Nuezuka (Ashiya)ぬえづか

Nue does not name only one composite beast shot by Yorimasa. Jikkinshō imagines it as a small bird calling in the palace hall, while Book Four of The Tale of the Heike follows the Konoe-in incident, in which the cry of a shape-shifter fallen from a black cloud resembles that of the bird called nue, with a separate Nijō-in incident in which Yorimasa shoots “a shape-shifting bird called a Nue.” The widely circulated body of monkey, tanuki, tiger, and snake remains its best-known image today. Its parts vary among texts, however, and in the Noh play Nue, the spirit set adrift in a hollow boat appears at Ashiya and asks a traveling monk for salvation. The name’s depth lies in the overlap of bird name, uncanny bird, composite beast, and departed spirit.