is the portrayal of an oni—typically depicted with ox horns on its head and wearing a tiger-
skin loincloth. But apparently it was a directional theory originally imported from China. In
a Japanese indigenous belief, Mitani Eiichi writes, the direction northwest, inui, was more feared. For example, strong, cold northwest winds that blew along the Sea of Japan coast
from october through February every year were called tamakaze (spirit winds) and were
believed to be caused by evil spirits. While northwest was the direction from which spirits
came and went, simultaneously these harsh winds were thought to bring happiness and for-
tune. In short, the northwest direction was both good and bad, amphibolous (Mitani, Nihon
bungaku no minzokugakuteki kenkyū 63).
23. The scroll says “Kibi” instead of “minister,” but that doesn’t make sense. According
to Gōdanshō it is “minister,” so I followed Gōdanshō. Incidentally, historically this is not true.
Abe no Nakamaro entered China in 717 as a student.
24. According to Gōdanshō, it is the oni who knows the art of flying and takes Kibi to the palace. The question is that if Kibi knew how to fly or escape, as the scroll dictates, why did
the minister stay in the tower?
25. In those days, a man with higher status took the black stones.
26. Dhyana Master Bao Zhi (418–514), 250 years before Kibi no Makibi’s time.
4
A Tale of Lord Haseo ( Haseo zōshi )
Literati, Demons, and Creators of Human Life
in Kibi Daijin nittō emaKi (illusTraTEd sTory of Minister Kibi’s
Adventures in China) in chapter 3, the oni was a helper to the eminent
scholar-bureaucrat Minister Kibi. In fact, the oni himself was an eminent
scholar-bureaucrat before he became an oni. In the picture scroll Haseo zōshi
(A Tale of Lord Haseo, dated between the end of the thirteenth century
and the early fourteenth century), the oni is a gambler. Importantly, this
oni has an artistic sense in that he is a creator of the world’s most beauti-
ful woman. Since ancient times, there has been a fascination with the idea
of taking matter and creating a human being from it. The ability to create
a human in this way is often considered a divine power. Japanese deities
have been seen as possessing such power, too. In pre-modern Japan, when
a childless couple prayed to a certain god, a Buddha, or a Bodhisattva for a
child, their prayers were believed to be answered with the wife’s pregnancy,
resulting in the safe birth of a baby. oni and people with special access to
information from oni, meanwhile, were believed to possess the skills to cre-
ate humans out of bones or corpses or to resurrect them.
In the medieval picture scroll of Haseo zōshi (A Tale of Lord Haseo), an
oni challenges Ki no Haseo (845–912), a famous scholar-poet, to a game of
sugoroku (a board game played with dice). Haseo wins the game, and his prize
is a strikingly attractive woman the oni has fashioned from the best-looking
parts of various corpses. The tale recounts how the oni is later angered and
attacks Haseo, who is rescued by the sudden appearance of Kitano Tenjin
(Kitano Heavenly Deity, or the Deified Sugawara no Michizane [845–903])
(see Tokuda, “Sumiyoshi monogatari zakki” 392–93; Tokuda, “Kitano Shatō
no geinō”). A Tale of Lord Haseo is an early example of the genre otogizōshi
(literally, “companion tales”), short stories written from the fourteenth to
the seventeenth centuries intended for both entertainment and moral or
DOI: 10.7330/9781607324904.c004
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religious edification.1 While this chapter offers some insights into medieval
Japanese beliefs surrounding the relationship between scholars and oni, it
also asks questions regarding the structure and content of these stories. It
looks at the background and sources for A Tale of Lord Haseo and probes the
characterization of the literary scholar and his relationship to supernatural
beings as both muse and nemesis, as well as contemporary beliefs about oni,
or manmade human beings.
