Rashōmon no oni (羅城門の鬼 or 羅生門の鬼) 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 ...

said to have nested at the front gate of

Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...

Rashōmon is a 1950 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shinobu Hashimoto. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura, it follows various people who describe how a ...

. It appears in the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

yōkyoku, ''Rashōmon'' among other works. 村上健司編著『妖怪事典』

毎日新聞社 The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a biling ...

、2000年、363-364頁。。

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After

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 ...

slew

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 ...

, as he was holding a banquet in his own residence with the Yorimitsu Shitennō and Hirai Yasumasa, Hirai (or one of the Shitennō,

Urabe no Suetake was a samurai of the Heian period (794 – 1185) in the service of Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948 – 1021), a regent of the Fujiwara clan. Suetake was formally known as , and also appears in literature as and . Suetake assisted Yorimitsu ...

) mentioned that there was an oni at Rashōmon. One of the Shitennō,

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 ...

, said there was no logical basis for an oni to dwell on royal grounds, so in order to go check, he armed himself with armor, a helmet, and his ancestral tachi and rode out on a horse all by himself to Rashōmon without any accompany followers.笹間良彦『絵で見て不思議! 鬼ともののけの文化史』遊子館、2005年、28-29頁。。 Upon coming to the main road Kujō-doori with the front side of Rashōmon coming into view, there was a gust of sudden wind, and the horse stopped moving. As Tsuna disembarked from his horse and headed towards Rashōmon, an oni appeared from behind him and caught his helmet. Tsuna cut at it with his tachi without delay, but his helmet was stolen. Tsuna's tachi and the oni's iron rod clashed violent, until finally, Tsuna cut off one of the oni's arm. In ''

The Tale of the Heike is an epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185). It has been translated into English at least five times. ...

'', Tsurugi no Maki, the story about the oni at Itijō Modoribashi happens at a bridge called Ichijō Modoribashi, and afterward, the oni disguised itself as Tsuna's mother and stole the arm. In the yōkyoku ''Rashōmon'' is considered to be based on ''The Tale of the Heike'' of everything up until the battle between Tsuna and the oni with the setting changed from Ichijō Modoribashi to Rashōmon, and the oni's retaliation story was then put in a separate yōkyoku from ''Rashōmon'', called ''Ibaraki'' (茨木). Because of this, the different oni, the oni of Rashōmon, is often viewed to be the same as

Ibaraki-dōji Ibaraki-dōji (茨木童子 or 茨城童子 "Ibaraki child") is an oni (demon or ogre) featured in tales of the Heian period. In the tales, Ibaraki-dōji is based on Ōeyama (mountain), Mount Ōe, and once went on a rampage in Kyoto. The "Ibaraki" ...

.吉成勇編『歴史読本特別増刊・事典シリーズ〈第16号〉日本「神話・伝説」総覧』新人物往来社、1992年、157頁。

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