Otakemaru : The Great Mountain Peak

 

 

 Otakemaru

Also called 

The great mountain peak”


Otakemaru is a kijin— an oni so powerful and so violent that he is considered both demon (ki) and god (jin).

He lived in the Suzuka Mountains on the border of Ise and Omi Provinces during the reign of Emperor Kanmu (781 to 806).

Although his legend is not so well-known today, he was once considered among the most fearsome yokai in Japanese history.

Along with Shuten doji and Tamamo no Mae, he is often considered one of the Nihon san dai aku yokai, or Great Three Evil Yokai of Japan.  (Some versions of this ranking replace Otakemaru with Sutoku Tenno.)


Because of the time period and locations in which his story takes place, and the fact that his chief enemy was the shogun Sakanoue no Tamuramaro,  it is thought that Otakemaru may be a folkloric interpretation of Aterui, a chieftain of the Emishi people of northeastern Japan who waged a devastating campaign against the Yamato Japanese.

His legend also serves as the basis of Aomori Prefecture’s famous Nebuta Matsuri, in which large floats depicting warriors defeating oni are parading through the streets.

.....'.'.......

Long ago an oni named Otakemaru terrorized travelers in the Suzuka Mountains and stole tributes intended for the emperor in Kyoto.
 

The emperor commanded his shogun, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, to exterminate the demon.

Tamuramaro raised an army of 30,000 horsemen and entered the Suzuka Mountains.

However, Otakemaru was powerful, and using his black magic  he summoned a great storm. He covered the mountains in black clouds, making it impossible to see. Rains and winds battered the army.
Lightning crashed and fire rained down from the sky onto the army. For seven long years Tamuramaro and his men roamed the mountains in  search of Otakemaru, but could not catch him.

The Suzuka Mountains were home to a tennyo—a beautiful goddess named Suzuka Gozen.

When Otakemaru saw her, he was enchanted by her beauty and became determined to spend a night in her company.

He transformed himself into a beautiful young man, a noble of the court, and other disguises, and night after night traveled to Suzuka Gozen’s  palace. 

 But every time, his solicitations were denied by the goddess.

Frustrated by his inability to find the Otakemaru’s whereabouts, Tamuramaro prayed to the gods and the buddhas to help him. That night, as  he dozed off, he had a vision of an old man. “To defeat Otakemaru you must gain the help of Suzuka Gozen,” the old man told him. Tamuramaro  sent his army of 30,000 horsemen back to Kyoto and climbed the Suzuka Mountains by himself. Deep in the mountains, he came upon a palace in  which lived a beautiful woman. She invited him inside, and he spent the night with her. The woman told Tamuramaro, “I came down from heaven to help you defeat the demon who haunts these mountains. I will capture him for you.” Tamuramaro realized that this beautiful woman must be Suzuka Gozen.

Suzuka Gozen led Tamuramaro through the mountains to show him the Otakemaru’s demon castle.

She instructed him that Otakemaru could be defeated while he possesses the Sanmyo no ken (Kenmyoren, Daitoren, and Shotoren: three holy swords of  great power). Then they traveled back to her palace, where she laid her trap for the oni.

The night, Otakemaru came to her again, disguised as usual as handsome young man to ask for her love. Suzuka Gozen invited him inside, and said to him ..A warrior named Tamuramaro is coming here to kill me. Please, lend me the Sanmyo no ken so that I may defend myself.”
 

The oni gave her Daitoren, and Shotoren to defend herself with, but kept Kenmyoren for himself.

The following night Otakemaru came once again to Suzuka Gozen’s palace. 

 

Tamuramaro was waiting for him there. Otakemaru revealed his true form to the  shogun, transforming into a massive demon who stood over 10 meters tall, with eyes that shined like the sun and the moon. A terrible combat ensued. 

Heaven and earth shook with the fury of their battle. Otakemaru attacked Tamuramaro with sword and spear, but the shogun was a holy warrior,  protected by the thousand-armed Kannon, bodhisattva of mercy, and Bishamonten, god of war. Otakemaru split his body into thousands of oni, who  charged at Tamuramaro. Tamuramaro took from his quiver a single holy arrow and fire it, The arrow split into one thousand arrows which in turn  split into ten thousand more and impaled the oni in their faces, killing them. Just then, Otakemaru made a ferocious lunge at Tamuramaro. But the shogun was faster, and he swung his blade Sohaya at the oni’s head, lopping it off.

Tamuramaro brought the oni’s head back to Kyoto for the emperor to inspect. 

The emperor was so pleased with the shogun that he granted him Iga

Province as a reward. Tamuramaro returned to Iga, married Suzuka Gozen, and the two of them lived happily together for many years.

