Mystery Timeline｜794–1184
The age of oni, vengeful spirits and onmyoji: Shuten-doji, the nine-tailed fox, the vengeful ghosts of Sugawara no Michizane and Taira no Masakado, and other mysteries of the Heian capital.
A village that once existed in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, with a legend that the corpse of an oni was buried there. It is said to be where an oni killed by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was buried. Its name disappeared in a Meiji-era merger, but the legendary "oni stone" still remains.
The legend of the vengeful spirit of Taira no Masakado, who rebelled in the Kanto region in the Heian period and was killed. His head, displayed in Kyoto, is said to have flown east in search of its body, and the Masakado head mound in Otemachi, Tokyo, is still carefully tended.
The legend that Sugawara no Michizane, who died in exile at Dazaifu on false charges, became a vengeful spirit and brought disasters on the capital, such as the Seiryoden lightning strike. He was later worshipped as Tenjin, the god of learning.
An oni said to be the chief follower of Shuten-doji, chief of the oni of Mount Oe. It is known for the legend in which Watanabe no Tsuna, one of Minamoto no Raiko's Four Heavenly Kings, cut off its arm, and it came back to retrieve it. It is a subject of Noh and kabuki.
A centipede yokai so huge it could coil seven and a half times around Mount Mikami in Omi Province. It is known for the legend in which Fujiwara no Hidesato (Tawara Toda), at the request of the dragon god of Lake Biwa, shot it down with an arrow wet with his saliva.
A young woman who, betrayed in her love for the monk Anchin, turned into a giant serpent and chased him. The "Legend of Anchin and Kiyohime," in which she burned him to death inside the bell of Dojoji Temple, is a celebrated subject of Noh and kabuki.
Statues of guardian beasts placed in pairs along the approaches to shrines and in front of shrine buildings. They are usually a pair of "a" (open mouth) and "un" (closed mouth). Their origin is said to be the lion statues of the ancient Middle East, which reached Japan by way of Chinese lions.
A yokai in the form of an aged giant monkey living in the mountains, said to have made villagers offer girls as sacrifices. The Konjaku Monogatarishu tells of a hunter who defeated one. At the same time, monkeys have been revered as messengers of the mountain gods.
The leader of the oni who made Mount Oe his stronghold and abducted people from the capital. He is known from the legend in which Minamoto no Raiko and his Four Heavenly Kings, disguised as mountain ascetics, defeated him with poisoned sake.
A rock at Nasu-Yumoto in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, long feared for killing any living thing that approached it. Legend says it is the nine-tailed fox Tamamo-no-Mae turned to stone after being unmasked and slain. In 2022 the stone was found split in two.
A yokai born when the grudge of the Heian-period monk Raigo turned into a horde of rats with iron teeth. They are said to have devoured the scriptures and Buddhist statues of Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei. Toriyama Sekien also drew it in his yokai books.
A monster with the face of a monkey, the body of a tanuki, the limbs of a tiger and a snake for a tail. It cried eerily at night, and in The Tale of the Heike it was shot down by Minamoto no Yorimasa. Its name became a word for anything of uncertain identity.
A book said to have been written by Prince Shotoku foretelling the future of Japan. The Taiheiki tells how Kusunoki Masashige read it at Shitennoji Temple and learned of the fall of the Kamakura shogunate. No original survives, and many "Miraiki" were produced in the medieval period.
A fox yokai with nine tails. Legend says it took the form of the beautiful Tamamo-no-Mae to win over the retired Emperor Toba, was unmasked and killed on the plain of Nasu, and turned into the "Killing Stone". The stone split in 2022.
The 75th emperor of Japan, of the late Heian period. Defeated in the Hogen Rebellion, he was exiled to Sanuki (Kagawa Prefecture) and died there. He is said to have vowed to become "a great demon of Japan" and turned into a tengu while still alive, and is counted with Sugawara no Michizane and Taira no Masakado as one of the Three Great Onryo of Japan.
A ghost or yokai of a woman who died in childbirth, appearing with a baby in her arms. She asks passers-by to hold the baby, and those who endure its growing weight to the end are said to receive great strength. A tale of her appears in the Heian-period Konjaku Monogatari, and she is linked to the "child-raising ghost" legends found across Japan.
A pair of giants: "Tenaga," with very long arms, and "Ashinaga," with very long legs. Ashinaga is said to carry Tenaga on his back to catch fish in the sea, and on Mount Chokai and Mount Bandai legends tell of them as man-eating giants who were defeated.
A sacred beast said to eat people's bad dreams. It is depicted with an elephant's trunk, a rhinoceros's eyes, an ox's tail and a tiger's legs. In China it was said to ward off evil; in Japan, the character for "baku" was written on pictures such as the treasure ship of the first dream of the year to ward off nightmares.
