Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan
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wner=&pos=1&num=1&mode=simple¢ury= (accessed January 12, 2013).
4. See the introduction for a brief explanation of otogizōshi.
5. Japanese scholars seriously and heatedly discussed tsuchigumo as part of the debate on indigenous Japanese before World War II, especially in the first two decades of the twentieth
century (okiura 37–39). For a summary of various theories on tsuchigumo, see Matsumoto,
“Tsuchigumo ron.”
6. For example, one tsuchigumo named Ōmimi in the district of Matsuura of Hizen Prov-
ince promised to give the emperor food as a tribute ( SNKBZ 5: 335–36). Another tsuchigumo called Utsuhiomaro in Sonoki district of the same province even saved an imperial ship
( SNKBZ 5: 345).
7. Bai Juyi (772–846) was a gentleman poet and government official of the Tang Dynasty.
8. The spider in the “Swords chapter” is also called yamagumo.
9. In Kojiki, Amaterasu rather than Takamimusuhi makes this announcement. The cor-
responding section is written as “Kono kuni ni chihayaburu araburu kunitsu kami domo”
(unruly earthly deities in this land). See SNKBZ 1: 99. For an English translation, see Philippi 121. The 鬼 character is not used in Kojiki.
10. Kuroda Akira uses the “Swords chapter” attached to Taiheiki (Chronicle of Grand Paci-
fication, ca. fourteenth century) rather than to Heike monogatari. Their contents are very similar.
11. For the Japanese text, see Chikamatsu, “Kan hasshū tsunagi uma.” For an English
translation, see Chikamatsu, “Tethered Steed and the Eight Provinces of Kantō.”
12. For the Japanese text, see Kawatake, “Tsuchigumo.” For an English translation, see
Kawatake, “Tsuchigumo,” translated by Donald Richie.
13. For the Japanese text, see Ryūtei, Shiranui monogatari.
A Tale of an Earth Spider
85
14. It appears to be fairly common that a strange-looking priest or physician was blamed
for the demise of a nobleman. Prince Fushiminomiya Sadafusa writes in his diary Kanmon
nikki that on the seventh day of the second month of the twenty-fourth year of Ōei (1417), a strange-looking doctor visits Prince Haruhito (Fushiminomiya Haruhito). The prince had
seen him before and invited him into his room. The physician gave “good medicine” to the
prince and left. Four days later the prince suddenly died (Yokoi 142–43; Hanawa, Zoku gunsho
ruijū, 65).
15. The translation is mine, based on Aston’s translation of the poem. Helen McCullough
translates as “I know in advance / from the acts of this spider / like a tiny crab / tonight is
surely a night / when my beloved will come (McCullough, Kokin wakashū 248).
16. There are five types of plays categorized according to the role of the lead actor ( shite).
Sequentially, these categories are plays that focus respectively on gods, warriors, women, mad
people, and demons. The five categories of plays are presented in a single day’s program, that
is, plays about gods, then warriors, women, mad people, and finally demons. This categoriza-
tion was established in the seventeenth century.
17. Regarding the Seiwa Genji clan, see the section “Raikō as a Direct Descendant of the
Seiwa Genji clan” in chapter 1.
18. There is a lacuna in the original text.
19. Kitayama is the area located on the north side of the capital of Kyoto (present-day
Kitaku in Kyoto).
20. Rendaino is a famous ancient cemetery located at the western foot of Mt. Funa-
oka, northwest of the capital of Kyoto. It houses the crematorium mounds for Emperor
GoReizei (1025–68) and Emperor Konoe (1139–55). Rendaino generally means cemetery or
graveyard. In many places, Rendaino is also a place name.
21. There is a lacuna in the original text.
22. This is another name for Mt. Yoshida, located northeast of the capital of Kyoto
(present-day Sakyō-ku in Kyoto). Together with Mt. Funaoka, Kaguraoka was known as a
cemetery in ancient times.
