In the fall of 1820, during the Edo period (Bunsei 3) in Edo (present-day Tokyo), Japan, a mysterious boy named Torakichi (寅吉)(1806 – 1860) appeared, claiming to have visited another world inhabited by Tengu, and gained a reputation as a tengu boy.
Portrait of Torakichi
Tengu is a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion and is also considered a type of Shinto god (kami) or yōkai (supernatural beings).
Kobayakawa Takakage debating with the tengu of Mount Hiko, by Yoshitoshi.
According to rumors among people at the time, Torakichi was a psychic boy who, from an early age, predicted the outbreak of fires and astonished adults by demonstrating clairvoyant abilities.
According to Torakichi, when he was six years old (seven years old in counting years) in 1812, he was accompanied by a tengu named Sosho Sugiyama (杉山僧正) to Mount Iwama in Hitachinokuni (present-day Atagoyama, Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan) to practice and visit another world, where he received training in jujutsu (magic) from the inhabitants of that world and returned to the present world.
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