A statue of an Oni wielding a tetsubo.

Oni (鬼, Oni^?) are creatures from Japanese folklore, similar to Western demons or ogres. They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature, and theatre. oni This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The tetsubo (鉄棒, iron staff) is an iron staff used in feudal Japan as a weapon. ... Japanese mythology is an extremely complex religion and system of beliefs. ... St. ... The Ogre from Tom Thumb illustrated by Gustave Doré An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a large and hideous humanoid monster. ... Bronze statue of Amida Buddha at Kotokuin in Kamakura (1252 CE) Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper, and a myriad of other types of works of art. ... Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Appearance

Depictions of oni vary widely but usually portray them as hideous, gigantic creatures with sharp claws, wild hair, and two long horns growing from their heads. They are humanoid for the most part, but occasionally, they are shown with unnatural features such as odd numbers of eyes or extra fingers and toes. Their skin may be any number of colors, but red, blue, black, pink, and green are particularly common. Their fierce appearance is only enhanced by the tiger skins they tend to wear and the iron clubs they favor, called kanabō (金棒, kanabō^?). This image leads to the expression "oni with an iron club" (鬼に金棒, "oni with an iron club"^?), that is, to be invincible or undefeatable. It can also be used in the sense of "strong beyond strong", or having one's natural quality enhanced or supplemented by the use of some tool. Highland cow, a very old long-horned breed from Scotland. ... The term humanoid refers to any being whose body structure resembles that of a human. ... Binomial name Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four big cats in the panthera genus. ...

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Oni

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Origins and behavior

In the earliest legends, oni were benevolent creatures said to be able to ward off evil and malevolent spirits and to punish evil-doers. Japanese Buddhism incorporated these beliefs by at least the 13th century, calling the creatures aka-oni ("red oni") and ao-oni ("blue oni") and making them the guardians of hell or the torturers of the wicked there. They also came to be recognized as Shinto spirits (or kami). Evil is a term describing that which is regarded as morally bad, intrinsically corrupt, wantonly destructive, inhumane, or wicked. ... The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. ... Japanese Buddhist priest c. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is a place or a state of pain and suffering. ... Torture is any act by which severe discomfort, whether physical pain or psychological pressure, is intentionally inflicted on a person as a means of intimidation, a deterrent, revenge, a punishment, or as a method for the extraction of information or confessions (i. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Amaterasu, one of the central kami in the Shinto faith Look up Kami in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Over time, the oni's strong association with evil colored the perception of the creatures themselves, and they came to be seen as harbingers or agents of calamity. Folk tales and theater began to depict them as dumb, sadistic brutes, content only to destroy. Foreigners and barbarians were said to be oni. Today, they are variously described as the spirits of the dead, of the earth, of the ancestors, of the vengeful, of pestilence, or of anger. No matter what their essence, oni are today seen as something to avoid and to ward off. One folk belief today is that oni cause thunder and lightning and to steal children's belly buttons. This is a common story told to get children to wear warm clothing in the rain. // The word barbarian generally refers to an uncivilized, uncultured person, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos perceived as having an inferior level of civilization, or in an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, insensitive person of behavior inacceptable in a civilized society. ... Death is the cessation of life. ... Earth (often referred to as The Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth in order of size. ... An ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i. ... Revenge is retaliation against a person or group in response to wrongdoing. ... A pestilence is an epidemic or even a pandemic of a virulent and highly contagious disease. ... It has been suggested that Irrational anger be merged into this article or section. ...

Since the 10th century, oni have been strongly associated with the northeast (kimon), particularly in yin yang tradition. Temples are often built facing that direction, and Japanese buildings sometimes have L-shaped indentions 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. As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... Taoists Taijitu The concept of Yin Yang originates in ancient Chinese philosophy, most likely from the observations of day turning into night and night into day. ... The Angkor Wat Hindu temple in Cambodia is the largest in the world. ... Enryakuji (延暦寺), a monastery on Mount Hiei (比叡山) overlooking Kyoto, was founded during the late eighth and early ninth centuries by Saicho (最澄: 767-822 AD), also known as Dengyo Daishi (傳教大師), who introduced the Tendai (天台; Chinese tian1 tai2) sect to Japan from China. ... Mount Hiei (Jp. ... Kyoto Hall Mayor Yorikane Masumoto Address 〒604-8571 Kyoto-shi, Nakagyo-ku, Teramachi-Oike, 488 Phone number 075-222-3111 Official website: Kyoto City This page is about the city Kyoto. ... Edo Castle (江戸城 -jō) was built in 1457 by ÅŒta Dōkan in what is now the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, but was then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Kyoto Hall Mayor Yorikane Masumoto Address 〒604-8571 Kyoto-shi, Nakagyo-ku, Teramachi-Oike, 488 Phone number 075-222-3111 Official website: Kyoto City This page is about the city Kyoto. ... (7th century — 8th century — 9th century — other centuries) Events The Iberian peninsula is taken by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost 8 centuries of Muslim presence there. ...

Some villages hold yearly ceremonies to drive away oni, particularly at the beginning of Spring. During the Setsubun festival, people throw soybeans outside their homes and shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Demons out! Luck in!"). Monkey statues are also thought to guard against oni, since the Japanese word for monkey, saru, is a homonym for the word for "leaving". Spring is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ... Setsubun, Tokuan shrine In Japan, Setsubun (節分) is the day before the beginning of each season. ... Binomial name Glycine max (L.) Merr. ... Cynomolgus Monkey at Batu Caves, Malaysia Monkeys, Mori Sosen (1749-1821) A monkey is any member of two of the three groupings of simian primates. ... A homonym is one of a group of two or more words that have the same phonetic form (i. ...

Some vestiges of the oni's once benevolent nature still remain, however. Men in oni costumes often lead Japanese parades to ward off any bad luck, for example. Japanese buildings sometimes include oni-faced roof tiles, which are thought to ward away bad luck, much as gargoyles in Western tradition. In Japanese versions of the game tag, the player who is "it" is instead called the "oni". United States Marines on parade. ... This article is about good and bad fortune. ... A gargoyle adorning Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. ... TAG may stand for: Tag, German for day Techniques dAvant Garde, an investment company that sponsored WilliamsF1 in the early 1980s and funded the construction of turbocharged Porsche engines to Team McLaren in the mid 1980s. ...

Popular culture

• The most well known occurrence of oni in popular culture is Lum and her family from the anime and manga series Urusei Yatsura.
• In the Dragonball Z series of anime and manga, when the main character, Goku, accidentally falls into Hell, he meets up with the aka-oni and the ao-oni. The characters also affix "oni" to the end of each of their sentences.
• In the popular videogame Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the characters Moloch and Drahmin are oni from the Netherealm.
• In the popular Capcom based franchise: Onimusha, Oni was depicted as the divine races from the mystic realm, that hold up their seem aged, prolonged war against their evil nemesis- The Genma/Demon Race, whom plot to anihilate the mortal realm with their destructive power.
• There is a character named Oni in the anime and manga series Naruto.
• In the first season of the anime series Slayers, Lina's enemies often use 'trolls' that greatly resemble oni to attack her.
• In "The Weeping Demon" segment of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, the central character encounters a person that resembles a traditional oni.
• In the live-action Tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Hibiki , the "Riders" are always reffered to as "Oni" and have suits with horns and Oni-like appearances to them.
• When Link puts on the Fierce Deity's Mask in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, he becomes Oni Link.