards, Minamoto no Yorimasa, and his retainer, Ii no Hayata, were sent to investigate and killed a nue - a creature with the head of a monkey, a badger's body, a tiger's legs, and a snake for a tail - which had descended as a black cloud onto the roof. The emperor soon recovered.

Nue is also the name of a variety of blackbird that is active at night and is regarded as a sign of ill omen.

The tanuki is a raccoon-like dog (canis viverrinus nyctereutes or procionides) often mistaken for a badger. It is a trickster in Japanese folktales, though it does have a very dark side, as in the story of "The Tanuki and the Rabbit," in which it tricks a man into eating his wife for supper (a friendly rabbit gets revenge for them). The tanuki is a shape-changer and especially delights in assuming the form of a Buddhist priest (bozu) to lead unsuspecting travelers to their deaths. Statues of tanuki are quite common. They are usually depicted standing, with a lotus leaf for a hat and holding a bill for saké (rice wine).

The inspiration for the Tangled Skein came from a line in a Japanese documentary. There is a forest at the base of Mt. Fuji whose trails are so convoluted that it is difficult to find your way back out without help. It is a favorite location for suicides.

Research for this story came from: Yoshitoshi's Thirty-Six Ghosts by John Stevenson; Japanese Mythology by Juliet Piggott; Japanese Ghosts and Demons edited by Stephen Addiss; Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn; and a Japanese encyclopedia of Yokai (apparitions).

Usagi stops at an inn, and learns that some travelers (Akiko Komachi, her escort Yamada, and five ronin guards) have incurred the ire of the spirits of the wood known as the Tangled Skein. Standing guard in the cold, they await the arrival of a bonze to perform an exorcism, but only Usagi and three of the ronin survive a nue's attack. When the innkeeper reports that a second bonze (Priest Sanshobo) has arrived, Usagi deduces that an enemy has somehow slipped past them; he confronts and defeats a tanuki-bozu in Miss Komachi's room.

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.