a taLe Of the LOrD haseO PiCture sCrOLL
This picture scroll, currently housed in Eiseibunko Museum in Tokyo, dates
back to the early fourteenth century.2 The scroll consists of five sections of
writing and illustrations, and it has been fairly well preserved. Unfortunately,
its illustrator and calligrapher are unknown. According to Komatsu Shigemi,
the calligrapher worked in the style of Sesonji, the most influential calligraphy
school among court aristocrats during the medieval period (Komatsu and
Murashige 90–98). one major feature of the illustrations is their large design
and close perspective; Murashige Yasushi writes that this is perhaps because
the storyline is fairly simple and does not require a large number of figures
and landscapes (Murashige 83–89). Another characteristic is the sensibility of
the character’s portrayal: Ki no Haseo’s facial expressions at key points in the
scroll are portrayed aptly but somewhat humorously.
Plot summary of a tale of lord haseo
The plot of the story is as follows : one day an oni disguises himself as a man
and approaches Ki no Haseo, who is known for his mastery of the game of
sugoroku, inviting him to a contest. Haseo agrees and goes to the oni’s abode,
a gate called Suzakumon. The oni proposes a wager: if Haseo loses, the oni
receives all of Haseo’s treasures. Conversely, if the oni loses, Haseo receives
a strikingly beautiful woman from the oni. The oni loses and as promised
brings a woman of ethereal beauty to Haseo. He warns Haseo, however,
that he cannot touch the woman for 100 days. Haseo acknowledges the
warning, but he cannot resist her. After 80 days he attempts to make love to
the woman. No sooner does he touch her than the woman melts into water.
Three months later, while Haseo is on his way to the palace, the angry oni
appears to Haseo and tries to attack him. Frightened, Haseo prays to Kitano
Tenjin for help, whereupon the voice of Tenjin comes from heaven and
drives the oni away. The woman made by the oni, it is explained, was created
from the best parts of various dead bodies, and it was not until 100 days had
passed that she was to be invested with a soul.
A Tale of Lord Haseo
113
the sCrOLL’s sOurCes anD PrOtOtyPes
The source for A Tale of Lord Haseo had long been a mystery, but recent
scholarly studies discovered that its prototype dates back to the Kamakura
period (1185–1333) or perhaps the late thirteenth century. Umezu Jirō first
found the Lord Haseo story in Zoku kyōkunshō (Precepts Continued), a
musical treatise compiled after 1270 by a court musician named Koma no
Tomokazu, or Asakatsu (1247–1331). A story similar to A Tale of Lord Haseo
is described in the flute section of this treatise (Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa 363;
Umezu, “Kaisetsu” 7).3
Kuroda Akira has observed that within the story of Zoku kyōkunshō is
an explanation of Haseo’s verse:
Niwa kesoku maseba seisa midori nari,
Hayashi yōki wo henzureba shukusetsu kurenai nari.
The garden takes added beauty, sand in c
lear sky shades green,
The woods are charged with vibrancy, leftover snow glows red.4
According to an oral instruction ( kuden) in the Zoku kyōkunshō, Haseo
compares Tenjin to the grasses and trees and compares himself to sand and
snow (Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa 363). The couplet transcribed above is Ki no
Haseo’s Chinese poem that appears in the Early Spring section of volume 1 of
the anthology Wakan rōeishū (Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing). Compiled
in 1018 by Fujiwara no Kintō (966–1041), Wakan rōeishū is a very influential
literary work that since the early twelfth century has spawned a number of
annotated editions, such as the Wakan rōeishū chūshakusho (Annotated Editions
of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing) (Itō and Kuroda 1: 7–8).
