In Japanese folklore, the chimera-like yokai with a monkey’s head, a tanuki’s body, a tiger’s legs, and a snake’s tail is the nue. Its appearance combines parts of several animals, making it one of Japan’s most distinctive legendary creatures.
The best-known description appears in the medieval Tale of the Heike. The nue is portrayed as a frightening creature associated with an eerie birdlike cry, often compared with the call of a scaly thrush. It is also linked with nighttime appearances, black clouds, and shapeshifting.
A famous legend tells how the warrior Minamoto no Yorimasa was ordered to kill a nue troubling Emperor Konoe’s court. Yorimasa shot the creature with an ancestral arrow, and his retainer Ino Hayata finished it off. The emperor’s illness then lifted, and Yorimasa received the sword Shishiō as a reward.
Descriptions vary across Japanese texts. The Genpei Jōsuiki gives a different combination of animal parts, including a cat’s head, a chicken’s torso, a fox’s tail, and tiger features. That variation is why the nue should not be treated as a single fixed zoological design.