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After the demon passed out, the warriors cut off his head, killed the other oni, and freed the prisoners. The oni greeted them with a banquet of human flesh and blood, and the disguised warriors offered Shuten-dōji drugged saké. In a legend from the medieval period, warriors Minamoto no Raikō and Fujiwara no Hōshō infiltrated Shuten-dōji’s lair disguised as yamabushi (mountain priests) to free some kidnapped women. There’s no need to fear this demon, though.

Shuten-dōjiĬonsidered one of the most distinctive oni in Japanese folklore, Shuten-dōji is described as more than 50 feet tall with a red body, five-horned head, and 15 eyes.

She feeds on human essence, and her killing method of choice is to blow on her victims to freeze them to death and then suck out their souls through their mouths. Her name is a portmanteau of the Japanese yuki (meaning “snow”) and onna for woman, and she is also known as the “Snow Woman.” She is usually described as having white skin, a white kimono, and long black hair, and appears during snowfall and glides without feet over the snow like a ghost. There are many variations of this popular tale. She then breathed fire onto the bell, melting it and killing Anchin. Not to be evaded, Kiyohime found him by his scent, coiled around the bell, and banged loudly on it with her tail. Terrified by her monstrous form, Anchin sought refuge in a temple, where monks hid him beneath a bell. Realizing he had left her, Kiyohime followed him to a river and transformed into a serpent while swimming after his boat. Kiyohime was a young woman scorned by her lover, a monk named Anchin, who grew cold and lost interest in her. Here are just a few more tales from Japanese folklore of demons, ghosts, and other spirits you don’t want to mess with. Much of this list is comprised of hannya, which in Noh theater are women whose rage and jealousy turned them into oni while still alive. Oni (demons) and yūrei (ghosts) have played a role in Japanese culture for thousands of years, and stories of new spirits continue to be told today.

Monster legends hands of destruction facebook