Case file · High strangeness
Torakichi, the boy taken by tengu
In 1820 the scholar Hirata Atsutane interviewed Torakichi, a 15-year-old in Edo who said he had been carried off by a tengu years earlier and trained in the mountains.
1820 CE · 35.71, 139.78 · status: account
The account
Atsutane wrote up the interviews as 'Senkyō Ibun' (Strange Tales from the Realm of the Immortals, 1822), recording what the boy said about flying, other worlds and spirit beings. Such 'kamikakushi' (hidden by the gods) cases were common in Edo lore.
The sceptical view
Contemporaries and modern historians suspect the boy told the eager scholar what he wanted to hear; the case shows how a believer's questions can shape an abduction story, much like later alien-abduction interviews.