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Noriko T. Reider is the author of several books that focus on Japanese literature, folklore, and art. She currently works as a professor of Japanese at Miami University. [1] [2] She has written multiple books on the history of Japanese demons and yokai, with special focus on the history and nature of oni. [3]
Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival, is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.
Abe no Seimei was an onmyōji, a leading specialist of Onmyōdō during the middle of the Heian period in Japan. In addition to his prominence in history, he is a legendary figure in Japanese folklore. He has been portrayed in several stories and films.
Sushen is the historical Chinese name for an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in the northeastern part of China and what is in modern times the Russian Maritime Province and some other Siberian provinces. They were active during the Zhou Dynasty period. Archeological relics in the area are attributed to the Xituanshan Culture. Chinese Bronze Age archaeologist Zou Heng of Peking University believed that the Sushen were also related to the Lower Xiajiadian culture. The Sushen are thought to have been Tungusic speakers.
An oni is a kind of yōkai, demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are believed to live in caves or deep in the mountains. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like thunder and lightning, along with their evil nature manifesting in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. They are typically portrayed as hulking figures with one or more horns growing out of their heads, massive teeth, and occasionally a third eye in the center of the forehead. They are typically depicted with red, blue, black, or yellow colored skin, wearing loincloths of tiger pelt, and carrying iron kanabō clubs. They also have three to six digits on each hand and foot tipped with claw-like nails. Oni are able to change their looks to fool their victims into trusting them. Oni can be male or female, but have been predominantly male throughout history. Female oni are sometimes referred to by the name Yamauba. When in disguise, oni are capable of appearing as a man or woman, regardless of their gender. As monstrous as oni are, they have been linked to bringing good fortune and wealth.
Momotarō is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as Peach Boy, but is directly translated as Peach + Tarō, a common Japanese given name. Momotarō is also the title of various books, films and other works that portray the tale of this hero.
Yūrei are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western concept of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include Bōrei (亡霊), meaning ruined or departed spirit, Shiryō (死霊), meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing Yōkai (妖怪) or Obake (お化け). Like their Chinese, Korean, and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife.
Tsuchigumo is a historical Japanese derogatory term for renegade local clans, and also the name for a race of spider-like yōkai in Japanese folklore. Alternative names for the mythological Tsuchigumo include yatsukahagi and ōgumo. In the Kojiki and in Nihon Shoki, the name was phonetically spelled with the four kanji 都知久母, and these words were frequently used in the Fudoki of Mutsu, Echigo, Hitachi, Settsu, Bungo and Hizen as well as others.
The Mishihase (粛填), also read as Ashihase and Shukushin, were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived along the northern portion of the coast of the Sea of Japan. The term Sushen, rendered 肅愼, is found in Chinese records, but is annotated as Mishihase or Ashihase in Japanese language documents, which should have developed into *Mishiwase or *Ashiwase in modern Japanese if the word had survived in colloquial speech.
Watanabe no Tsuna (953–1025) was a Japanese samurai, a companion in arms of Minamoto no Yorimitsu, one of the earliest samurai to be famed for his military exploits in a number of tales and legends.
Hiroshi Aramata is a Japanese author, polymath, critic, translator and specialist in natural history, iconography and cartography. His most popular novel was Teito Monogatari, which has sold over 5 million copies in Japan alone.
Teito Monogatari is an epic historical dark fantasy/science fiction work; the debut novel of natural history researcher and polymath Hiroshi Aramata. It began circulation in the literary magazine Monthly King Novel owned by Kadokawa Shoten in 1983, and was published in 10 volumes over the course of 1985–1987. The novel is a romanticized retelling of the 20th-century history of Tokyo from an occultist perspective.
Yasunori Katō is a fictional character, the protagonist of the Japanese historical fantasy series Teito Monogatari, created by Hiroshi Aramata. He first appeared in a 1983 issue of a science fiction magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten but gained more widespread attention with successive publications as well as his cinematic debut, and has since gone on to be referenced frequently in Japanese popular culture. His character is generally associated with onmyōdō mysticism since Teito Monogatari was one of the first novels to popularize the art in modern Japanese fiction.
Doomed Megalopolis is a Japanese original video animation (OVA) series. It is an adaptation of the historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari by Hiroshi Aramata. The anime is darker in tone, more violent, and more sexually explicit than any previous adaptations of the novel; an artistic decision likely inspired by the financial success of the OVA Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend. Like its live-action predecessor, Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis, the anime is only an adaptation of the first third of the original novel.
Hannah Riddell (1855–1932) was an English woman who devoted her life to the care of patients with leprosy in Japan.
Yasumasa Hirai (平井保昌) is a fictional character from the historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari by Hiroshi Aramata. He also appears in the prequel novel Teito Gendan
Shuten-dōji is a mythical oni or demon leader of Japan, who according to legend was killed by the hero Minamoto no Raikō. Although decapitated, the demon's detached head still took a bite at the hero, who avoided death by wearing multiple helmets stacked on his head.
Ame no Wakahiko is a god of grains and Amatsukami in Japanese mythology. He is the son of Amatsukunitama. The Ame no Wakahiko Monogatari, one of the Otogi-zōshi, is a monogatari about him.
Tsuchigumo Sōshi (土蜘蛛草紙) is a 14th-century Japanese picture scroll depicting the heroic exploits of Minamoto no Raikō in his battle against an enormous spider monster.
Ki no Haseo was a Japanese scholar, poet and diplomat active in the Heian period. He belonged to the Ki clan, which was politically influential in the Nara period, but lost its original position before his birth. He was an acquittance of poets such as Miyako no Yoshika and Sugawara no Michizane, but was not closely affiliated with any political factions. In 894 he was appointed as a vice-ambassador during preparations to an ultimately canceled mission to China. He remained active as both a scholar and an official through the rest of his life. Many of works have been compiled in the collection Kikashū. While only one chapter survives, multiple poems and prose fragments which originally belonged to it have been identified. A second collection, Zoku Kike Shishū, is entirely lost. It is additionally sometimes proposed that he was also the author of Taketori Monogatari, but this remains uncertain. After his death a number of legends arose around him. Most notably, multiple variants of a tale in which he encounters an oni at Suzakumon are known.
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