Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan

by Noriko T. Reider

  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