Teiji, the works are classified into six categories: the aristocracy, the priest-
hood and religion, the warriors, the common people, foreign countries
and strange lands, and nonhuman beings (Ichiko, Chūsei shōsetsu no kenkyū
69–70).4 The texts this book deals with touch upon almost all of these
categories.
As Barbara Ruch, the author of “Nara ehon to kisen bungaku” (Nara-
ehon and Literature of High and Low), states, otogizōshi tales capture essen-
tial elements of Japanese national traits. oni in otogizōshi are portrayed
vividly with emotional and physical intensity, and importantly these tales
reflect the worldview of medieval Japan. While the stories are entertaining,
they are also precautionary. The various messages of the texts inform the
twenty-first century about the beliefs, customs, and mind-set of the medi-
eval Japanese. Surprisingly, many of these beliefs and customs are still alive
in contemporary Japan and are used in modern literature and visual media,
including manga and anime.
OrGanizatiOn Of the BOOk
Without humans, oni do not exist. oni are perceived as such through human
senses. Hence, this book is organized according to the main characters who
claim to have encountered oni. They are Samurai, Scholars, Women, and
It (a personified object). The research essay preceding each translation
addresses the text’s significance, highlighting cultural, socio-political, and/
or religious implications for the medieval Japanese psyche and society and,
in its historical contribution, the text’s appeal to contemporary audiences.
Part 1 discusses Shuten Dōji (Drunken Demon), Japan’s most celebrated
oni legend. The oni leader called Shuten Dōji kidnaps, enslaves, and eats young
maidens if they displease him. The imperial court dispatches renowned
courageous warriors to conquer the monstrous Shuten Dōji and his cohorts
on Mt. Ōe. In the picture scroll Ōeyama ekotoba (Illustrations and Writing of
Introduction
5
Mt. Ōe, ca. fourteenth century), the oldest extant text of the Shuten Dōji
story, these warriors are two generals, Minamoto no Raikō (or Yorimitsu,
948–1021) and Fujiwara no Hōshō (or Yasumasa, 958–1036), accompanied
by Raikō’s shitennō (Four Guardian Kings) and Hōshō’s retainer. Although
Minamoto no Raikō and his shitennō are widely recognized as the preemi-
nent supernatural warriors in Japanese culture, historical records are mini-
mal. The introduction to the text examines who these oni-conquerors were
and why they were chosen as the conquerors of oni. The translation is the
oldest extant version, Ōeyama ekotoba.
Minamoto no Raikō and Watanabe no Tsuna (953–1025), the leader of
the shitennō, are again the conquerors of a supernatural creature, tsuchigumo
(earth spider), an oni variant. The picture scroll of Tsuchigumo zōshi (A Tale
of an Earth Spider, ca. early fourteenth century) describes a parade of
strange creatures in a haunted house whose owner, a beautiful woman, is
a giant earth spider in disguise. The second essay discusses the emergence
of the image of a tsuchigumo as a killer female shape-shifter in the medieval
period through an association with oni. This killer image, incorporated into
the Noh play Tsuchigumo, is firmly established in the ensuing period. The
translation is the oldest extant picture scroll of Tsuchigumo zōshi.
Part 2 examines the representative tales of scholars who deal with
oni. The third essay is a picture scroll of Kibi daijin nittō emaki (Illustrated
Stories of Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China, end of the twelfth century),
a fictional story of a historical figure of the great scholar-bureaucrat Kibi
no Makibi (695–775), one of only two scholars in Japanese history who
was promoted to the position of minister of right. In this text a Japanese
oni appears in China as a dead spirit and a helper for Kibi no Makibi to
escape from his captivity there. It provides fascinating insights into medi-
eval Japanese elites’ strong desire to surpass the Chinese in skills and talents
and a fundamental Japanese conception or attitude toward foreign powers.
Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China is also part of a series of the texts that situ-
ate Kibi no Makibi as a father of Onmyōdō, or the way of yin-yang. The
translation is the picture scroll of Kibi daijin nittō emaki.
The fourth essay examines the picture scroll of Haseo zōshi (A Tale of
Lord Haseo, early fourteenth century). An oni who lives on the Suzaku
Gate appears as an avid player of the game of sugoroku (Japanese version
of backgammon). He challenges Ki no Haseo (845–912), a famous scholar-
poet, to play the game with a bet for the most beautiful woman in the world.
When the oni loses, he offers Ki no Haseo a strikingly attractive woman,
who turns out to be made from the parts of dead bodies. A Tale of Lord
Haseo is captivating, with such characters as an oni that creates a human
6
Introduction
from corpses and a scholar who has fallen for sexual enticement. The
introduction examines the relationship among oni, Ki no Haseo, Deified
Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), the contemporary belief about an oni ,
or manmade human being, and gender roles. The translation is the picture
scroll of Haseo zōshi.
Women play an important role in dealing with oni. Some sacrifice them-
selves to save their loved ones, and others undertake arduous journeys to
unfamiliar lands to meet their husbands. In Part 3, the fifth essay discusses
the picture scroll of Amewakahiko sōshi (Tale of Amewakahiko, fifteenth
century), the Japanese version of Cupid and Psyche. The heroine journeys to
the sky in search of her husband, a dragon king. In the sky she encounters
her husband’s father, an oni. Twenty-first-century readers may ask why an
oni, usually a dweller in hell or mountains, lives in the sky and why he is the
dragon king’s father. The Tale of Amewakahiko helps us understand medi-
eval Japanese perspectives on the living space of fantastic creatures and
how medieval scholars’ studies of ancient and classical Japanese literature
influenced the story’s formation. The translation is the oldest extant picture
scroll of Amewakahiko sōshi.
The sixth essay introduces Hanayo no hime (Blossom Princess, ca. late
sixteenth century or early seventeenth century), a Japanese Cinderella story
in which a stepdaughter meets a yamauba (mountain witch, ogre, hag) or
female oni on a remote mountain. The yamauba turns out to be the heroine’s
quintessential helper, who gives critical advice and gifts when they are most
needed. The story of Blossom Princess has various folkloric elements, includ-
ing the legends of “obasute” (Deserted old Women). It is also noteworthy
for its description of contemporary provincial customs and embrace of
monogamous unions. The translation is the oldest text of Hanayo no hime.
Not only human beings but also inanimate objects can deal with oni,
and inanimate objects can become oni as well. An example is tsukumogami
(animating objects or tools and utensils), the subject of th
e seventh essay,
part 4. According to the picture scroll of Tsukumogami ki (Record of Tool
Specters, the Muromachi period [1336–1573]), after a service life of nearly
100 years, tools and utensils receive souls and, like all things with individual
souls, they develop an independent spirit. Resentful after having been aban-
doned by the human masters they so loyally served, the tools and utensils
in Tsukumogami ki become vengeful and murderous specters. They want
revenge on the humans who abandoned them but lack the malevolent
impact Shuten Dōji and his cohort have exercised. I argue that the principal
motivation of the author(s) was to spread the doctrines of Shingon eso-
teric Buddhism to a variety of audiences, ranging from the educated to the
Introduction
7
relatively unsophisticated, by capitalizing on preexisting folk beliefs in tsuku-
mogami. The translation is the oldest extant picture scroll of Tsukumogami ki.
The essays in Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan examine the texts’
cultural and socio-political implications surrounding this astonishing creature.
Regarding the way Japanese names appear in this work, according to
the Japanese custom they are written with the family name appearing first.
