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Japanese Demon Lore

Utah State University Press

Chapter One

In an English language treatment of oni it is tempting to seek comparisons in Western demonology. Indeed, the concept of oni and the history and development of their representation have some striking affinity to the demonic entities that populate Judeo-Christian myths and the various figures from older Greco-Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Norse traditions that became "demonized" as Christianity spread through the European continent, the British Isles, and finally Iceland. Such a comparison, a worthy task in itself, is, however, beyond the scope of this book. It suffices to say that the Western adjective demonic, while the closest Western term to describe oni, falls short of capturing the full idea of these creatures.

The popularity and longevity of the oni myth is no doubt partially based on the beings' conventional demonic accoutrements, which have remained relatively constant through the ages: they are dreadful supernatural beings emerging from the abyss of Buddhist hell to terrify wicked mortals; their grotesque and savage demeanor and form instill instant fear; and the oni's omnipresence in the socio-historical and cultural archive of Japan is directly attributable to the moral, social, and religious edification that stories about oni engender. But there is a lesser known side to the oni that will also be examined here-the oni as harbingers of wealth and fortune. This widely disparate dichotomy begs a fundamental question, "What are oni?" This chapter examines the genesis and etymology of oni, as well as their features and attributes as depicted throughout various literary texts.

Origins, Etymology, and Formation of Oni

Considering the diverse roles of oni in the Japanese cultural milieu, one expects varieties of theories about oni's origins, etymology, and formation, and one is not disappointed-they are indeed multiple and varied. According to Anesaki Masaharu, Japanese oni "belong to a purely Buddhist mythology" (238) but the oni cannot be said to be exclusive to the Buddhist cosmic universe. Komatsu Kazuhiko explains that oni was the term used in onmyodo (the way of yin and yang) to describe any evil spirits that harm humans. In early onmyodo doctrine, the word "oni" referred specifically to invisible evil spirits that caused human infirmity ("Supernatural Apparitions and Domestic Life in Japan" 3). Takahashi Masaaki identifies oni as an epidemic deity (4), while Kumasegawa Kyoko interprets an oni as an individual and/or societal shadow (204). It is little wonder then that overwhelmingly negative forces have often been attributable to oni. This section examines the origins, etymology and formation of oni and explores the four major lines from which oni stories have evolved: the Japanese, Chinese, Buddhist, and onmyodo. There are many overlapping elements across the four lines; some descriptions are contradictory and yet believed simultaneously. Others are interwoven as if to reinforce themselves. There are many ambiguous and even ambivalent descriptions. While some conflicting and/or ambiguous explanations reveal the process of integration and adoption of various origins in the early stages of history, they also disclose Japanese attitudes toward something foreign: a selective adaptation while trying to keep their indigenous beliefs. The oni remind anyone researching their origins how strong and influential the dominant culture, be it Chinese or Buddhist, stood in relation to indigenous beliefs in kami or Japanese deities. Without a solid philosophical and intellectual background, evil or negative kami, like their European pagan counterparts, are demonized and incorporated into the large corpus of oni.

The Japanese Line

Kondo Yoshihiro describes the genesis of oni as a historical product of people's fear of the destructive power of phenomenological occurrences such as thunder and lightning, storms, and earthquakes (14-15). Among the natural forces, thunder and lightning are most strongly associated with the oni. That thunder and lightning instilled fright in people is evinced by the sheer number of shrines dedicated to the thunder gods (Kondo 16). According to Wakamori Taro, the inhabitants of ancient Japan believed in the existence of evil spirits that resided deep in the mountains. He also asserts that the Japanese referenced the presence of oni well before the advent of Chinese thought and Buddhism in Japan (119-122). For the appellation of the "oni" itself, Orikuchi Shinobu asserts a Japanese origin, meaning giant people [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (pronounced oni) who lived in caves ("Oni to sanjin to" 121). Furthermore, Orikuchi suggests that there may have been no clear demarcation between an oni and a kami in Japan's ancient past. Both were "awesome" beings, although the oni may not have been worshipped. Orikuchi asserts as well that the negative and fearful aspects of kami came to be considered oni ("Shinodazuma no hanashi" 283-284). He writes that the oni concept before the introduction of Buddhism was a variation of tokoyo-kami (kami who live in the other land or the land of the dead) or marebito (foreign travelers, kami who visit villages) who give blessings on the lunar New Year's Eve and/or New Year's Day for the coming year. Marebito wear minokasa (straw raincoats and hats) and come from a distant land beyond the sea. Villagers treat marebito well because they are foreigners with awesome power and the villagers want them to return soon. Orikuchi equates marebito to oni. He writes, "fearful oni rouse sometimes close (shitashii) and dear (natsukashii) feelings-not at all like Buddhist oni." After Buddhism was introduced in Japan, he continues, oni became mixed up with such Buddhist creatures as rasetsu (raksasa), gozu (ox-headed demons), and mezu (horse-headed demons). If one accepts Orikuchi's connection between marebito and oni one can see how oni came to be considered harbingers of wealth.

