Oni (and the oni mask)
Oni are the demons and ogres of Japan: horned, fanged and clawed, dressed in tiger skin. Every Setsubun people drive them out with roasted beans, but in Shinto oni can also be visiting beings who bring blessings.
Meaning
The character for oni meant the soul of a dead person in China; in Japan it was read oni (demon), mono (an indwelling spirit) or kami, the Encyclopedia of Shinto explains, and oni are visitors from the other world who bring disaster or blessing, worshipped as well as avoided for their fearful power. In art an oni has claws, a square head with two horns, sharp teeth and malignant eyes under big eyebrows, and sometimes trousers of tiger skin (Henri Joly, 1908). Chamberlain, in 1905, adds that oni have horns but no tail and wear nothing but a loincloth of tiger skin, and that one of them makes the thunder by beating a set of tambourines and sometimes falls to the ground and hurts himself.
Origin and history
The Encyclopedia of Shinto sorts oni into three types. The first are wicked spirits or evil kami that bring disaster, death and plague; the spirits of people who died with resentment could become oni, and the spirits of jealous women in particular could become the female demons called hannya. The second are outsiders: foreigners, rebels, pirates, mountain dwellers and itinerant performers were all called oni. The third are oni as good kami, still seen in New Year rites: the Sakaki-oni dancers of the Hanamatsuri at Shidara in Aichi Prefecture, who stamp the ground to invoke blessings and chase evil spirits away, and the namahage of Akita, visiting kami played by performers in demon masks. The oni’s look, the encyclopedia adds, came partly from pictures of hell demons and hungry ghosts and from the four-eyed masks of the Chinese exorcism rite, tsuina.
Setsubun: “Demons out, good luck in”
Setsubun is the day before the start of spring, 3 or 4 February. The Encyclopedia of Shinto traces its two rites: tsuina, brought from Tang China, in which participants armed with peach-wood bows, arrows and clubs chase away figures in demon masks, and mame-maki, scattering roasted beans to drive out evil spirits, which seems to have begun in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). People throw the beans while chanting “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” (“Demons out, good luck in”). At Kinpusenji temple, the Japan Tourism Agency records, the cry is changed to “Demons in, good luck in”, because the temple takes in all the demons driven out everywhere else; the custom is ascribed to En no Gyōja, the founder of Shugendō, who in legend exorcised two demons, Zenki and Gōki. Joly describes a common netsuke: an oni trying to cram itself into a box, nearly bursting it, with a few beans on the lid.
Oni masks on stage and at festivals
Demon masks are worn by the figures chased out at tsuina and by the namahage performers of Akita. In Noh, according to Zeami’s Fushikaden as the Encyclopedia of Shinto quotes it, oni are either vengeful spirits (onryō) that possess people or demons of hell.
Oni who turn good
Joly records oni in art who reform. They become monks with their horns sawn off and carry the bell and umbrella of true monks, or work as temple guardians who beat the gong; by Buddhist teaching (Shaka’s, in Joly’s words), even devils can be reclaimed by working for temples. Oni also march at night in bands of a hundred, the hyakki yakō.
Read next
- Next in Yōkai and creatures of Japanese folkloreYuki-onna (snow woman)Yuki-onna, the snow woman, is a pale woman who comes with the snow and kills with her cold. In Lafcadio Hearn’s story of 1904 she spares a young woodcutter, later marries him, and vanishes when he breaks his promise of silence.
- The same shape in Adinkra symbolsBese SakaBese Saka, a bunch of kola nuts, is the adinkra symbol of affluence, abundance and unity.
See also
Hannya mask, Raijin and Fūjin (thunder and wind), Raijin and Fūjin (thunder and wind), Hannya mask, Kitsune (fox), Tanuki (raccoon dog).
Sources
- Oni (Encyclopedia of Shinto), Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University, “Oni” (Kawamura Kunimitsu), Kokugakuin University, article text
- Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art (1908), Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art: A Description of Historical Episodes, Legendary Characters, Folk-lore, Myths, Religious Symbolism Illustrated in the Arts of Old Japan, London: John Lane, 1908, John Lane (Internet Archive, University of Toronto copy), entry 687, Oni
- Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese (1905), Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan, fifth edition, London: John Murray, 1905, John Murray (Internet Archive, University of Toronto copy), “Supernatural Creatures”, p. 443
- Setsubun (Encyclopedia of Shinto), Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University, “Setsubun” (Endō Jun), Kokugakuin University, article text
- The Setsubun-e Ritual (Japan Tourism Agency), Japan Tourism Agency, multilingual commentary database: “The Setsubun-e Ritual” (Kinpusenji), Japan Tourism Agency, text
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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