What is an oni?
The oni is one of Japan’s most iconic yokai. It is usually pictured as a huge man with red or blue skin, horns on its head, fangs in its mouth, an iron club in its hand and a loincloth of tiger skin. Since ancient times it has appeared in countless stories as a terrifying being that attacks people, carries them off and eats them.
The origin of the name and the look
One theory holds that the word oni comes from onu (隠), meaning something hidden or unseen. It may originally have referred broadly to frightening things with no clear form, such as invisible calamities or the spirits of the dead. Its horns and tiger skin are said to come from the northeast direction known as the kimon (“demon gate”), through which oni were believed to come and go. In the Chinese zodiac this direction is “ushitora” (ox-tiger), so the oni was given the horns of an ox and the skin of a tiger.
Oni in stories and at Setsubun
There are countless oni stories, from the folktales Momotaro and Issun-boshi to the legend of Shuten-doji of Mount Oe. At Setsubun, people throw beans while shouting “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!” (“Demons out, good luck in!”), driving away the evil that arrives with the change of seasons in the shape of an oni. Yet some oni are protectors that ward off misfortune, like the onigawara roof tiles or the Namahage of Akita, and the children’s story The Red Oni Who Cried portrays a gentle oni.
