Oni

A demon of the Japanese tradition, recorded from the Heian period forward in temple narrative, *setsuwa* tale-collection, and household custom. The figure was given horns, a third eye in some accounts, fanged mouth, and skin of red, blue, or black. Hearn records the *oni* repeatedly in his Meiji-period sketches, where the figure inhabits temple paintings, *Setsubun* household ritual at the turn of the year, and the older Buddhist hells. Davis (1912) traces the *oni* to the Sanskrit *yaksha* received through Buddhist transmission, then absorbed into local tradition until the figure became indistinguishable from native ghosts of the mountain and the road.

The Setsubun ritual at the start of spring requires the household to throw roasted soybeans at the door, calling oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi — out with the demons, in with fortune. The figure is not always evil in the surviving record. In several mountain traditions the oni guards the gate between the living and the dead and refuses passage to those who arrive without the rites observed.