Oni

An oni (鬼) is a type of demon or yōkai (妖怪) in Japanese folklore. They are typically associated with negative traits and are believed to engage in acts such as murder and cannibalism. Most oni are portrayed as hulking figures with one or more horns growing out of their heads and massive teeth, and possess supernatural powers, including the ability to disguise themselves as humans. Female oni are sometimes referred to as yama-uba.^[1]

During the Heian period (794 – 1185), oni were often depicted in Japanese literature as terrifying monsters that ate people. This has cemented their place in Japanese culture as a type of stock villains featured in many works of art, literature, and theatre.^[1]

History[edit | edit source]

Sengoku period[edit | edit source]

In late September 1581, the kunoichi Fujibayashi Naoe assassinated the samurai Ido Yoshihiro at Katano Castle in an attempt to recover a box he had stolen from Iga. After being wounded and left for dead by Yoshihiro's fellow Shinbakufu members,^[2] Naoe was rescued by the Buddhist monk Sorin and his apprentice Junjiro,^[3] who was, unbeknownst to Naoe, Yoshihiro's son. The traumatized boy, struggling with processing his father's death, contemplated killing the kunoichi during her recovery, until Sorin caught him standing over a sleeping Naoe while holding a knife. He then advised Junjiro to redirect his hatred into art, resulting in him making a number of sumi-e (墨絵) that depicted Naoe as an oni.^[4]

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In 1582, fishermen from the city Akashi in Harima found a strange stone buried beneath a tree. However, this stone was seemingly the gateway to another realm where the entire population was "taken" and slaughtered by its sole inhabitant, an oni held to be the samurai Kazan Yamaoka's raging restless soul after peasants killed him for murdering his own father. Among its victims was a Kakushiba ikki scout, whose mysterious disappearance prompted Naoe and Yasuke to investigate the matter.^[5]

Upon finding and touching the stone, the pair were also "transported" to the oni's realm, where they came across notes left by the scout explaining how to escape it and defeat the oni.^[6] Successfully returning to reality, Naoe and Yasuke found that the oni had followed them, though it had lost its invulnerability in the process, allowing the pair to fight it. Following its defeat, the oni returned to its realm and its "curse" over Akashi ended, leaving behind only the inert stone. Naoe and Yasuke took it to their hideout and puzzled over the strange encounter.^[7]

Edo period[edit | edit source]

In 1725, the Japanese Templar and samurai Shimazu Saito wore an oni mask during her mission to Macau to investigate leads to an Isu site,^[8] though she discarded it after joining the Zhang Wei Union.^[9] Saito's former mentor, the ninja Fuma Sukuna, also wore an oni mask,^[8] as did one of the Seven Spears of Shimazu encountered by Saito in a simulation created by the Forgotten Temple.^[10]

While attempting to retrieve a Piece of Eden shaped like a crescent amulet from a monk in Manila, Saito and the British Assassin Edward Kenway witnessed the monk using the amulet's powers to resurrect his acolytes, causing Saito to compare them to oni.^[11] Shortly after, the monk used the amulet to conjure an illusion of a large oni that attacked Saito, though the samurai was able to defeat the apparition after Edward helped her understand that it was not real.^[12]