For example, the family name of Komatsu Kazuhiko, a scholar of anthro-
pology and folklorist, is Komatsu. The exception to this rule occurs when
the names are well-known outside Japan in English circles. For example,
the film director Akira Kurosawa remains Akira Kurosawa even though
Kurosawa is his family name.
nOtes
1. The word otogi in otogizōshi is an honorific form of togi ( o-togi ). The Chinese character togi 伽 literally means “people join,” that is, people gather and interact. According to Kuwata Tadachika, the togi is used with an honorific, o-togi, because the host or honoree of the gathering was a person of high social status. During the pre-modern period , the professional sto-rytellers (and advisers) called otogishū served their lords primarily by telling or reading stories (Kuwata 127–38).
2. For the study of otogizōshi in English, see Kimbrough, Preachers, Poets, Women, and the Way; Steven 303–31; Mulhern, “Otogi-zōshi” 180–98; Mulhern, “Cinderella and the Jesuits”
409–47; Mulhern, “Analysis of Cinderella Motifs” 1–37; Keene, Seeds in the Heart 1092–1128; Skord, Tales of Tears and Laughter; Childs, “Didacticism in Medieval Short Stories” 253–88; Childs, Rethinking Sorrow 14–22; James Araki, “Otogi-zōshi and Nara-ehon” 1–20; Ruch,
“Medieval Jongleurs” 279–309; Putzar 286–97.
3. By “auditory literature,” Steven means the work “typically heard by their audiences
rather than read in silence” (Steven 304).
4. Matsumoto Ryūshin, coeditor of MJMT, considers Ichiko’s classification most
appropriate, and based on Ichiko’s category he arranged his own as follows: the aristoc-
racy, the warriors, religion, the warriors’ legend, the common people, and nonhuman beings
( Otogizōshi-shū 371–87).
Part I
Samurai
1
Drunken Demon ( Shuten Dōji: Ōeyama ekotoba)
Imagining the Demon Conquerors
Shuten Dōji (drunkEn dEMon) is Japan’s MosT rEnoWnEd oni legend.
The chief of the oni, Shuten Dōji, is a fantastic, demonic, and cannibalistic
but charismatic creature. He and his cohorts kidnap, enslave, and cannibal-
ize men and women.1 Set against this imaginary character are the historical
figures. According to the oldest extant text of the legend, the picture scrolls
Ōeyama ekotoba (Illustrations and Writing of Mt. Ōe, ca. fourteenth century),
whose translation follows this essay, two generals, Minamoto no Raikō (in
the Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, or Yorimitsu 948–1021) and
Fujiwara no Hōshō (or Yasumasa 958–1036), are charged by imperial com-
mand to rescue the captives of Shuten Dōji and eliminate him. Among a
number of samurai who physically fight against oni, Raikō and his four
lieutenants, called shitennō (Four Guardian Kings), are probably the most
famous, since Hōshō’s legendary status diminishes as time passes. While
they are widely recognized as the brave warriors battling with the super-
natural in legends, their historical records are minimal. This chapter exam-
ines who these samurai were and why they were chosen as the conquerors
of oni. It also discusses some extra-literary events and the circumstances
surrounding Shuten Dōji’s statement that demons’ power thrives when the
king is wise.
