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Japanese Demon Lore

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Japanese Demon Lore Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2010 Japanese Demon Lore Noriko T. Reider [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the Cultural History Commons, and the Folklore Commons Recommended Citation Reider, N. T. (2010). Japanese demon lore: Oni, from ancient times to the present. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Japanese Demon Lore Oni from Ancient Times to the Present Japanese Demon Lore Oni from Ancient Times to the Present Noriko T. Reider U S U P L, U Copyright © 2010 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322 Cover: Artist Unknown, Japanese; Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China, Scroll 2 (detail); Japanese, Heian period, 12th century; Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper; 32.04 x 458.7 cm (12 5/8 x 180 9/16 in.); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, by exchange, 32.131.2. ISBN: 978-0-87421-793-3 (cloth) IISBN: 978-0-87421-794-0 (e-book) Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free, recycled paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reider, Noriko T. Japanese demon lore : oni from ancient times to the present / Noriko T. Reider. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87421-793-3 (cloth : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-87421-794-0 (e-book) 1. Demonology—Japan. 2. Folklore—Japan. 3. Legends—Japan. 4. Supernatural. 5. Spirits. I. Title. GR340.R35 2010 398.20952—dc22 2010029181 To Brent Reider my husband and best friend Contents List of Illustrations x Foreword, by Peter Knecht xi Acknowledgements xvi Introduction xviii 1 An Overview: What are Oni? 1 Origins, Etymology and Formation of Oni 2 0e Japanese Line 2 0e Chinese Line 4 0e Buddhist Line 10 0e Onmyōdō Line 13 Characteristics of Oni 14 Cannibalism 14 Transformation Power 16 The Other: 0e Oppressed, Alienated, and Isolated 18 Lightning 23 Prosperity 24 2 Shuten Dōji (Drunken Demon): A Medieval Story of the Carnivalesque and the Rise of Warriors and Fall of Oni 30 Legends of Shuten Dōji 30 From Simple to Complex: Troubling the Demon 30 Texts of Shuten Dōji 32 0e Shuten Dōji Story 34 Carnivalesque Festivities 37 Shuten Dōji as Other 42 Origins of Shuten Dōji 48 The Rise of the Warrior Class and Fall of Oni 51 3 Women Spurned, Revenge of Oni Women: Gender and Space 53 Uji no hashihime (Woman at Uji Bridge) 53 vii The Stories of Uji no hashihime 53 Uji no hashihime vs. Shuten Dōji 55 Sociopolitical Space for Gendered Oni 57 Noh Kanawa: Lingering Affection of a Spurned Woman 58 4 Yamauba, the Mountain Ogress: Old Hag to Voluptuous Mother 61 Cannibalism 62 Yamauba as Great Mother and Nurturer 64 Image of Yamauba in the Medieval Period 68 Yamauba in the Early Modern Period: Mother of Sakata no Kintoki 69 Chikamatsu’s Komochi Yamauba (Mountain Ogress with a Child) 76 0e Alluring Yamauba 84 5 Oni in Urban Culture: De-demonization of the Oni 90 0e Edoites’ Belief System 90 De-demonized Oni 92 Commercialization and Urban Culture: Oni as an Example of Yōkai 95 Demonic People in Popular Culture of the Early Modern Period 98 Kotō no Oni (Oni of a Solitary Island): Demonic People in the Erotic-Grotesque-Nonsense Culture 100 6 Oni and Japanese Identity: Enemies of the Japanese Empire in and out of the Imperial Army 104 Reconfiguration of the Supernatural in Modern Japan 105 Oni as Foreign Enemy in the Second World War 107 Teito Monogatari (Tale of the Imperial Capital) 113 7 Sex, Violence, and Victimization: Modern Oni and Lonely Japanese 120 viii Nakagami Kenji’s “Oni no hanashi” (“A Tale of a Demon”) 121 Yumemakura Baku’s Onmyōji (0e Yin-Yang Master) 131 8 Oni in Manga, Anime, and Film 144 Apocalyptic and Elegiac Oni 145 Nagai Gō’s Oni 145 Debiruman (Devilman) 146 Shuten Dōji (A Child Handed from Heaven) 151 Akira Kurosawa’s “0e Weeping Demon” 154 Modern Female Oni: Powerful, yet Compromised 155 Urusei Yatsura: 0e Cute Sexy Oni 155 Bigheaded Yamauba in Spirited Away 158 Yōkai and Oni Variants 162 Yasha and Dog in InuYasha 163 Tsuchigumo (Earth Spider) in InuYasha 165 Tsuchigumo in Spirited Away 167 9 Oni without Negatives: Selfless and Surrealistic Oni 170 Kind and 0oughtful Oni: Naita Akaoni (Red Oni Who Cried) 170 Oni Go to Heaven: Inoue Yasushi’s Surrealistic “Oni no hanashi” (A Story of Oni) 173 Conclusion 177 Appendix A: Translation of Shibukawa’s Version of Shuten Dōji 185 