The . is a yōkai of a "prophecy beast" type, whose news or urban legend has been disseminated in Japan since the Edo Period.
The human-faced, bovine-bodied kudan that allegedly appeared in "Mount Kurahashi", Tango Province (in today's Kyoto Prefecture) in the year Tenpō 7 (1836) was reported in a contemporary . It predicted bountiful harvest in the ensuing years, and instructed people to paste up the picture image of itself for the home to ward off evil and prosper. The kawarabans claim that the stock phrase "kudan no gotoshi" ("as in the case/matter in question") which frequently appeared at the end of certificates/deeds, was actually a reference to this monster is considered spurious.
The variant kutabe (or kudabe, kutahe) allegedly appeared in Mount Tate, Etchū Province (Toyama Prefecture), datable to Bunsei 10 (1827).
Etymology The kanji for kudan consists of two characters, the , and , aptly representing its human-bovine composite nature (i.e., human-headed and bovine-bodied).
This breakdown of the kanji ideogram is even stated on the woodblock print leaflet example. and also discussed by novelist Hyakken Uchida in his story "Kudan".
Phraseology Throughout Japan, the idiom began to appear on deeds and official documents. The phrase simply means 'As in the case [at hand]', though a meaning "on the truth of the Kudan", invoking the monster has also been alleged. However while the kudan monster dates to the late Edo Period, the idiom is much older, dating to the Heian period, so the relationship between the phrase and the monster has been refuted as an anachronism.
General description
Iconography The kudan is generally depicted as having the head of a human and the body of a bovine. The kudan is recorded as being in an early attestation from a samurai scribe's diary (Bunsei 2, year 1819)
The news of the "kudan" has been disseminated in illustrated newspapers called the (single sheeted wood-block print, hence sometimes referred to as a type of "broadsides"), and several examples have survived.
The well-publicized Tenpō Era (1836) notice of the kudan refers to the "beast named kudan" in its title, and explains that the beast had "a body [like unto] cattle, and a face like a human", and This piece is part of the collection at the (Tokugawa rinseishi kenkyūjo ). This kawaraban (single-sheet woodblock-print newspaper, a broadside) is actually visibly printed on a piece of wood.
This printed wood plate states that the kudan appeared "in the 12th month of Tenpō 7, the year of the monkey , on , citing or perhaps rather "in the mountains at the foot of Kurahashi [village]". The , altitude, in Miyazu, west of the Amanohashidate scenic monument fits the location.
There have also survived hand-copied documents which replicated kudan's picture and text from a kawaraban. One such copy occurs in the in the Mōri family library collection, held by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives.. Another hand-copied example on paper manuscript has belonged to the family based in village (now part of Saku, Nagano).
The news of the monster called by the variant names of kutabe, kudabe, etc. (cf. § Kutabe below) were disseminated in Bunsei 10–12 (1827–1829), and it was claimed that its human encounter occurred on Mount Tate, in present-day Toyama Prefecture. Many of the kutabe/kudabe illustrations bear long-haired woman-like faces according to scholars, but may also have a head like a bald old man and may not manifest bovine features, and have sharp claws. While some pictures have eyes on their bodies, like the luck beast Bai ze (Hakutaku).
Tales of cow-headed women or ushi-onna also became urban legend from around the time of World War II.
Prophesy beast
The kudan is typical of the so-called of Japanese folklore, which not only portend plague or bounty, but prescribe the method on how to avoid being stricken. Typically the prophecy beast instructs people to view a picture image of itself, or to copy it to ward off evil luck, and the kutabe/kudabe group of variant follow that norm.
The kudan pictorial on the kawaraban flyers, was not merely a pictorial and written information sheet being circulated, and it was understood that the flyer itself could be used as a , a type of amulet typically printed or hand-copied on paper. The aforementioned artefact dated Tenpo7/1836 (referred to as a kawaraban example), which is entitled "A beast called kudan which lets known great bountiful harvests", and goes onto say "If one paste up this picture image, the home inside shall flourish and not receive calamity&disease, all misfortune whatsoever shall be averted, and a great bumper-crop harvest shall ensue; it is a truly propitious beast". At this time, the Tenpō famine was at its peak, and so it is believed that this report was intended to "give people hope of a good harvest".
This same artefact also claims that a past appearance of the kudan, in the 12th month of Hōei 2/1705, recorded in an ancient document.
The kutabe variants only portent evil (epidemic), and are not known to predict blessings of bountiful harvest, unlike most prophesy beasts.
In a late example, the kudan was rumoured to have predicted Japan's defeat during World War II. There were also rumours among Japanese immigrant population in Brazil about a predicting that Japan would emerge victorious.
Born as calf An early attestation of kudan occurs in the aforementioned dated to Bunsei 2 (1819), where a human language-speaking and human-headed calf declared it should be given the name "kudan".
A document reporting the birth of a kudan from a cow, dated 12th of the 3rd month of Ansei 7 (1860) was discovered 2020 at the .
The multicolor woodblock-print (nishiki-e) entitled dated to the very end of the Edo Period (Keiō 3/1867), also reports that a kudan born from a cow, after speaking out its prophecy, dies as a 3-day old newborn. although later write more approximately.