Otakemaru’s reign of terror, however, was not over. His spirit traveled to India for a time, and eventually returned to Japan and haunted Kenmyoren. 

 
He was able to reform his body and once again became a kijin. He rebuilt his impregnable demon castle on Mount Iwate in Mutsu Province and once again he began to terrorize Japan.

Tamuramaro and Suzuka Gozen traveled to Mutsu to meet their nemesis one more time and defeat him once and for all. While Otakemaru was away from his castle, Tamuramaro snuck in through a secret back door that Suzuka Gozen had revealed to him in Otakemaru’s first demon castle. When Otakemaru  returned, Tamuramaro was waiting for him. They did battle, and once again Tamuramaro cut Otakemaru’s head clean off. 

The oni’s head flew up into the air and landed upon Tamuramaro’s head and bit down hard. Fortunately, Tamuramaro was wearing two helmets. Though the demon head bit off and swallowed the first one, Tamuramaro was able to escape injury. 

Otakemaru’s head was once more taken back to Kyoto, where it was locked safely away in the treasury
of Byodoin.

Aoandon, blue flame spirit

 🦇🎃Happy 👻Halloween🎃🦇

                     Happy Halloween 🎃

              time for  ghost story,👻👻👻

Halloween is the best time of year for a good ghost story, Enjoy.👻

Aoandon (青行燈, Aoandon) is a creature illustrated by Toriyama Sekien in his Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. It was meant to represent the spirit that appeared during Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai meetings, after the last story was told...

Long ago during the Edo period, a popular summertime activity among the aristocratic classes was to gather and tell ghost stories, (ghost stories in the summer are still a popular pass time in Japan today)    hoping the chill of fear would stave off the intense midsummer heat. These ghost story telling parties were called hyakumonogatari kaidankai – a gathering of one hundred ghost stories. 

During these gatherings, one hundred candles would be lit and placed inside of blue paper lanterns, called andon, in order to create an eerie atmosphere suitable for storytelling.

 Throughout the night, guests would take turns telling progressively scarier stories about yokai, demons, ghosts, and other strange things. After each story, one candle would be snuffed out, until finally only the hundredth candle remained, its dim blue light casting long, creepy shadows, struggling to fill the dark room.

According to superstition, as the final candle was snuffed, a real ghost would appear out of the darkness to attack the participants, created out of the heightened emotional state and fears of guests. This ghost was called the ao andon.

The ao andon is the incarnation of mass human terror, formed out of the built-up fears of large groups of people. This fear takes the appearance of a demonic woman with long black hair, blue skin, blackened teeth, sharp claws, and horns. It wears a white or blue kimono, and glows with an eerie blue light.

The ao andon appears at the end of the gathering, when all of the lanterns have been snuffed out. It emerges from the smoke of the final candle and attacks the guests. What exactly it does is a mystery; whether it slaughters all of the participants in a brutal finale inspired by the preceding tales, or simply jumps out to give one last shock before the guests return home has never been recorded. 

 

The reason for this is that by the time the ninety-ninth ghost story had been told, the guests were usually too frightened to tell the final story, and the parties usually concluded at that point, before the ao andon could appear.

As the old proverb says (in both English and Japanese): speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear. It was feared that merely talking about ghosts and spirits for long enough would cause them to materialize for real.

 

Hopefully you all enjoyed this month of monster's as much as I did, have a great 

🦇🎃🦇Halloween 🎃🦇🎃

 and the rest of 2023.

🦉M.

Namahage the new years oni..

 

 

                                         

                                                              Namahage




生剝
なまはげ
Namahage


Japan is full of fascinating legends and folklore, yokai, oni, fox spirit's and so much more.



Today's post is about a norther mountain dwelling creature called  Namahage.

While the name namahage is unique to Akita Prefecture, very similar yōkai are known by many different local names in neighboring regions: in Yamagata Prefecture they are known as amahage, in Ishikawa Prefecture they are known as amamehagi, and in Fukui Prefecture they are known as appossha. What they are called just depending on the region the story is being told,


                                             
They are  Oni like yōkai that  live in the mountains along the northern coast of the Sea of Japan.


They look like oni, with bright red or blue skin, wild hair and eyes, large mouths full of sharp teeth, and usually have horns coming from their forehead.


They wear straw leggings and raincoats, and carry large blades.

             


Once a year, during koshōgatsu the first full moon of the New Year the namahage come down from the mountains to scare villagers.
                               
They go from door to door and brandishing their knives, saying things like, “Any bad kids here?”

They particularly enjoy scaring young children and new brides.

Despite their frightful appearance and behavior, they are actually well-meaning yōkai.

