What are the stories of Japanese demons (or demons and masks)?

1, Sakuton Kid

Sakuton Kid was one of several famous demons active in Japan during the Heian Period. Along with the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Great Tengu, which was transformed after the death of Emperor Shundei, it is considered one of the three major demons of Japan, and was once the King of the Hundred Ghosts, who ruled over all demons.

As a powerful demon, Sakutani has an extremely strong body, six meters long, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist. He likes to drink blood and has a blood-red face, with a few pinches of short, messy hair on top of his nearly bald head, five horns and 15 eyes, and wears a beast's skin around his waist. Of course, this is his form as an evil spirit, but when he is on earth, he often takes the form of a handsome young man.

2. Daitengu

The Daitengu has a tall red nose and red face, and carries a fan or mallet. He is tall and wears a monk's uniform or the armor of a warrior of the past, and has wings on his back.

They usually live deep in the mountains, have unimaginable powers and magical abilities, wear katanas on their waists, traditional Japanese clogs, and straw raincoats to hide themselves at all times, as well as an unassuming and arrogant demeanor.

3, Yukito

The origin of the Yukito is quite old, as it was described in the Sogyo no Sato at the end of the Muromachi period. The Yukito would appear as a beautiful woman on snowy nights.

If she met a man she liked, she would turn him into a popsicle and take him back to the mountains (as legend has it that she was once abandoned by her lover on a snowy mountain). Her skin is very pale, even transparent enough to merge with the snowy landscape around her. And when the Snow Maiden is threatened, she turns into clouds or snow.

Yukito, the child of Yukito, is called Yukito, and in Japan it is believed that Yukito is the demon that brings the first snow of winter.

4, Kappa

Kappa is a very famous demon in both China and Japan, and wherever there is a river or pond, there is a legend of Kappa. The Kappa looks like a child, with a bird's beak, frog's limbs, a monkey's body, a turtle's shell, and a body covered with hard scales.

The head of the river child has a saucer-shaped thing, as long as the water inside is not dry, the river child is very powerful, human beings are far from being a rival, so people deal with the river child to trick the river child to bend down, and so on the top of the head of the bowl of water flow is exhausted, at the mercy of the people.

5, Tamamochi

As Japan's three major demons Tamamochi, legend has it that the body of the demon is a nine-tailed fox, which is specialized in transforming into a beautiful woman to confuse the king's demon.

This Tamamochi is golden in color all over and has nine tails, which are golden in color. It was later captured and sealed as a killing stone in Nasuno by Abe Haruaki on the orders of the Emperor, and was destroyed by the monk Gen-On during the Muromachi period, with its fragments dispersed throughout the land.

Extended information:

Japanese Mask Culture:

The history of masks in Japan has its origins in shell-made masks around the 3rd millennium BC, before earthen masks made their debut. In ancient times, the mask was an object made with the most primitive wish of mankind - to prolong life and prevent disasters, to get rid of evil spirits and to attract good fortune.

The earthen mask in the photo is recognized as having been made in the Jomon period, and is called a "bent-nosed earthen mask" based on its shape.

There are holes on both sides of the face for threading ropes, and traces of vermillion color can be seen on a part of the face, which suggests that special masks with red coloring on the whole face were used for rituals and religious activities.

There is a possibility that the mask-making was continued for hundreds of years after the Jomon period, but it has not been found in the artifacts unearthed so far.

After this period, in the Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods, a number of masks used in Buddhist rituals and artistic performances were introduced from mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. These were the kabuki mask, the dance mask, and the Gyodo mask. Kabuki is a type of song and dance that originated in the 3rd century in the Wu Kingdom in southern China, and it is claimed that people naturalized from Baekje introduced it to Japan during the Hidetori period.

This song and dance is a performance dedicated to the Buddha. The performers wear a large mask on the back of their heads and march in a procession to music while performing a skit, and then perform a performance at the temple where they are to arrive. Various characters appear in this procession. The one at the front wears a mask with a high nose and is followed by the roles of a lion, a lion's son, a go-gong, a go-nui, and so on.

Kabuki was performed at the puja ceremonies of temples all over the country, but declined from the Heian period onward. In the 8th century, songs and dances from all over Asia were introduced to Japan under the influence of China, and these songs and dances were combined and adapted to the Japanese customs and culture, and the Yagura was established as the center of the imperial court, and replaced the Kabuki as the mainstay of Japanese music and dance in the 9th and 10th centuries.

During this period, the music that accompanied the dances was called mairaku, and the masks used in the dances were called mairaku-men. The masks known as rengo are representative of mairaku-myeon, especially the more ornate masks of rengo with dragons riding on their heads, and the association with dragons is also linked to the beliefs of the common people of later times when they pray for rain.