Oni (myth)

This article is about the Japanese myth. For the game, see Oni.

Bungie's rendition of the oni (demon) kanji. The corresponding Chinese is guǐ 鬼 (ghost). See also dǎo dàn guǐ 捣蛋鬼 (troublemaker).

Traditional depictions of oni

Many people give the translation for "oni" as "demon", but below we examine more accurate terms for the various depictions of oni in Japanese stories. On the whole, it will be seen that a modern oni is always some kind of minor evil in the flesh that afflicts, threatens, or sometimes even ignores humans. This is in contrast to the usual use of the word "demon" in English, which refers to the fallen angels in the Bible, who are immaterial and who can possess humans. In fact, a much closer translation, looking at the Eastern depictions of an oni, would be "ogre", "beast" or "monster", but not "demon", which more closely corresponds to the Japanese word "akuma" ("evil being").

Imps

In traditional Buddhist-Japanese mythology, the oni are the exact counterparts of Christian imps (or devils with a small D). Some would guard the gates of Buddhist hell, while others would hunt down bad people and bring them to hell, and others would actually torture the bad people in hell. It's exactly what Christian imps do, so it's a pretty exact analogy. Recurrent features of oni were somewhat improbable skin color, two small horns on the forehead, a big club (imps have forks instead), and they were dressed in tiger skins. The iron club is called a kanabō.

Ghosts

Before the influence of Buddhism, oni may have been depicted as immaterial spirits like the yurei, which needed to be driven out through yin-yang magic. Instead of being the "official enforcers of the underworld", they would infest sacred places and prey on humans. However, the concept of oni eventually crystallized into a more solid form.

Ogres

The theme of the monstrous, man-like enemy that must be slain by samurai or a demon-hunter resembles Western (Greek, Medieval, Slavic) heroes and the mythological beasts they were said to have slain. As opposed to the Buddhist "imps" or the Shinto "ghosts", this is more secular mythology, closer to the fantasy genre than a moral tale belonging to religion.

An example is found in one of the stories of the demon hunter Raiko. While in Kyoto, he and his five greatest knights hear tell of an oni that preys on travelers near the great gate Rashoumon, the southern gate on the main road through Kyoto. One of his retainers, Watanabe, volunteers to see if this is true, and if so, slay the oni and hang a talisman with all of their names on the gate's handle. Sure enough, he encounters an oni there, but only succeeds in severing one of its arms and driving it off.

Ogre-like men

Earthquake Mr. Big, an ogre-like character for Oni 2 (geyser's take), reminiscent of Musashibo Benkei.

Occasionally people of exceptional size and/or strength can be described as "oni". The most notable such figure in Japanese folklore is (Saitō) Musashibō Benkei, a large warrior monk who lived in the late XII century.

Apart from tales of his conflicted loyalty as a servant of samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Benkei's uncommon size and strength gave rise to folkloric accounts of incredible feats, both in his youth and as a grown man. Benkei's birth and childhood, in particular, are heavily laden with myth and intertwined with tales of the demon child "Oniwakamaru" (Benkei himself was apparently called Oniwaka 鬼若 in his young years); one such tale is the one of Oniwakamaru (young Benkei) fighting a giant carp fish. Benkei's death is remarkably iconic and demon-like as well: unbeatable in close combat, he was ridden with arrows from afar and allegedly died standing, scaring off his enemies long after his heart had ceased to beat.

Beyond the heavily exaggerated Oniwakamura myth, the oni theme persists in depictions of Benkei's adolescence, most notably in the Mii-dera bell episode, where he playfully stole a large bell from a rival monastery, brought it to his own, and later threw the bell away because it gave out a nostalgic ring (as if saying "I want to go back"). In some accounts Benkei is shown dragging the bell along with a rope, but in many others he is carrying the huge bell on his back, sometimes using a large metal bar for leverage as in the account linked above. In several depictions, this iron bar is pictured to be Benkei's own weapon, a "kanabō 金棒", and Benkei himself is pictured as a hulking monster of a man, with lots of hair and muscle. Arguably THIS drawing of the Mii-dera bell episode is the most herculean/oni-like rendition of Benkei.

Last but not least, Benkei's legendary affinity for powerful weapons has evolved into a myth of its own: "Benkei's seven tools" that are often displayed on Benkei's back. Along with an ordinary sword, the aforementioned kanabō or tetsubō (iron club) and the naginata typical of warrior monks (a lance with a crescent-shaped blade), the seven tools can include: an axe (masakari), a rake (kumade), a saw (nokogiri), a sickle (nagigama) and a mallet (hizuchi). On a perhaps unrelated note, it is Benkei's playful quest for collecting 1000 samurai swords that led to his fight with Yoshitsune, following which Benkei was humbled and served the rest of his life as Yoshitsune's "retainer".

