Japanese Oni

Oni – The Japanese Flavor of Orc?

People all over the world have their monsters. They can be large or small, beautiful or hideous, playful or hateful, comical or malicious. They share some common characteristics, and sometimes even appear in similar stories with a few details changed to reflect the local culture. Some stand out as unique from all of their monstrous cousins. Such is the Japanese version of demon or Orc, the Oni.

Oni claim an origin in ancient China. They are startling in appearance. They can have three eyes, or three arms, and red or blue skin. They usually have fangs and horns, and wear loin clothes made of the skins of tigers. They are most likely to be found in the forests and mountains, to be encountered by solitary travelers. While some demons live and work in groups, like Tolkein’s Orc armies or the Irish fairies who live in kingdoms beneath the sea, a Japanese Oni is most likely to be a solitary hermit, or live as a couple with a husband or wife.

Unlike Orcs, which are invariably hateful and destructive, some Oni are quite friendly, rewarding good deeds with gifts of firewood. Because the Oni can have a good side, modern Japanese sometimes consider them good luck mascots, and one might see Oni depicted in statues or on tapestries in Japanese businesses or in cities. When Oni do bad things, there is usually a lighthearted element in the story.

For example, one folktale relates an Oni couple who wish to eat all of the humans in a village. The villagers get help from a local god who makes a deal with the Oni: if they can build a stone staircase of one hundred steps in one night, he will provide them with a human a day to eat. If they fail, they have to give up eating people. The god tricks them into thinking the sun has come up by imitating a rooster, and the Oni swear off eating humans forever. Can you picture a demonic Orc keeping his word like that?