After the shogunate ended and the Meiji era began, the kudan was still mentioned in writings and Lafcadio Hearn heard about travelling showmen displaying an alleged stuffed specimen of a kudan.
In the Taisho era, novelist Hyakken Uchida published a short novel entitled Kudan (1921), where it is stated "the kudan dies 3 days after birth, and in the meanwhile, in the language of humans, it prognosticates the ill or good luck of the future
Dating to the Shōwa era, the kudan is listed in a dictionary of the folklore of Okayama Prefecture, as well as in the writings of Kunio Yanagita who originates from the adjacent Hyogo Prefecture. The kudan is described as a strange beast born from a cow, or allegedly born as a cross between cattle and human, capable of human speech, and dies within a few days of birth. Meanwhiled, it prophesizes the advent of various grave occurrences, such as crop failure, epidemic, drought, or war. which reputedly come to pass without fail. Instances of kudan given birth by cattle in the Kansai region have been reported in the postwar period.
Calves born with certain illness deformities can give the impression of human-like face features, which could explain reports of kudan birth in some cases, according to some writers.
Kutabe
The kutabe or kudabe is considered an equivalent (subclass) of the kudan, though kutabe's legend is set specifically in Tateyama in Etchū Province (Mount Tate, in today's Toyama Prefecture). The news of the kutabe or kudabe were circulated in the years Bunsei 10–12 (1827–1829) when its appearances was supposedly witnessed.
The kanji-titled pamphlet claims that 件 (here presumably pronounced "ken" rather than "kudan") is actually its Chinese name, while kutabe is the true Japanese name.
Nomenclature The kutabe's name is written in non-standard "kanji" characters (shown right) in the printed example. and also variously transcribed as in hiragana, or and in katakana, etc. The name also appears as either or in an example now in France.
The prophecy beast called the was supposedly encountered on Mt. Tate by a man named Miura according to the diary of Kōriki Tanenobu, and thus this beast is also considered a variant in the kutabe group.
Iconography of the kutabe The kutabe/kudabe group illustrations appear to scholars as having long-haired woman-like face, while others have the head of a bald old man, or with resemblance to a "fatigued medical monk's body", and lack obvious discernible bovine features, but and are given front and hind paws with sharp claws (rather than hooves).
Prophecy and warding
The prophecies and the instructions to ward off evil are nearly identical in the various attestations of the kutabe group; the prophecy beast warns of an outbreak of some unknown disease in 4, 5 years time, and instructs that an individual must view the image of the creature once, in order to avoid the catastrophe.
The "gudabe" example (in the French collection) prescribes that in addition to viewing the image of itself, if an individual gathers seven-colored herbs, pound them into mochi (rice cake) and eats them, the wonders it would do will be "like unto a god".
Comparison to Hakutaku A comparison study of some 7 examples of the "kutabe" subclass was conducted by Hitomi Hosokawa, who addresses some of the origin questions; the questions of have been pursued by others also (cf. §Origins). The origins of the "kutabe" subclass has been discussed by Hosoki Regarding whether the kutabe could have originated from the Bai Ze (Hakutaku), she found mixed results in comparing their physical depictions/ And as curator of the museum at Tateyama, she concluded that the kutabe sub-legend never developed locally, but was probably invented by outsiders residing in other provinces.
Origins
The kudan may derive from the Chinese luck beast Bai Ze (pronounced "Hakutaku" in Japanese), as has been formally theorized by sociologist (1995, Kudan no tanjō [The Birth of Kudan]). The custom of distributing the image of Bai Ze existed in Edo Period Japan, and its iconography was likely borrowed to create the kudan creature.
The traditional Chinese Bai Ze actually tended to be depicted as more beastlike, or "tiger-faced, scaly-bodied" to be more specific. But in Japan, it later became more commonplace for the Bai Ze (Hakutaku) to be drawn or painted as human-faced and beast-bodied, hence not much different in appearance from the kudan which emerged.
Jinjahime and Hakutaku origins The essay from the Edo Period claims that the "kudabe" (variant spelling) was an invention based on another prophecy beast called the which was circulating at the time. It has been pointed out that the jinjahime that manifested itself in Bunsei 2 (1819) gave instructions on how to avoid the foretold doom, like the kudan in later documents, but whether the kudan of Bunsei 2 did so is inconclusive.
Another proponent who equated the kutabe with the luck beast Hakutaku (Bai Ze) was the famous yōkaimanga author Shigeru Mizuki, who viewed kutabe as a "human-faced bovine, with eyes on both flanks of its belly", just like Hakutaku. This is somewhat disputed by Hosoki, since the kutabe does indeed have eyes on its body, but they are situated on its back (next to spine), if the woodblock-printed image is taken to be authoritative. But at any rate this is coincidence enough to conclude that the iconography of the kutabe was influenced by Hakutaku amulets.
Mizuki also saw some connection between the medicine god Yellow Emperor meeting Bai Ze/Hakutaku and the supposed meeting the kudan in Mount Tate of Toyama. But Hosoki does not find this connection to the "patron god of Traditional Chinese medicine" to be persuasive enough to demonstrate equivalence.