From the Specials Board · By the Daily Specials Co. team
Oni (鬼) are the horned ogres of Japanese folklore: big, strong, usually red or blue, and often carrying an iron club. The word is usually translated as "demon," but an oni is closer to an ogre or a troll than to the devil of Western religion.
They show up everywhere in Japan, from children's stories to roof tiles to a family holiday where people throw beans at them. Here is what the word means and where the image comes from.
What an oni looks like
The classic oni is a hulking figure with one or more horns growing out of its head. Its skin is red, blue, black or yellow. It wears a loincloth made from a tiger pelt and carries a kanabō, an iron club. In the old stories, oni live in caves, deep in the mountains, or in hell.
Why horns and a tiger skin? One theory points to an old idea about directions. In Japanese tradition, the northeast is called the kimon (鬼門), the "demon gate," the direction bad things were said to come from. The northeast was also known as ushitora (丑寅), "ox–tiger," after two signs of the zodiac. One explanation holds that the oni's bull horns and tiger-skin loincloth grew out of that name: an ox and a tiger, combined into one monster. It is a theory, not a settled fact, but it explains the look surprisingly well.
Where the word "oni" comes from
The kanji 鬼 came from Chinese, where it meant something invisible and unworldly: a ghost, or the soul of the dead. In the Chinese-style (on'yomi) reading it is pronounced ki.
The Japanese word oni is older than its kanji. One common explanation is that it comes from on or onu (隠), "to hide," because these spirits were thought to be unseen. Over the centuries, the hidden spirit turned into the very visible horned ogre that most people picture today.
Oni in Japanese life today
Setsubun. Every year on or around February 3, the day before the old start of spring, many Japanese families hold mamemaki, "bean scattering." Someone in the house puts on an oni mask, and the others throw roasted soybeans at them, or out of the front door, while shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!": "Demons out! Fortune in!" Then the door is closed. Afterward, people eat one bean for each year of their age, plus one more for luck in the year ahead.
Roof tiles. Look up at an old temple or house and you may see an oni face on the end of the roof ridge. These tiles are called onigawara (鬼瓦). Like gargoyles on European churches, they are thought to ward off bad luck. Here the oni's frightening face does guard duty.
Stories. The best-known oni story is Momotarō, "Peach Boy," a boy born from a peach who sets out with a talking dog, a monkey and a pheasant to defeat the oni of Onigashima, "Demon Island." Japanese folklore also has famous individual oni; Shuten-dōji is often called the strongest of them all.
Over time, oni have lost some of their menace. In modern stories, cartoons and festival masks they are often comic, clumsy or even friendly. The same creature can be the villain of a fairy tale and the mascot on a bag of Setsubun beans.
Oni vs. hannya: two different masks
People often mix up the oni with the hannya, and many "Japanese demon mask" designs blend the two. They are different things.
An oni is a folklore creature: an ogre with horns, a club and a tiger skin.
A hannya is a specific mask from Noh theater. It represents a woman whose jealousy and anger have turned her into a demon. The mask has two sharp, bull-like horns, metallic eyes and a wide, leering mouth. Noh mask makers carve it so that the expression changes with the angle: tilt the head slightly down and the face looks sorrowful, almost as if it is crying. The color also carries meaning. A white hannya suggests a woman of refined character, a red one a less refined character, and the darkest red a true demon. The hannya is worn in plays such as Aoi no Ue, where the jealous Lady Rokujō appears as a demon in the second half.
So if a mask has a woman's features, gold horns and a grief-stricken mouth, it is most likely a hannya. If it is a burly, fanged brute with a club nearby, it is an oni.
Wearing an oni
Part of the oni's appeal today is that mix of menace and humor. It is a monster, but it is also the thing a whole family laughs at while throwing beans every February.
Our Oni back print tee leans into that: a red oni wreathed in fire and peonies, printed large across the back, with a small mark on the chest. Not a morning person. If you prefer the theater mask, the Hannya tee shows the Noh mask of jealousy with gold horns, red maples and crashing waves.
See every oni and hannya design in the Oni & Hannya collection.