Who is Shuten-doji?
Shuten-doji is said to have been the chief of the oni in the Heian period, based on Mount Oe in Tanba Province (around present-day Fukuchiyama, Kyoto). His name refers to his great love of sake. Leading many oni, including Ibaraki-doji, he is said to have abducted young women from the capital.
Minamoto no Raiko defeats the oni
On the emperor’s orders, Minamoto no Raiko and his Four Heavenly Kings, including Watanabe no Tsuna and Sakata no Kintoki (the folk hero Kintaro), entered Mount Oe disguised as yamabushi. They made Shuten-doji drunk on poisoned sake given to them by the gods and cut off his head. A famous detail says that even after his head was cut off, it bit into Raiko’s helmet.
Picture scrolls and regional legends
The legend was depicted in the 14th-century picture scroll Oeyama Ekotoba and in the Muromachi-period Otogizoshi tales, and has long been popular. Some say Shuten-doji was born in Echigo Province (Niigata Prefecture). Together with the nine-tailed fox and Otakemaru (or the retired Emperor Sutoku), he is sometimes counted among Japan’s “three great yokai.”
