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Kidōmaru (鬼童丸, 鬼同丸) is an
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 ...
that appears in the Kamakura period collection of setsuwa, the ''
Kokon Chomonjū , lit. ''A Collection of Notable Tales Old and New'', is a Kamakura-period collection of ''setsuwa''. It was compiled by and completed in 1254. The twenty volumes are divided by subject into thirty chapters: chapter 16 concerns art and painting a ...
'', among other sources.


Concept

As described in the ''Kokon Chomonjū'',
Minamoto no Yorimitsu , also known as Minamoto no Raikō, was a Japanese samurai of the Heian period, who served the regents of the Fujiwara clan along with his brother Yorinobu, taking the violent measures the Fujiwara were themselves unable to take. He is one of t ...
is known for the slaying of
Shuten-dōji Shuten-dōji (, also sometimes called , or ) is a mythical ''oni'' or demon leader of Japan, who according to legend was killed by the hero Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Minamoto no Raikō. Although decapitated, the demon's detached head still took a bi ...
. When he went to the home of his brother
Minamoto no Yorinobu was a samurai commander and member of the powerful Minamoto clan. Along with his brother Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Yorimitsu, Yorinobu served the regents of the Fujiwara clan, taking the violent measures the Fujiwara were themselves unable to take. ...
, Kidōmaru was caught at the toilet. Yorimitsu said that Yorinobu was careless, so they should restrain the oni with chains, and stayed at Yorinobu's house for that night. Kidōmaru easily tore off those chains, and with a grudge against Yorimitsu, looked at his bed and kept watch. Yorimitsu noticed this and told a servant, "tomorrow, I will make a visit to the Kurama temple." Kidōmaru then went ahead to Kurama, killed one free-ranging cattle at the Ichihara field, hid inside its body, and waited for Yorimitsu to come. However, Yorimitsu saw through this, and
Watanabe no Tsuna (953–1025) was a Japanese samurai of the Heian period and a companion in arms of Minamoto no Yorimitsu (also known as Raikō), one of the earliest samurai to be famed for his military exploits in a number of tales and legends. Watanabe no T ...
upon receiving command from Yorimitsu shot through the cattle with a bow and arrow. It is said that Kidōmaru appeared from inside the cow and tried to slash at Yorimitsu, but Yorimitsu struck down Kidōmaru with a single strike. In the yōkai pictures collection, the
Konjaku Hyakki Shūi is the third book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's ''Gazu Hyakki Yagyō'' tetralogy, published c. 1781. These books are supernatural bestiaries, collections of ghosts, spirits, spooks and monsters, many of which Toriyama based on literature ...
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 ...
, under the title of "Kidō," it depicts Kidōmaru in the snow wearing the skin of a cattle waiting for Yorimitsu to come. Although Kidōmaru is widely known from the ''Kokon Chomonjū'', there is also material from picture books about warriors as well as legends. According to the oral traditions of Kumohara in
Fukuchiyama file:Fukuchiyama City Hall.jpg, Fukuchiyama City Hall file:福知山駅プラットフォームより View toward northeast from platform of Fukuchiyama station 2011.1.10 - panoramio.jpg, Fukuchiyama city center is a Cities of Japan, city in north ...
,
Kyoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture ...
, there is the following legend about Kidōmaru as a child of Shuten-dōji. After Minamoto no Yorimitsu slew Shuten-dōji, the girls captured by Shuten-dōji were returned to their old homelands, but one of those girls became mentally disordered and was unable to return home and gave birth to Shuten-dōji's child at Kumohara. This child had teeth at birth, and at the age of 7 or 8, would throw rocks to kill deer or boars for eating. It is said that eventually, this child grew to become Kidōmaru, and aimed at his father's enemy, Yorimitsu and his group. The ''Zentaiheiki'', a collection of war tales, theorizes this oni to instead be an abandoned child of Shuten-dōji, and originally Kidōmaru was a young child at Mount Hiei but came to ruin as a result of wicked deeds, and was therefore chased away from Mount Hiei, and then migrated to a cave in the mountains and became a bandit. According to the "Shitennō Shōtō Iroku" (四天王剿盗異録) by
Takizawa Bakin , born , was a Japanese novelist of the Edo period, who wrote under the pen name . Later in life he took the pen name . Modern scholarship generally refers to him as , or just as n. He is regarded as one of, if not the, leading author of early ...
, at a cave in the mountains, Kidōmaru met Hakamadare, a bandit of the
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 ...
, where there was a scene of a contest comparing skills. Works which depict this include ukiyo-e such as
Utagawa Kuniyoshi Utagawa Kuniyoshi (, ; 1 January 1798 – 14 April 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al'' (2005). "Kuniyoshi" in He was a member of the Utaga ...
's ''Kidōmaru'' and
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi ; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005)"Tsukoka Kōgyō"in ''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 1000. Yoshitoshi ha ...
's ''Hakamadare Yasusuke Kidōmaru Jutsukurabe no Zu'' (袴垂保輔鬼童丸術競図).


Notes

{{Japanese folklore long Oni Yōkai