Hantengu is a short, frail man with a very thin and skeletal body, covered with veins and wrinkles, and is usually seen crouching. His most noticeable feature is a large bump on the top of his head, accompanied by two curved horns. His face is thin with a sharp chin, and he constantly wears an expression of terror and fear with a rictus grimace, and a prominent brow ridge that lacks eyebrows. He has brown skin, and his forehead is also noticeably shrivelled and discolored reddish-purple. His eyes are narrow and often appear to be squinting, obscuring his miotic pupils. He has red eyes with golden irises, with the kanji of Upper Rank (上じょう弦げん Jōgen?) engraved on his right eye, and the daiji for Four (肆し Shi?) engraved on his left. Hantengu also has the kanji for "fear" (怯 Obie?) etched into his tongue.