They are sent down from the mountain as messengers of the gods to warn and chastise those who have been lazy or wicked.



The name namahage comes from another taunt the namahage use: “Have your blisters peeled yet?” In the cold winter months, a lazy person who spent all of his or her time in front of the fireplace would get blisters from being too close to the heat for too long.

Namomi is a regional name for these heat blisters, and hagu means to peel.



The combination of those words became namahage.



Today, the namahage play a major part in New Year’s festivities in Akita Prefecture (old Dewa Province).

Villagers dress up in straw raincoats and leggings, wear  oni masks, and wield large knives. They go from house to house and play the part of namahage.
     

Residents visited by these namahage give presents such as mochi to their “guests,” while the namahage chastise kids and warn them to be good. Newlywed couples
 are also harassed by these namahage.

They are expected to give an account of all of the evil deeds they did during their first year together, as well as serve sake and food to the namahage before  sending them off.

Japanese Myth's: The Oni 👹

 

                                                   👹   Today's post is all about Oni  👹

 

 

 Oni's

Oni are considered very large, strong and violent  beings, By modern standards Bigfoot Ogres and other giants could be classified as a type of Oni..
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Oni origins.

Oni are believed to be born when evil humans die and end up in one of the many Buddhist Hells, there they are transformed into Oni.

They become the ogreish and brutal servants of Great Lord Enma, the ruler of Hell, wielding iron clubs with which they crush and destroy humans solely  for enjoyment. An oni’s job is to mete out horrible punishments such as peeling off skin, crushing bones, and every other torture imaginable to those who
 were evil (but not quite wicked enough to be reborn as demons themselves). 

Hell is full of oni, and they make up the armies of the great generals of the underworld.

Occasionally, when a human is so utterly irredeemable and down right evil with a soul that is beyond any redemption, he transforms into an oni during life, and remains on Earth to terrorize the living.

These transformed oni are the ones most legends tell about, and the ones who pose the most danger to human's.

 These oni are the stuff of nightmares the source legends and fairy tails ind the inspiration for countless stories threw out   Japan.
 

No two stories about oni are exactly alike except for one thing: oni are always the enemy of mankind.(Except in some Manga and Anime)

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Some villages hold yearly ceremonies to drive away oni, mostly at the beginning of Spring. During the Setsubun festival, people throw soybeans outside their homes and shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" Oni go out! Blessings come in!"). Monkey statues are also thought to guard against oni, since the Japanese word for monkey, saru, is a homophone for the word for "leaving". Folklore has it that holly can be used to guard  against Oni. 

 

 

In Japanese versions of the game tag, the player who is "it" is instead called the "oni".

In more recent times, oni have lost some of their original wickedness and sometimes take on a more protective function. Men in oni costumes often lead Japanese parades to ward off any bad luck, for example. Japanese buildings sometimes include oni-faced roof tiles called onigawara, which are  thought to ward away bad luck, much like gargoyles in Western tradition.

Oni are prominently featured in the Japanese children's story Momotaro..the little Peach Boy(see previous post)

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The word "oni" is sometimes believed to be derived from (on), the on'yomi reading of a character  meaning to hide or conceal, as oni were originally invisible spirits or gods which caused disasters, disease, and other terrible things. 

These nefarious beings could also take on a variety of forms to deceive (and often devour) humans.

The Chinese character (pinyin: gui; Jyutping: gwai) meaning "ghost" came to be used to describe these formless creatures.

The invisible oni eventually became anthropomorphized and took on its modern, ogre-like form, partly via synchronicity  with creatures imported by Buddhism, such as the Indian rakshasa(a large shapeshifting bigfoot like creature) and yaksha, as well as the hungry ghosts called gaki, and the devilish underlings  of Enma-O who punish sinners in Jigoku (Hell).

They also share a few similarities with the Arabian Jinn.

Another source for the oni's image is a concept from China and Onmyodo.

The northeast direction was once termed the kimon (demon gate), and was considered an unlucky direction through which evil spirits passed. Based on  the assignment of the twelve zodiac animals to the cardinal directions, the kimon was also known as the ushitora , or "Ox Tiger" direction,
and the oni's bovine horns and cat-like fangs, claws, and tiger-skin loincloth developed as a visual depiction of this term.


Temples are often built facing that direction, and Japanese buildings sometimes have L-shaped indention's at the northeast to ward oni away.
 

 

 Enryakuji, on Mount Hiei northeast of the center of Kyoto, and Kaneiji, in that direction from Edo Castle, are examples. The Japanese capital itself moved northeast from Nagaoka to Kyoto in the 8th century.