According to Kuroda Akira, a group of annotated editions called
Kenbunkei rōeishū kochūshakubon (observation Versions of old Annotated
Editions of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing; hereafter “observation
Versions”) all include Haseo’s story with an explanation of the poem above
(Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa 365). For example, Tenri toshokan wakan rōeishū ken-
bun (observation Version of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing from the
Tenri Library, sixteenth century; hereafter “the Tenri version”), a representa-
tive book of the observation Versions, contains a story very similar to A Tale
of Lord Haseo. After providing the story of Haseo, the Tenri version annota-
tor explains, “afterward, Haseo went to Kitano Shrine, joyfully composed
this poem and dedicated it to the Shrine. In this poem Haseo, therefore,
compared Tenjin to the grasses and trees and compared himself to sand and
snow” (Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa 365; also see Itō and Kuroda 2: 20–21). Kuroda
Akira thus located the earlier source of the Haseo story and concluded that
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Part II: Scholars
A Tale of Lord Haseo is sōshi-ka (a translation of a piece from Chinese charac-
ters to the Japanese syllabary), from the annotation of Haseo’s Chinese poem
in the observation Versions (Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa 369).
Among these versions, the oldest is Chion’in wakan rōeishū kenbun (obser-
vation Version of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing from Chion’in Temple,
1186), though this volume does not include Haseo’s story. Calculating from
the date of the Chion’in edition, Andō Tamiji considers that Haseo’s story
was established by the end of the twelfth century (Andō 27), but that date
cannot be confirmed. Rather, it would be safer to consider that the proto-
type was already written by the late thirteenth century, because the story is
quoted in the Zoku kyōkunshō. As mentioned, the picture scroll of A Tale of
Lord Haseo was produced in the early fourteenth century, which is not much
later than the genesis of its prototype. Apparently the prototype story of
Haseo caught the attention and curiosity of intellectuals and was thus used
again in later calligraphy and artwork.
Literati as main CharaCters
seeing an Oni: Literati and Gates
In ancient times, acquaintance with an oni or supernatural being was a privi-
lege of superior scholars. Ki no Haseo was an excellent sugoroku player, but he
was most renowned for his literary status. Common places for an encounter
with an oni were often gates, bridges, and crossroads; these locations were, in
folklore studies, where two realms were considered to meet. Suzakumon, the
oni’s residence in A Tale of Lord Haseo, was the most important of the twelve
gates that surrounded the wall of the Greater imperial Palace and a known
place for supernatural beings with artistic tastes to appear.5 Likewise, many
mysterious creatures were said to reside in the Rashōmon, the large gate
located at the southern end of Suzaku Great Avenue, which ran north-south
in the capital.6 While in the picture scroll and in some observation Versions
the oni lived in the Suzakumon, two observation Versions of the Haseo
story use Rashōmon as the backdrop (see Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa 359–73).7
A good example of an intellectual encountering an oni at the gate
is Miyako no Yoshika (834–79), a scholar-poet-bureaucrat who was also
a professor of literature at the university. According to the Wakan rōeishū
shichū (Private Annotations to Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, Tokyo
University edition, original text written in 1161), Yoshika was reciting the
first line of his Chinese couplet while passing by Rashōmon. An oni at this
gate heard Yoshika’s poem and was so impressed that he added the second
line to the poem (Itō and Miki 1: 355).8 The oni of the gate, a connoisseur
A Tale of Lord Haseo
115
of poetry, could not help but respond to Yoshika, who he considered a
very talented scholar-poet. The same story appears almost ninety years later
in the sixth story of volume 10 of Jikkinshō (Stories Selected to Illustrate
the Ten Maxims, compiled around 1252). Here, too, the oni lives in the
Rashōmon (Asami 394; Geddes 491–92). But according to the third story
of volume 8 of Senjūshō (Buddhist Tales of Renunciation, ca. 1250), which
is contemporaneous with Jikkinshō, the oni’s residence is the Suzakumon
(Nishio 316–17). Perhaps to the medieval Japanese, the Suzakumon and
Rashōmon were equally known as an oni’s residence; and the two may have
been used interchangeably in rumors, gossip, and tales.