23. A kujiri is a tool that looks like an awl and is used to undo a knot.
24. There is a lacuna in the original text.
25. There is a lacuna in the original text.
26. There is a lacuna in the original text.
27. Kuroda Akira assumes that this old woman is the antecedent of Tsuna’s foster
mother-oni in the oni episode of the “Swords chapter.” But I am inclined to connect this old
woman, who is 290 years old, to the 200-year-old washing woman Raikō and his group first
met at Mt. Ōe in Ōeyama ekotoba (Picture Scroll of Mt. Ōe, early fourteenth century). The
old woman says to Raikō, “This place is a demons’ den; no human comes,” just as the old
washing woman of Mt. Ōe describes Shuten Dōji’s den. See the translation of the Shuten
Dōji story in chapter 1.
28. According to Kuroda, the old woman’s speech up to this point is based on Bai Juyi’s
New Yuehfu, no. 7, “White-Haired in the Shangyang Palace: Pitying the Unloved” (Kuroda,
“Tsurugi no maki oboegaki” 321). For the original poem, see Takagi, Haku Kyoi 12: 41–47.
For an English translation, see Watson, Po Chü-i 25–27.
29. The Yuanhe era was between 806 and 820 CE, during the Tang Dynasty.
30. The three sentences from “To meet you here is . . . ” onward are based on “Song of
the Lute” by Bai Juyi (Kuroda, “Tsurugi no maki oboegaki” 321). For the original poem of
“Song of the Lute,” see Takagi, Haku Kyoi 13: 116–32. For an English translation, see Watson, Po Chü-i 77–82.
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Part I: Samurai
31. The three Buddhas (Sanzon) are Amida Buddha, Kannon Boddhisattva, and Seishi
Boddhisattva.
32. This sentence is based on Bai Juyi’s New Yuehfu, number 15, titled “The People of
Tao-chou.” For the original poem, see Takagi, Haku Kyoi 12: 79–82. For an English translation, see Waley 168–69.
33. There is a lacuna in the original text.
34. This phrase refers to the first line of poem number 524, “The ‘Rooster Man’ Cries
out at Dawn,” in Wakan rōeishū (Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, early eleventh century).
A rooster man is a type of night watchman who tells the time at court. For an English trans-
lation of the poem, see Rimer and Chaves 160. For the Japanese text, see SNKBZ 19: 278.
35. This phrase refers to the second line, “Ah! such the loyal minister paying court at
dawn,” of poem number 63, “The Cock Has Crowed,” in Wakan rōeishū. For an English
translation of the poem, see Rimer and Chaves 42. For the Japanese text, see SNKBZ 19: 50.
36. There is a lacuna in the original text.
37. Yang Guifei (719–56) was the favorite concubine of Chinese Emperor Xuanzong
(685–762) of the Tang Dynasty, and Lady Li (?–?) was the favorite concubine of Chinese
Emperor Wu (157–87 BCE) of the Han Dynasty. This sentence refers to Po Chu-i’s famous
poems titled “Lament Everlasting” and “The Lady Li.” For the original poems, see Takagi,
Haku Kyoi 13: 92–116 and 12: 165–70, respectively. For English translations of “Lament
Everlasting” and “The Lady Li,” see Levy 136–42.
38. There is a lacuna in the original text.
39. There are various versions of this story. The story told in volume 13 of Taiheiki is close to the episode in Tsuchigumo zōshi in that it includes an episode of the tip of the sword.
According to Taiheki, the king of So (Chu) ordered Kanshō (Gan Jiang), a famous swo
rd-
smith, to craft two swords. It took the swordsmith three years to produce a pair of swords,
which he named after himself, Kanshō, and Bakuya (Mo Ye). However, Kanshō presented
only one sword, Bakuya, to the king who had commissioned the sword(s). When the king
learned that two swords were manufactured but only one was given to him, he ordered
Kanshō’s death. Before his arrest, Kanshō hid his sword and asked his pregnant wife to
avenge his execution by the king through the child she carried if it were a boy. The baby was
a boy and was named Mikenjaku (lit. eyebrows a shaku [one foot] apart) because his eyebrows were noticeably far apart. Mikenjaku attempted to avenge his father’s death with the sword
Kanshō, but without success. After a number of failed attempts, Kanshō’s old friend offered
help to Mikenjaku. To avenge Kanshō’s death, the old friend told Mikenjaku to cut the tip
of the sword, hold it in his mouth, and then cut off his head. As the king stretched out his
head to see Mikenjaku’s head in the boiling water, Mikenjaku spat out the tip of the sword
in the direction of the king, severing the king’s head from his royal person. The king’s head
fell into the boiling water in the pot. See Yamashita 2: 288–97. For English translations of
the Mikenjaku story, see Ury, Tales of Times Now Past 67–69; Li, Ambiguous Bodies 57–58. For a discussion of the story, see Li, Ambiguous Bodies 56–65.
