Nue

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This article is about Japanese folklore. For the American steelmaking company having stock symbol "NUE", see Nucor.

Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Taiba (The End), 1852. The print depicts a nue descending upon the Imperial palace in a black cloud

A nue (鵺) is a legendary creature found in Japanese folklore. It has the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and a snake instead of a tail. A nue can also transform into a black cloud and fly around. Due to its appearance, it is sometimes referred to as a Japanese chimera.

Nue are bringers of misfortune and illness. According to The Tale of the Heike, the Emperor of Japan became sick after a nue took up residence atop his palace in the summer of 1153. After the samurai Minamoto no Yorimasa killed the creature, the emperor recovered.

The most famous story involving the nue takes place in the year 1153, at the imperial palace in Kyōtō. Emperor Konoe begins having terrible nightmares every night, to the point that he falls ill, and it seems that the source is a dark cloud that appears on the palace roof every night at two in the morning. The problem is eventually solved by Yorimasu Minamoto, who stakes out the roof one night and fires an arrow into the cloud, out of which falls a dead nue. Yorimasu then takes the body and sinks it into the Sea of Japan.

A local expansion of the story exists, in which the nue's corpse floats into a certain bay and the locals, fearing a curse, bury it. The mound where the beast lies can still be seen today.^[1]

[edit] Trivia

The famous ronin Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant nue, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861).

In the video game Breath of Fire III, the very first boss in game is a Nue who is terrorizing the "starter town"
In the MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, there is a notorious monster named Nue that is in the form of a tiger. Characters of the Monk class must slay him and recover one of his teeth as part of a quest to obtain the powerful Brown Belt.
Eating a nue is thought to cure hiccups.
Nue are also a type of nocturnal blackbird native to Japan. They, too, are thought to bring bad luck.
In the anime OVA, Karas, Nue is a youkai in human form sent to Shinjuku, Japan to defeat Eko.
In the PS2 video game Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Nue is an optional boss at the Migoyi temple.
The Japanese band Kagrra, has an album titled "Nue", containing the track "Nue no Naku Koro" (鵺の哭く頃, When the Nue Cries). The avex artist Tomiko Van similarly has a song called "Nue no Naku Yoru" (鵺の鳴く夜, The Night when the Nue Cries)
The Nue appears in many of the games in the Megami Tensei series as one of the kinds of monsters the player can fight, recruit or even create by fusing other monsters together.
In the game Chrono Trigger, the name Nu is given to a mysterious type of blue creature.
In the game .hack//G.U., there's a Lucky Animal called Nue. When kicked by the player, it will summon King Chim.
In the game Okami, there is a demon called Chimera that closely resembles the Nue, excluding its fire based powers and has an incense burner on its back.
In the anime and manga series Bleach, Shinigami Abarai Renji uses a sword (zanpakuto) named Zabimaru, which materializes into the form of a white nue. Appropriately, the word "Zabi" means "Snake Tail"
A Nue appears at the gate to the King of All Night's Dreaming's castle in Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano's Sandman: The Dream Hunters.
Nue is the name of Arshes Nei's sword in the anime/manga Bastard!!
In the anime Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Nue is referred to in the opening chant (during the creation of the female replicant), and in other parts of the film.