shuten Dōji texts
Although we know of the Shuten Dōji story through written texts, the evi-
dence suggests that the story derives from a much older oral tradition. As
is the case with popular stories with an oral origin, the story of Shuten
Dōji has an array of textual versions. It is generally accepted that there
are two versions of the Shuten Dōji texts: the Ōeyama (Mt. Ōe) version
DOI: 10.7330/9781607324904.c001
11
12
Part I: Samurai
and that of Ibukiyama (Mt. Ibuki). The picture scrolls of Ōeyama ekotoba
constitute the representative text of the Ōeyama version. Another picture
scroll titled Shuten Dōji emaki (Picture Scrolls of Shuten Dōji, early sixteen
century), owned by the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo (hereafter the
Suntory version), represents the Ibukiyama version.2 The major differences
between them are twofold: one is the location of the oni’s fortress. In the
Ōeyama version, the fortress is located on Mt. Ōe, whereas the Ibukiyama
version situates the oni’s den at Mt. Ibuki. The second difference is that
the Ibukiyama version includes a section of explanation of Shuten Dōji’s
honji (true nature or original form). Thus, in the Ibukiyama version we are
told that Shuten Dōji is dairokuten no maō (the evil king of the Sixth Heaven
in darkness) and the archenemy of Buddha. Likewise, the text tells us that
Raikō’s honji is Bishamonten (Vaiśravaņa), Emperor Ichijō’s honji is Miroku
(Maitreya), and Abe no Seimei is Kannon-satta (Kannon Bodhisattva)
(“Shuten Dōji-e jō, chū, ge” 176 [1904]: supplement 27). The Ōeyama ver-
sion does not contain this honji section except for the Ōeyama ekotoba. Satake
Akihiro assumes that the honji section of the Ōeyama versions may have
been eliminated as exposure to the audience became more frequent ( Shuten
Dōji ibun 152). It is now generally accepted that the Ōeyama version came
first. The Ibukiyama version was formed by incorporating a historical inci-
dent, the murder of a bandit named Kashiwabara Yasaburō at Mt. Ibuki in
1201, into the Ōeyama version (Satake, Shuten Dōji ibun 119).
Recently, Minobe Shigekatsu claimed that differentiating the texts as
Mt. Ōe versus Mt. Ibuki is not fruitful because many Shuten Dōji texts
can be taken as both versions. He suggests instead to classify the texts as
those hued with the Tendai school of Buddhism vis-à-vis those without the
Tendai color. For example, in the picture scrolls of Ōeyama ekotoba, Saichō
(or Dengyō Daishi, d. 822), the founder of the Tendai sect of Buddhism
who built Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei, expelled Shuten Dōji from his original
abode, whereas in the
Suntory version Saichō is replaced by Kūkai (or
Kōbō Daishi 774–835), the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism.3
Also, the deity of Hiyoshi Sannō Shrine who protects the Buddhist law of
Enryakuji is missing in the Suntory version (Minobe and Minobe 129–32).
The Minobes’ classification seems appropriate.
There are a number of copies and versions of the story, but it was
the early-eighteenth-century printed version of the Shuten Dōji story
that reached the broadest audience, thanks to the bookseller Shibukawa
Seiemon.4 For all intents and purposes, the popularity of the Shibukawa
edition put an end to further variations (Amano, “Shuten Dōji kō” 16).
The location of the fortress in the Shibukawa edition is on Mt. Ōe, and
Drunken Demon
13
it does not have the honji section; however, the detail of the story is that
of the Ibuki version. Shibukawa published the “Shuten Dōji” story in an
anthology of twenty-three short stories under the title Goshūgen otogi bunko
(Auspicious Companion Library).
the ōeyama ekotoba Picture scrolls
The Ōeyama ekotoba is a set of two picture scrolls currently housed in the
Itsuō Museum of Art in Osaka that date back to the second half of the
fourteenth century. The scrolls are also referred to as Katori-bon because the
set was formerly in the possession of a high priest of the Katori Shrine in
Shimofusa Province.5
The scrolls consist of twenty sections of writings and illustrations.6
The material has been damaged, and several sections of the scroll are miss-
ing. Further, a number of writing sections do not match the illustrations; in
many cases, the sections are out of order because of an error or miscom-
munication in making a scroll, that is, in pasting the papers of illustrations
and writings onto the scroll. The opening section of the first scroll is largely
missing. Fortunately, this missing part can be supplemented by the Shuten
Dōji monogatari ekotoba (Picture scroll of the Shuten Dōji story) housed in
the Yōmei bunko (Yōmei Library, hereafter the text is referred to as Yōmei
bunko-bon [Yōmei library edition]).7
The second scroll ends with the sixteenth illustration. The narrative
Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan Page 2
