''Hyakki Yagyō'' (, "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons"), also transliterated ''Hyakki Yakō'', is an idiom in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. Sometimes an orderly procession, other times a riot, it refers to a parade of thousands of supernatural creatures known as ''

oni An ( ) 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 or in hell. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like th ...

'' and ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and Spirit (supernatural entity) , spirits in Japanese folklore. The kanji representation of the word comprises two characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful", and while the Japanese name is simply ...

'' that march through the streets of Japan at night. As a terrifying eruption of the supernatural into the real world, it is similar (though not precisely equivalent) to the concept of pandemonium in English.

Various legends

Over more than one thousand years of history, and its role as a popular theme in traditional storytelling and art, a great deal of folklore has developed around the concept, making it difficult if not impossible to isolate any canonical meanings. One legend of recent vintage states that "every year the ''yōkai''

Nurarihyon is a Japanese yōkai. Concept Generally, like the hyōtannamazu, they are considered a monster that cannot be caught.『広辞苑』第五版岩波書店 2006年。 One can find that it often appears in the yōkai emaki of the Edo Period, bu ...

, will lead all of the ''

'' through the streets of Japan during summer nights." Anyone who comes across the procession would perish or be spirited away by the ''yōkai'', unless protected by exorcism scrolls handwritten by ''

Onmyōji was one of the official positions belonging to the of the Ministry of the Center under the ritsuryō system in ancient Japan, and was assigned as a technical officer in charge of divination and geomorphology based on the theory of the yin-an ...

'' spell-casters. It is said that only an onmyōji clan head is strong enough to pass Nurarihyon's Hyakki Yagyō unharmed.村上健司編著『妖怪事典』毎日新聞社、2000年、288-289頁。。 According to another account in the Shūgaishō (拾芥抄), a medieval Japanese encyclopedia, the only way to be kept safe from the night parade if it were to come by your house is to stay inside on the specific nights associated with the Chinese zodiac or to chant the magic spell: "''KA-TA-SHI-HA-YA, E-KA-SE-NI-KU-RI-NI, TA-ME-RU-SA-KE, TE-E-HI, A-SHI-E-HI, WA-RE-SHI-KO-NI-KE-RI''" (カタシハヤ, エカセニクリニ, タメルサケ, テエヒ, アシエヒ, ワレシコニケリ).

In literature

The ''Hyakki Yagyō'' has appeared in several tales collected by Japanese folklorists. *''

Uji Shūi Monogatari is a collection of Japanese tales written around the beginning of the 13th century. The author is unknown, and it may have been revised several times. The title references the '' Uji Dainagon Monogatari'', a book which no longer exists. The Dai ...

'' (宇治拾遺物語), in which a monk encounters a group of a hundred yōkai which pass by the Ryūsenji temple. *''

Konjaku Monogatarishū , also known as the , is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period (794–1185). The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which 28 remain today. The volumes cover various tales f ...

'' (今昔物語集), which tells that during the Jōgan era (859–877), the eldest son of minister

Fujiwara Fujiwara (, written: 藤原 lit. "''Wisteria'' field") is a Japanese surname. (In English conversation it is likely to be rendered as .) Notable people with the surname include: ; Families * The Fujiwara clan and its members ** Fujiwara no Kamatari ...

was on his way to his lover's place when he saw 100 demons walking from the direction of the main street. Since his attire had the ''sonjoushi'' written on it, the demons who noticed it ran away. *''

Ōkagami is a Japanese historical tale written around 1119 by an unknown author. It covers the period from 850 to 1025, the golden days of the Fujiwara family's rule. It is called a , along with the records of the '' Eiga Monogatari''. In the tale, the ...

'' (大鏡) *'' Gōdanshō'' (江談抄) *'' Kohon Setsuwashū'' (古本説話集) *'' Hōbutsushū'' (宝物集)

In art

The night parade was a popular theme in Japanese visual art. One of the oldest and most famous examples is the 16th-century

handscroll The handscroll is a long, narrow, horizontal scroll format in East Asia used for calligraphy or paintings. A handscroll usually measures up to several meters in length and around 25–40 cm in height. Handscrolls are generally viewed startin ...

''Hyakki Yagyō Zu'' (百鬼夜行図), erroneously attributed to

Tosa Mitsunobu was a Japanese painter, the founder of the Tosa school of Japanese painting. Born into a family that had traditionally served as painters to the Imperial court, he was head of the court painting bureau from 1493 to 1496. In 1518, he was appointe ...

, located in the Shinju-an of

Daitoku-ji is a Rinzai school Zen Buddhist temple in the Murasakino neighborhood of Kita-ku in the city of Kyoto Japan. Its ('' sangō'') is . The Daitoku-ji temple complex is one of the largest Zen temples in Kyoto, covering more than . In addition to ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. For other picture scrolls, the ''Hyakki Yagyō Emaki'' (百鬼夜行絵巻), contains the details of each member in the parade from the

Muromachi The , also known as the , is a division of History of Japan, Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially establ ...

period. Other notable works in this motif include those by

Toriyama Sekien 200px, A , specifically a Miage-nyūdō, as portrayed by Toriyama , real name Sano Toyofusa, was a scholar, '' kyōka'' poet, and ''ukiyo-e'' artist of Japanese folklore. Early life Born to a family of high-ranking servants to the Tokugawa sh ...

(''

Gazu Hyakki Yagyō is the first book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous ''Gazu Hyakki Yagyō'' e-hon tetralogy, published in 1776. A version of the tetralogy translated and annotated in English was published in 2016. Although the title translates to "The I ...

'') and Utagawa Yoshiiku. However, Toriyama's work presents ''yōkai'' in separate, encyclopedic entries rather than assembled in a parade, while Utagawa's '' Kokkei Wanisshi-ki'' ("Comical Record of Japanese History," 滑稽倭日史記) employs the theme of 100 demons to comment on contemporary Japanese military actions in China.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyakki Yako Japanese folklore Japanese mythology Yōkai Oni

Various legends

In literature

In art

See also

References