Hirota Tetsumichi reports that a story very similar to A Tale of Haseo
appears in Hokekyō jurin shūyōshō (Commentary on Lotus Sutra, Collected
from Vulture Woods, 1512), written by Sonshun (1451–1514), a Buddhist
priest of the Tendai sect. In this story, however, the protagonist is Miyako
no Yoshika, not Ki no Haseo. Hirota believes Sonshun wrote the tale based
on a Haseo story prototype (Hirota 169).9 I propose that the names of
Yoshika and Haseo may have been mixed up in these two versions because
of certain similarities: both stories involve an oni at the gate, and their
poems are placed side by side in Wakan rōeishū (Haseo’s poem is placed
immediately after Yoshika’s couplet). Both Haseo and Yoshika are famous
scholars who have interacted with oni.
A story in Konjaku monogatarishū (Tales of Times Now Past, ca. 1120)
titled “Genjō to iu biwa, oni ni toraruru koto” (A Biwa Called Genjō Is
Stolen by an oni) also recounts a story of an artistic oni through the disap-
pearance of a prized biwa (Japanese lute) called Genjō from the imperial
palace.10 While the emperor deeply laments its loss, the enchanting mel-
ody of the Genjō is heard from the direction of Rashōmon. Minamoto
no Hiromasa (918–80), a noted aristocratic musician, thinks in amazement,
“That’s no human being playing the instrument, it can only be an oni or
some such being” (Ury, Tales of Times Now Past 147). He follows the tune
and discovers an oni at the Rashōmon playing the missing biwa. Komatsu
Kazuhiko calls these oni “fūryū no sainō no aru oni” (oni with a talent for
refined pursuits; Komatsu, “Biwa o meguru kaii no monogatari” 223), and
Michelle Li comments that these artistic oni are “a delightful and re
latively
gentle bunch: clownish figures who mimic aristocrats in some of their
interests. With their fine appreciation of poetry, music, and dance, these
creatures affirm aesthetic pursuits even while mocking them and hinting
at the ugly and monstrous side of the refined Heian elite” (Li, Ambiguous
Bodies 117).11 Whether at the Suzakumon or Rashōmon, these oni appreciate
music, poetry, and artwork. These artistic oni are usually harmless, and they
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Part II: Scholars
sometimes present themselves to like-minded worthy scholars or musicians
who understand their talent. The oni of A Tale of Lord Haseo belongs to
this group of oni. He is a great artist because he created the world’s most
beautiful woman out of the body parts of the dead.
Various late ancient and early medieval literary works comment on
Haseo’s behavior and character, mostly admiring his scholarly knowl-
edge and erudition. According to the first story of volume 24 of Konjaku
monogatarishū titled “Kitanohe Minister and Ki no Haseo,” Haseo is believed
to have seen a spirit ( ryōnin), wearing aristocratic headgear and garments,
reciting a Chinese poem on the Suzakumon on a moonlit night. The story
ends with the line “Long time ago, there were people who could see this
kind of miraculous happening, so I have heard” (mukashi no hito wa kakaru
kii no kotodomo wo miarawsu hitodomo namu arikeru to katari tsutaetaru
to ya, SNKBZ 37: 245–55). The spirit at the Suzakumon revealed himself
to Haseo possibly because he thought that as a scholar-poet, Haseo would
understand his poetry, and the oni of A Tale of Lord Haseo appears to Haseo
because he considers Haseo an excellent scholar and a worthy opponent in
the sugoroku game.
ki no haseo, a scholar-Poet-Bureaucrat
According to Hasedera genki (A Record of the Miracles of Hase Temple,
written in the early to mid-thirteenth century),12 Ki no Haseo was born as
a result of his father’s prayers for a child to Bodhisattva at Hase Temple,
hence the name Haseo (a boy from Hase) (Nagai, Hasedera genki 27). Haseo
was born the same year as Sugawara no Michizane, but Haseo began his
studies of literature in 876 at age thirty-three, much later than Michizane
Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan Page 18
