Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan

Noriko T. Reider, Noriko Reider

• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781607324898
• eBook ISBN: 9781607324904
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Folklore et mythologie

In Japanese culture, oni are ubiquitous supernatural creatures who play important roles in literature, lore, and folk belief. Characteristically ambiguous, they have been great and small, mischievous and dangerous, and ugly and beautiful over their long history. Here, author Noriko Reider presents seven oni stories from medieval Japan in full and translated for an English-speaking audience.
 
Reider, concordant with many scholars of Japanese cultural studies, argues that to study oni is to study humanity. These tales are from an era in which many new oni stories appeared for the purpose of both entertainment and moral/religious edification and for which oni were particularly important, as they were perceived to be living entities. They reflect not only the worldview of medieval Japan but also themes that inform twenty-first-century Japanese pop and vernacular culture, including literature, manga, film, and anime. With each translation, Reider includes an introductory essay exploring the historical and cultural importance of the characters and oni manifestations within this period.
 
Offering new insights into and interpretations of not only the stories therein but also the entire genre of Japanese ghost stories, Seven Demon Stories is a valuable companion to Reider's 2010 volume Japanese Demon Lore. It will be of significant value to folklore scholars as well as students of Japanese culture.

Part I

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Samurai

1
Drunken Demon (Shuten Dōji: Ōeyama ekotoba)

Imagining the Demon Conquerors

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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 cannibalize 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 command 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 supernatural in legends, their historical records are minimal. This chapter examines 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 evidence 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 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 version 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 incident, 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 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 missing. 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 miscommunication 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 after this spot, however, can also be supplemented by a different scroll that consists of four sections over nine pieces of paper. These sections, which are written text only, were perhaps copied in the mid-Muromachi period (MJMT 3: 122).

Regarding the calligrapher of the writing, some attribute it to Urabe Kenkō (or Yoshida Kenkō, 1283–1350), Keiun (?), or Nijō Tameyo (1250–1338), but there is no proof to back up this assertion. The painter is not known (Sakakibara, “Ōeyama ekotoba shōkai” 156).

Plot Summary of Ōeyama ekotoba

During the reign of Emperor Ichijō (986–1011), people begin to disappear mysteriously in and around Kyoto, the Heian capital of Japan. Abe no Seimei (921?–1005), a yin-yang master of the Heian Court, divines that it is the work of Shuten Dōji, the chieftain of the oni; Shuten Dōji and his cohorts abduct and devour people. The imperial court charges the two generals, Minamoto no Raikō (or Yorimitsu) and Fujiwara no Hōshō (or Yasumasa), to destroy Shuten Dōji and his evil minions.

Before Raikō and Hōshō set out on their quest with several loyal retainers, the troupe prays for success at four separate shrines. Their faith is rewarded, for while on their way to the oni’s lair on Mt. Ōe, the group encounters four deities d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Samurai
• Part II: Scholars
• Part III: Women
• Part IV: It
• Conclusion
• Japanese and Chinese Names and Terms
• Bibliography
• About the Author
• Index