40. An eboshi is a ceremonial black-lacquered hat, a type of headgear worn by court nobles.
41. The effigy is used as a shield.
42. There is a lacuna in the original text.
43. The Hachiman deity/Bodhisattva is the patron god of the Minamoto clan.
43. The area corresponds to present-day northwestern Osaka to southeastern Hyōgo
prefecture.
44. The area corresponds to present-day Kyoto to eastern Hyōgo prefecture.
Part II
Scholars
3
The Il ustrated Story of Minister Kibi’s
Adventures in China ( Kibi daijin nittō emaki )
Japanese Consciousness of Foreign Powers and a Secret Code
in paRt 1 We saW an outstanding band of warriors, Raikō, Hōshō,
and Raikō’s shitennō, beat cannibalistic oni and a monstrous earth spider
that went against imperial authority. But an oni can be a helper of impe-
rial Japan, and so can a spider. In Kibi daijin nittō emaki (Illustrated Story of
Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China, end of the twelfth century), Minister
Kibi escapes from captivity in China with the help of an oni, a spider,
Japanese divinities, and his own magical skills. Kibi no Makibi (695–775)
is a historical figure, famous for his depth and breadth of scholarship and
administrative skills—he was one of only two scholars promoted to the
position of minister of the right (Miyata, Kibi no Makibi 3). Scholars and
priests take prominent roles in dealing with oni, especially before the rise of
the samurai in the late twelfth century.
While using a historical figure as its protagonist, the Illustrated Story
of Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China (hereafter Minister Kibi’s Adventures) is
clearly fictional, like the previous two stories, Shuten Dōji and Tsuchigumo
zōshi (Picture Scroll of an Earth Spider). Kibi’s erudition and talents had
given rise to various legends; by the beginning of the twelfth century he
was considered a great magico-religious figure—the ancestor of Japanese
Onmyōdō (the Way of yin-yang).1 When this larger-than-life scholar is
portrayed in Minister Kibi’s Adventures against a fictional hostile Chinese
court—a lone official envoy of small Japan against the powerhouse of
imperial China that wants to kill him—Kibi no Makibi becomes a symbol
of Japan. Minister Kibi’s Adventures reveals a myth of Japanese diplomacy as
well as augmenting the position of Kibi no Makibi as the Japanese ances-
tor of Onmyōdō.
DOI: 10.7330/9781607324904.c003
89
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Part II: Scholars
the illustRateD stORY OF MinisteR
kibi’s aDventuRes in china
Minister Kibi’s Adventures dates back to the end of the twelfth century. The
scroll was created at the proposal of Cloistered Emperor GoShirakawa
(1127–92, reigned 1155–58). The scroll was originally kept at Rengeō-in
Temple, built in the Cloistered Emperor’s residential compound called Hōjūji
Palace, alongside Ban dainagon ekotoba (Illustrated Story of the Courtier Ban
Dainagon, late twelfth century) and Hikohohodemi no Mikoto emaki (Illustrated
Story of the God Hikohohodemi, late twelfth century), both commissioned
by Cloistered Emperor GoShirakawa. Currently, the Museum of Fine Arts
(MFA) in Boston owns Minister Kibi’s Adventures.
