Ushi-oni
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The ushi-oni (牛鬼, "ox ogre"?), or gyūki, is a creature which appears in the folklore of Japan. There are various kinds of ushi-oni, all of them some sort of monster with a horned, bovine head.
Perhaps the most famous ushi-oni appears as a protective symbol in the Ushi-oni-matsuri, which is held in late July in Uwajima of Ehime Prefecture. Something like the dragon dancers at a Chinese New Year celebration, this ushi-oni is represented with a huge, multiple-person costume with a cloth body and a carved, painted head held upon a pole. It has a sword for a tail, and is thought to drive away evil spirits.
Another well-known ushi-oni is a massive, brutal sea-monster which lives off the coast of Shimane Prefecture and other places in Western Japan and attacks fishermen. It is often depicted with a spider- or crab-like body. This ushi-oni seems to be connected to another monster called the nure-onna, who sometimes appears before an ushi-oni attack and tricks the victim into holding her child, which then becomes stuck to the person's hands and grows heavier in order to hinder escape.
Yet another ushi-oni is depicted as a statue on the grounds of the Negoroji temple in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. It is a bipedal monster with huge tusks, spurred wrists, and membranes like a flying squirrel. A sign nearby explains that this creature terrorized the area about four-hundred years ago, and was slain by a skilled archer by the name of Yamada Kurando Takakiyo (山田蔵人高清). He dedicated its horns to the temple, and they can still be seen to this day. [1]
Ushi-oni are also mentioned in Sei Shōnagon's tenth-century diary The Pillow Book, and in the Taiheiki of the fourteenth century.
[edit] Popular Culture
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game there are two cards featuring ushi-oni - "Ushi Oni" is a bull fiend with four octopus tentacles on its back, and "Abare Ushioni" is a bull monster.
In the anime Karas, a bloodthirsty Ushi-Oni becomes a mechanized 'Mikura' concealing itself in the form of a police chief.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Mizuki, Shigeru (2001). Mizuki Shigeru No Nihon Yōkai Meguri. Japan: JTB, pp. 135-136. ISBN 4533039561.
- Ehime Tourism Information: Sightseeing Routes
- Negoro-ji Ushi-oni Shashinshū
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