In the same vein as Orikuchi's suggestion that kami are worshiped while oni are not, Komatsu Kazuhiko explains that supernatural deities worshipped by Japanese are known as kami while those that are not worshipped are called yokai (hobgoblins/monsters), and the yokai with the most negative association are oni ("Yokai" 334, 342). As we shall see in detail in chapter eight, people performed religious rituals in order to transform yokai to kami. If there is not worship enough for a particular supernatural being to be considered kami, then that kami becomes yokai (Yokaigaku shinko 193).

Citing eighteenth-century Japanese Nativist scholar Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), Ishibashi Gaha considers an origin of the Japanese oni in Yomotsu-shikome (literally ugly woman or women in the nether land), who appears in Japan's creation myth in Kojiki (Ancient Matters), the oldest extant chronicle or record in Japan, complied in 712 (4). After the death of Izanami, the female creator of Japan, Izanagi, her husband and male counterpart, misses her so much that he goes to the nether land to retrieve her. But Izanami says that she has already eaten the food from that realm, implying that it would be difficult for her to return easily to this one. The food produced in the other world has the power to make one stay in that world, so she tells him to wait and not to look. The taboo against "looking" is a familiar folk literature motif-unable to resist temptation, a protagonist often breaks a promise not to look. Izanagi breaks his promise not to look at Izanami-just as Orpheus does on his journey to bring Eurydice back to the world of the living in the Greek myth. When Orpheus looks back, beautiful Eurydice slips back into the world of the dead. When Izanagi looks at Izanami, however, she is ugly, with maggots squirming and eight thunder deities growing around her entire body. Izanami is furious, probably because he broke the promise/taboo and looked at her changed appearance. Instead of bemoaning her fate and going back to the nether land quietly, she attacks him saying that he has caused her undying shame. Terrified, Izanagi quickly makes his way back to this world, whereupon Izanami dispatches Yomotsushikome from the underworld to avenge her shame. It is interesting that a precursor of Japanese oni is a female born from a goddess who feels "shame" and is spurned by a male lover, for this pattern continues to appear throughout the ages in Japan, as we shall see in the following chapters. While the Japanese can identify with a primordial form of oni in Yomotsu-shikome, Ishibashi attributes the appellation, oni, to Chinese thought (104).

The Chinese Line

Ancient Japanese literature assigns a number of different written characters such as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] to express oni (Tsuchihashi 95). Among them, the character used now is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which in Chinese means invisible soul/ spirit of the dead, both ancestral and evil. The letter [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is a hieroglyph that presents the shape of a dead body at a burial during the Yin Dynasty (1500-770 BCE); the fundamental meaning of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is, therefore, a dead body itself. According to Wamyo ruijusho (ca. 930s), the first Japanese language dictionary, oni is explained as a corruption of the reading of the character on [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (hiding), "hiding behind things, not wishing to appear ... a soul/spirit of the dead." Apparently the concept of oni in Wamyo ruijusho is based upon the Chinese concept (Takahashi Masaaki 41). Tsuchihashi Yutaka writes that the term oni came from the pronunciation of on [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] plus "i." Similar to Orikuchi, he writes that many types of kami possessing powerful spiritual forces existed in ancient Japan. Among kami, those harmful to humans are quite similar to the mono or evil spirits. Both beings are invisible; the kami are, however, the object of awe and respect, while the mono are universally feared, but not respected. Oni are spiritual beings very much like the mono. Tsuchihashi surmises that the character, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], was employed probably because the meaning of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is close to the concept of mono (95). But as Takahashi suggests, it is unclear whether the negative meaning of mono had existed before applying the character [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], or the Chinese meaning unwittingly seeped into mono when the character [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] was applied. In the end, Takahashi asserts that oni, mono, and goryo (vengeful spirits of the dead that will be discussed later), are all heavily influenced by Chinese concepts (41).