Minister Kibi’s Adventures had led a checkered life until it landed in
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932. According to the entry on the twenty-sixth
day of the fourth month of 1441 in Kanmon nikki, Prince Fushiminomiya
Sadafusa’s (1372–1456) diary, Shin-Hachimangū Shrine of Matsunaga
Manor in Wakasa Province (present-day southwestern Fukui prefecture)
had this work, together with Ban dainagon ekotoba and Hikohohodemi no Mikoto
emaki. The owners changed several times between 1441 and 1732, when
the work is found in the possession of Kyoto merchant Miki Gondayū.
ownership changed a few more times after 1732, then an osaka antique
dealer, Toda Firm, made a successful bid to buy Minister Kibi’s Adventures on
June 14, 1923, at the price of 180,900 yen. No one in Japan was willing to
buy this treasure from the dealer for a long time, possibly because of the
aftermath of the Great Earthquake of Kanto in 1923. Finally, nine years
later in 1932, Tomita Kōjirō (1890–1976), the MFA’s curator of Oriental
art, purchased the scroll through the intermediary of the Yamanaka Trading
Company. Interestingly, the MFA’s purchase of the scroll led directly to the
strengthening of Japanese laws against exporting important cultural prop-
erties. When Minister Kibi’s Adventures was sold to the MFA, it was on one
scroll that measured 32.0 cm by 24.5 m. In 1964, however, the scroll was cut
into four parts and sent to Japan for repair and maintenance. The Japanese
specialists made the parts into the present form of four scrolls. As the year
coincided with the Tokyo olympics, in commemoration of the olympics
Minister Kibi’s Adventures was made public for the first time in Japan at the
Tokyo National Museum (see Komatsu Shigemi, Kibi daijin nittō emaki 3:
94–108, 166; Kanda 10–11; Kuroda, Kibi Daijin nittō emaki no nazo 38–52).
The scrolls went back to Japan for exhibit four more times, in 1983, 2000,
2010, and 2012–13.
Regarding the painter(s), Tokiwa Mitsunaga (late Heian period) or
someone close to him has long been considered the creater, but a recent
The Il ustrated Story of Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China
91
postulation is that a number of painters familiar with Tokiwa Mitsunaga’s
style did the work (Kanda 11; Bosuton Bijutsukan Nihon bijutsu no shihō 243).
The calligrapher is unknown.
PLOt summary Of the illustRateD stORY
OF MinisteR kibi’s aDventuRes in china
; Minister Kibi no Makibi arrives in China as a Japanese envoy to Tang. Upon
his arrival, however, he is taken by the Chinese court, which is jealous of
Kibi’s skills and intelligence, to a tower where prisoners frequently die over-
night. Earlier, Abe no Nakamaro (698–770), who was also sent to China
as a Japanese envoy to Tang, was starved to death in the same tower and
turned into an oni. The oni, that is, Abe no Nakamaro’s dead spirit, wants
to hear news about his descendants in Japan but cannot get any informa-
tion because whenever he approaches someone in the tower, the person
dies of fear upon seeing him (oni). Makibi, undaunted, tells the oni about
Nakamaro’s descendants. In return, the grateful oni informs Kibi no Makibi
about China. The following morning, Chinese officials are astonished to
see Kibi alive. They give Kibi no Makibi four challenges: (1) understand-
ing Monzen ( Wenxuan, Selections of Refined Literature),2 (2) learning go ( igo), a board game,3 (3) deciphering the poem “Yabatai” (see the section of
Komine, “Yabatai-shi” no mori, about “Yabatai”), and (4) living life without
food. After Kibi outsmarts all the challenges with the oni’s help, his own
skills, and the aid of Japanese divinities, he has the oni bring an old sugoroku
set (board, dice, and a tube) and Kibi hides the sun and the moon in the
tube. He threatens the Chinese court that unless it lets him return to Japan,
China will remain dark. The Chinese let Kibi return to Japan.
COnDitiOn Of the illustRateD stORY OF
MinisteR kibi’s aDventuRes in china
Minister Kibi’s Adventures lacks the opening written section and all the text
after the first two challenges, that is, Kibi’s understanding of Monzen and his
winning a go game. Fortunately, the rest of the story is known from “Kibi
nittō no kan no koto” (Kibi’s Adventures While in China) of Gōdanshō (The
Ōe Conversations, ca. 1104–8),4 the source of Minister Kibi’s Adventures.
Many illustrations after the second challenge are also missing, except for
such scenes as the Chinese scholars writing down the “Yabatai” poem,
an urgent discussion about the disappearance of the sun and the moon,
and the diviners arriving at the palace. These illustrations are, according to