User:Pandalily89/Oni

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ONIare creatures seen in the yokai group, which translates as demons and ogres. A creature instills fear and danger from their grotesque outward appearance to their wild and strange behaviors and dangerous powers. Although Oni has been told as frightening creatures, they have become tamer in modern culture as people tell less scary stories.

Description

Standard features of an Oni consist of them having wild hair, sharp nails, and a large mouth with huge canine teeth. As well as being scantily clad, wearing a loincloth of fresh tiger skin.

However, they are not all the same in appearance or features as they could have:

• multiple horns, one horn or none
• be black, yellow, red, or blue
• male or female(because they are overcome by grief or jealousy which make them become Oni)
• multiple eyes or one eye
• tall, short, skinny or fat
• from a range of 2 fingers/toes to having extra fingers/toes

Dangerous Behavior/Powers

They carry tetsubo, an iron rod weapon, which they use to threaten or torture their victims .

They are said to haunt sinners, and when they die, they steal their souls.

They are told as a nightmare for children to obey because of their grotesque appearance, savage demeanor, as well as how they can eat people in a single gulp.

Oni bring calamities to the land, bringing about war, plague/illness, earthquakes, and eclipses. They have the destructive power of lightning and thunder, which terrifies people through their auditory and visual effects.

Oni has a massive appetite for human flesh and can eat a person in a single gulp. They are said to suck in a human's vital energy and devour her or his flesh. Oni is capable of transforming into both male and female forms at will, where they change from their grotesque form to a handsome man so that they can gain the trust of their victim.

Translations

In a BUDDHIST translation, they are Giants who live in caves.

In CHINESE, they translate as invisible soul/spirit of the dead who wish not to be seen.

Pacification/Expulsion

Buddhist incantations and spells can pacify them, or they could be expelled on Setsubun by throwing beans at home with an invocation("oni get out, luck come in"), preferably by a strong wrestler.

Stories

1. Momotaro, the Peach Boy, it is a well-known story about an elderly couple having the misfortune of never being able to conceive a child and have found a giant peach that had granted them the miracle of giving them a boy as their child. As the boy grows, he is made aware of an island of demons where the people are captured as slaves and a source of food where they take the people's money. Momotaro sets out to travel to the island with some cakes specially made for him, and while on his journey, he meets a dog, monkey, and a pheasant who partner up with him to defeat the demons on the island and once the demons have been taken out they plunder the treasures and return them to the rightful owners. Momotaro and his companions, after accomplishing their goal they all return to their respective homes. This story tells how demons are where they take from people, make them slaves, and eat people.
2. Oni Mask it is a story where a young girl goes off to work at a ladies' house to make money for her ailing mother. She talks to a mask of her mother's face once she is done with her work to comfort herself. One day, the curious coworkers see the mask and decide to prank her by putting on an oni mask to replace the mother's mask. Seeing the Oni mask, she takes it as a sign that her mother is worse and not getting better, so she leaves after alerting her boss. After trying to run to her mother's side, she is sidetracked by some men gambling with a lite campfire. The men catch her and ignore her pleas of letting her go for her mother and instead watch the fire so it does not go out during the game. While she is stoking the fire, she decides to put on the Oni mask not to burn herself from the flames. At that moment, the men see only a brightly lit Oni from the red glowing flames and terrified run away without gathering her money. The girl, after having made sure the fire would not go out she looks in the direction of the men and gathers their money, and waits for them to return the money, but as time grows, she remembers she was going to see her mother and runs to her mother. While she is at home, she sees her mother is healthier than before. Because of the money the gamblers left behind, she has enough to take care of without going back to work at the ladies' house.
3. Red Oni Who Cried, a story of two oni, one red the other blue. The red one wants to befriend humankind, but they are afraid of them, making the red oni cry. Knowing what the red oni wants, the blue oni devises a plan to make himself the villain by attacking the houses of the humans where the red oni would have to save the humans from the blue oni, making the red oni a hero to the humans' eyes. After the humans see the red oni protect them from the blue oni, they determine that the red one is a good oni whom they would like to be friends with, which is what the red one wanted. Seeing this exchange, the blue oni decides to leave as to not cause any misunderstanding with the humans and when the red oni decides to go home to his friend the blue oni, he notices that the blue oni is gone and realizes what the blue oni has done for him and cries from being touched by the blue onis thoughtfulness and wonderful friendship.

References

“The Book of yōkai : Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore : Foster, Michael Dylan, 1965- Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Berkeley : University of California Press, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/isbn_9780520271029.

Chiba, Kotaro. Tales of Japan: Traditional Stories of Monsters and Magic. Chronicle Books, 2019.

Fujita, Hiroko, et al. Folktales from the Japanese Countryside. Libraries Unlimited, 2008.

“Japanese Demon Lore : Oni, from Ancient Times to the Present : Reider, Noriko T : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Logan, Utah : Utah State University Press, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/JapaneseDemonLore/page/n3/mode/2up.

“Oni.” Handbook of Japanese Mythology, by Michael Ashkenazi, ABC-CLIO, 2003, pp. 230–233.

Reider, Noriko T. Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan. Utah State University Press, 2016.

Roberts, Jeremy. Japanese Mythology A to Z. Chelsea House Publishers, 2010.