Seeing a great LEGO build can take you on a real voyage of discovery. Dicken Liu‘s latest creation is a Japanese Tengu mask, which I think we can all agree looks fantastic with its dragon-wing brows and ‘stache. But it got me thinking what these masks were actually for; after all, I’ve seen a lot of them in comics or on TV without really knowing much about them. So I went to Wikipedia to do some research. But two hours have gone by, my tea’s gone cold, and I’m now reading about Japanese architecture in the Heian period. It’s very interesting, but I’m no closer to finding out what these blasted masks mean! Oh well. At least we learned what a good builder Liu is – but then again, we already knew that.
Tengu are fierce, protective (though sometimes also troublesome and mischievous) magical creatures in Japanese folklore who appear in various stories going back over a thousand years. The masks are used in plays and dances, but are also decorative objects you might hang in your home.
this is most definitely urokodaki from demon slayer. this is no reference to tengu– it’s demon slayer anime/manga.
The builder himself calls it a Tengu on his Flickr page — no reference to any video game. Just because it appeared in a video game doesn’t mean that’s what it is. ;-)
ahh thank you! I didn’t notice that