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.
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.
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.