The early examples of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] appear in Nihongi or Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720 CE) and in Izumo fudoki (Topography of Izumo Province, 733 CE), describing evil and/or antagonistic beings. In Nihongi, for example, when Takamimusuhi, one of the central deities of the Plain of High Heaven and an imperial ancestor, desires his grandson to rule the Central Land of Reed-Plains (i.e., Japan), he pronounces, "I desire to have the evil Gods of the Central Land of Reed-Plains expelled and subdued." He calls the inhabitants of the Central Land who are not subjugated "ashiki [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]," or evil gods. In Izumo fudoki, a one-eyed [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] appears in a reclaimed land in the community of Ayo of Izumo Province (present-day Shimane prefecture) and devours a man (Akimoto 238-39). Komatsu Kazuhiko writes, "People who had different customs or lived beyond the reach of the emperor's control" were considered some form of oni ("Supernatural Apparitions and Domestic Life in Japan" 3). This concept is actually not unique to Japan. Targets of subjugation and different ethnic groups that do not assimilate the precepts of hegemonic authority are described as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] by the Han race even before the period of Six Dynasties (220-589) in China (Li 427). It is not certain, however, whether the character, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], was pronounced as oni or mono. Indeed, the character is rendered as mono in Man'yoshu (Ten Thousand Leaves, ca. eighth century). There exists no definitive example of the term "oní" in the ancient literature (Tsuchihashi 94-95). As Shelley Fenno Quinn notes:

[T]he oldest myths and legends of Japan, material that is assumed to have been orally transmitted from ancient times, has been handed down to us in scripts that are written either in classical Chinese or in characters taken from Chinese and used for their phonetic values in writing Japanese. It was not until the ninth century that simplified phonetic scripts for writing vernacular Japanese came into general use, and thus much of what we know of these preliterate, oral discourses, reaches us through the filter of a continental writing technology or adaptations thereof. ("Oral and Vocal Traditions of Japan" 258)

Thus, when something called oni comes to be identified as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], that entity seems to emerge from this kind of process.

During the Heian period (794-1185), mononoke (evil spirits)-sharing the same mono-exerted great influence on the lives of Japanese people. Though mononoke is often written as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (mono's mystery), the original meaning is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (oni's vital energy), or that which employs [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Tsuchihashi 96). Mono, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as in [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], was a spiritual perception that negatively affected the human, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as in [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] was shapeless energy, integral to the essence of the human body. A story in Keikai's Nihon ryoiki (Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition, ca. 823) recounts the tale of a mysterious messenger from the netherworld, documented as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. When [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]'s [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] was attached to the human character, that human either fell violently ill or died (Takahashi 3-4). In any case, the rendering of the character [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as oni was mostly established in and after the tenth century.

As the use of the character [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] became popular, the invisible oni gradually became omnipresent in popular Japanese consciousness and began to be represented in more tangible form. Reflecting this trend, artisans and entertainers of the day often represented oni in literature, paintings, and in the performing arts. Oni are customarily portrayed with one or more horns protruding from their scalps. They sometimes have a third eye in the centre of the forehead, and varying skin color, most commonly black, red, blue, or yellow. They often have large mouths with conspicuous canine teeth. More often than not, oni are scantly clad, wearing a loincloth of fresh tiger skin. The combination of the horn and the tiger skin may trace its origins back to an ancient folk belief. The image of oni with an ox horn(s) and tiger skin loincloth is said to have come about from a play on the word ushitora. Ushi (ox) represents the direction thirty degrees east from due north (north-north-east); tora (tiger) is the direction thirty degrees northward from due east. Ushitora was considered an ominous direction called kimon [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]-oni's gate [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Hence, ox horns and tiger skins are used to depict oni (Baba 46-47; Toriyama 80). Oni are often depicted carrying an iron rod used to torture their human victims.

Although descriptions of oni vary, there are certain common physical traits that tend to be relatively constant from one representation to another, such as their three-fingered hands. As they are described in Konjaku monogatarishu (Tales of Times Now Past, ca. 1120), in the medieval period, the oni usually have only two or three fingers and toes with long and sharp nails. Indeed, some oni depicted in Jigoku soshi (picture scrolls of Buddhist Hell, ca. 12th century), Gaki soshi (picture scrolls of hungry ghosts, ca. 12th century), and Kibi daijin nitto emaki (Minister Kibi's Adventures in China, late 12th century) are depicted with three toes (see Figure 1).

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Japanese Demon Lore by Noriko T. Reider Copyright © 2010 by Utah State University Press. Excerpted by permission of Utah State University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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