There is also a well known game in Japan called kakure oni, which means "hidden oni", or more commonly kakurenbo, which is the same as  the hide-and-seek game that children in western countries play.


[[[[[[[[[[[
Other media
Anime, Manga etc.
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                             liru the werewolf  was dressed as an oni in the series during one episode......

                                            Peach Boy Riverfront anime and manga.

                                                                    Yozakura quartet

                                                 Dagashi Kashi Manga Chapter 172

  

                      

                        Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken/ That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

                                                         Yuna and the Haunted hot Springs

                                                  Fate Series ....shuten douji and Ibaraki Douji

                                                   

                                                        Monster Girls Red, Blue and Gren Oni

                                                     Peter Grill and the Philosophers Time 

                                                     

                                                Princes Connect Re-Dive ...Eriko

 

 

                                             Onizuka-chan and Sawarida-kun.. manga series.

                 Kemono Jihen, The manga features a few oni in a "food processing factory"..

Urusei Yatsura, the female lead, Lum Invader, is an oni alien depicted wearing a tiger-skin bikini and the entire alien race to which she belongs is fashioned after the classical concept of oni.

Ao no Fuuin uses oni as a main theme when the female protagonist is a descendant of a beautiful oni queen who wants to resurrect her kind.

In Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, an Oni called King Yemma runs the Check-In Station in Other World, where he decides which souls go to Heaven and which to Hell.

 

Hellboy: Sword of Storms, Hellboy fought a giant Oni. Before the final blow can be struck with the Sword of Storms, the Oni fades away so  that Hellboy can break the Sword of Storms on the statue releasing the brothers Thunder and Lightning.

Yo-Kai Watch, many of the creatures found are based on oni. Oni themselves appear as a class of boss enemies. They are distinct between each other, but all have horns. Some also have either claws, horns, or both.

Japanese Legends: Ibaraki doji ...Oni Woman..

 

 

 

 

Art link https://www.wallpaperflare.com/ibaraki-douji-fate-grand-order-fate-series-women-blonde-wallpaper-zblow

 

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 Ibaraki Doji is also know as the “thorn tree child”

She  is one of the most well known as well as one of the most feared demons in Japanese folklore.

She was the chief deputy to Shuten doji, the Oni King. Not very much is known about Ibaraki doji’s
life; Most stories depict Ibaraki doji as a kijo, or a female oni; yet there are other stories which refer to Shuten doji’s  deputy as a male so its really anybodys gyuess at this point(Im going to go with the female version of the story). 

Ibaraki doji was a cruel and   terrifying monster, bent of wreaking as much havoc in the human world as she could.
 

Some visions claim she was not only Shuten Dojis second in command but also his lover


Ibaraki doji’s most famous story takes place at Rashomon, the southern gate of old Kyotos city walls. Rashomon was built in 789, but after  the Heian period it fell into serious disrepair and became known as an unsavory place. It was overgrown and unkempt. Thieves and bandits hung out near it.

 It even served as a dumping point for unwanted babies, and a spot to dispose of murder victims. But the scariest part of its haunted reputation was the
 

                                                         Rashomon Gate replica

 

legend of Rashomon no oni — the demon of Rashomon.

 

After his celebrated victory over Shuten doji, the hero Minamoto no Yorimitsu returned triumphant to Kyoto. He was celebrating at his home with his  deputies — Sakata no Kintoki, Urabe no Suetake, Usui Sadamitsu, and Watanabe no Tsuna — when Fujiwara no Yasumasa, a noble, informed them that an oni was seen haunting Rashomon gate. Watanabe no Tsuna, having just returned from a great battle with Shuten doji’s clan, could not believe that there were any oni left, and single-handedly went out to investigate. He mounted his horse and went south.

                                           Watanabe Tsuna fighting the demon  at the Rashomon

When Tsuna arrived at the gate, a great howling wind broke out and his horse could travel no further. He dismounted and went on foot. Approaching the gate in the fierce gale, he noticed an enormous hand suddenly reach out of the dark to grab his helmet. Tsuna wasted no time, and swung his great katana around, severing the arm of an enormous demon: it was Ibaraki doji, coming to avenge the murder of Shuten doji. 

The injured demon ran away, leaving her arm behind, and Rashomon was no longer haunted.

Ibaraki doji later returned to Rashomon, looking for her arm. 

She disguised herself as Watanabe no Tsuna’s wetnurse, and was able to steal back her severed arm and escape, After that, her whereabouts were unknown. though for many years after, occasionally in some town or another, villagers would claim that they had seen Ibaraki doji from time to time

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Rashomon Gate was destroyed in the mid 1900's 

 

There is now a monument in its place too commemorate it...

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More Oni post's coming soon