Appendix B: Japanese and Chinese Names and Terms 204 Bibliography 210 Index 231 ix List of Illustrations Figure 1: An oni in Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China 8 Figure 2: Sugawara no Michizane in the Illustrated Legends of Kitano Tenjin Shrine 22 Figure 3: Shuten Dōji entertains Raikō and his vassals with human flesh 36 Figure 4: Shuten Dōji’s head 44 Figure 5: Yamauba to Kintarō ennenmai (Yamauba and Kintarō, dance) 86 Figure 6: Yamauba to Kintarō genpuku (Yamauba and Kintarō, coming-of-age) 87 Figure 7: Yamauba to Kintarō kamisori (Yamauba and Kintarō, shaving hair) 89 Figure 8: Oni on Kamaishi Line 183 Figure 9: Shuten Dōji entertains Raikō and his vassals with human flesh 196 Figure 10: Shuten Dōji’s severed head lunges at Raikō 198 x Foreword O , SETSUBUN, the parting of the seasons, people perform a ceremony at temples and in many private houses where they throw beans at imagined or impersonated frightening figures called oni. When they throw the beans they shout: “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” (Oni get out, luck come in). On this year’s setsubun a foreign colleague partici- pated in this ceremony at a temple only to find himself to be the target of people throwing beans and shouting “oni wa soto!” He found himself looked at as if he were an oni. For what reason would he have been considered to be an oni? It is difficult to translate the term oni because an oni is a being with many facets. It may be imagined as some ambiguous demon, or it may be impersonated as an ugly and frightening humanlike figure, an ogre. However, it is not an intrinsically evil creature of the kind, like the devil, who, in monotheistic religions, is the personification of everything that is evil. 0e difficulty in describing oni, is in itself, it seems to me, part of the oni’s character as a basically elusive and ambiguous creature. At setsubun, when people throw beans to dispel the oni, they do it with so much fun so that the onlooker may get the impression that an oni is nothing more than a character from children’s stories. Yet, as Noriko Reider eloquently shows in this volume, there is much more to an oni. In fact, it can be said that this figure and its actions let us have a glimpse at how the Japanese imagine their own world in its relation with the outside. 0is relation is continually reinterpreted according to the change of times. For that reason, oni are not simply a product of naïve beliefs of a remote past, they are alive to an aston- ishing degree still today. 0e experience of my colleague mentioned above may well be taken as a sign of the oni’s continued actuality. 0e changes as well as the continuity in the image of the oni, are the topic of this volume. Here I do not plan to summarize Reider’s argument, because to do so would only take away a good deal of its fascination. However, a recent experience of mine might help to prepare the reader for how complex the concept “oni” in fact is. xi xii J D L On a day in late February a dream I had fostered for many years finally became reality. It was a sunny and, for the season, an unusually warm day, when I visited the “Namahage Museum” on the Oga Peninsula, a wind- stricken peninsula reaching out into the Sea of Japan north of the city of Akita. Although Namahage appear in many villages all along the sea line of Akita and neighboring Niigata Prefectures, those of the Oga Peninsula are particularly well known. Impersonated by vigorous young men they are truly terrifying figures, by their looks as well as by their raucous and impetuous behavior. 0ey appear in pairs or in groups of four or more. 0eir faces are hidden behind red, blue or black masks with large gaping mouths that expose huge canine teeth. From the top of their head pro- trude two large horns. 0eir garments, a shoulder cover, a skirt and shoes are all made of rice straw preserved from the last harvest. 0ese looks and the strange sounds they utter when they visit the houses combine to make them truly frightening. 0e time of the day when they appear also adds to this fearsome impression: late in the evening of the last day of the year they emerge out of the dark mountain forest. 0ey burst into the houses where they look for lazy or disobedient children or adults, threatening to take them away. 0ey cause great havoc, especially among the children who hide behind their parents’ backs or cling desperately to a pillar try- ing to avoid being taken away.
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