Aliens

As seen in contemporary anime, Japan's view of the oni has mellowed somewhat; oni might simply be immortal, aloof, selfish beings, superior to humans but with no clear intentions about them. In some cases they are clearly depicted like Western ogres. Some oblivious, some malicious, some downright malevolent. Some, however, could feel sympathy or pity for the humans and defend them against a greater evil (end-of-all-worlds kind). But mostly they're just outsiders, aliens in the mortal world.

A classic modern example of oni is found in Urusei Yatsura, where Lum (pictured below) and her relatives are aliens (an alien race literally called "Oni") who are sent to (fairly benevolently) conquer Earth. Their powers include flying, breathing fire, and shocking electrically. Lum has the typical two horns of an oni, but they're mostly hidden by her hair.

Satire

Occasionally the modern take on oni is a bit more satirical, as in the case of George Saotome (below, center) from YuYu Hakusho, who appears to be a traditional monstrous oni in tiger skins, but who is actually a mild-mannered, harried office worker, assisting the ruler of Spirit World. In Dragon Ball Z, Goku accidentally falls into Hell and encounters Goz and Mez (below, right), who challenge him to physical competitions. They display the traditional red and blue coloring and have one and two horns, as well as carrying kanabō (their names also come directly from this Gozu and Mezu).

File:Lum.jpg	File:George from YYH.jpg	File:Goz and Mez from DBZ.jpg
Lum (Urusei Yatsura)	George (YuYu Hakusho)	Goz and Mez (Dragon Ball Z)

Further reading

• Oni folklore on Wikipedia
• Oniko's Gallery; draws the connections between Buddhist oni and the ones in contemporary anime
• and a lot more

Meaning in Slavic languages

In Russian, "oni" means "them". Since the title was transliterated into Cyrillic characters, some Russian gamers tend to assume that the game is actually called "Them", which just so happens to convey the same creepy ambiguity as "Oni". Most of the other Slavic languages, such as Polish and Czech, also use "oni" for "them" or "they", creating the same potential for confusion as in Russian.

Real origin of name

A few words from the masters

I think Oni is a pretty cool guǐ. Seh fights Stirkers and doesn't afraid of anything. Iritscen, hapécat-in-chief Don't listen to that guǐ. geyser, syndicate accessory

As explained here, "Oni" was originally going to be the game's code name during development.

Brent Pease, who first formulated the idea for the game, asked for the Japanese word for "ghost", as a reference to his inspiration, Ghost in the Shell.

It turned out that the Japanese term oni 鬼 does not accurately translate as "ghost", and is used more typically for demons-in-flesh.

However, in Chinese the term guǐ 鬼 does indeed mean "ghost" in the usual immaterial spooky sense. In compounds, its meanings range from "person" (neutral) - similar to "guy" in English - to "stranger" or "paleface" (pejorative). The most Oni-relevant compound is dǎo dàn guǐ 捣蛋鬼 (troublemaker).

As later explained by Hardy LeBel (the story lead) here, in writing the story he tried to incorporate the real (Japanese) meaning(s) of "oni" into the game. Speculation on the ways he did this are found below.

Connections to the game

Real reason for the name aside, does the name of the game manifest itself in any way within the story?

Monsters

The game's writer, Hardy, wrote a post on our forum (linked to in the "Real origin" section above) about incorporating the meaning of the game's name into the story. It appears that he leaned towards the translation of "oni" as "monster". If one searches Oni's dialogue for "monster", a theme develops from the five occurrences of the term. First, Barabas is described as a monster (see "Barabas" section below to see how Hardy applied myths about the oni to Barabas). Then Konoko describes Muro and his men as monsters, fearful that the Chrysalis will do the same to her. During her attack on the TCTF HQ, Konoko tells an unnamed NPC that she was made into a monster when she was implanted with the Chrysalis. But Konoko has not fully decided whether she is any better than Muro and his men until the point at which the player has to decide whether to kill Griffin. Each scenario, sparing him and killing him, contains separate "outro" lines which use the word "monster". If she spares Griffin, Konoko says that she won't be "the monster you thought I would be". If she kills Griffin, Konoko puts the blame on him for her actions, calling him a monster for what he did to her.

Finally, though the game refers to him as "Mutant" Muro, Muro's transformation in the killed-Griffin scenario is certainly monstrous, and no doubt intended to reflect Konoko's own choice to take Griffin's life and what that might portend for her development as a symbiote.

Red oni & blue oni

As TV Tropes explains here, oni are most often depicted as red and blue. Over time, personalities were associated with these colors and used as character tropes. While normally the red-oni character is the fiery one and the blue-oni character is the cool, collected one, this can be inverted too. It's probably worth noting here that Konoko's Daodan aura is blue and Muro's is red ;-)

Transformation through anger

As a Portuguese article states, "It is also said that a man with anger will transform into an oni. Japanese folklore also says that a wife of great jealousy will become a Hannya, that is, a female oni. [...] The Buddhist oni is not always an evil force; in the Buddhist legends there are stories of monks who, after death, became oni in order to protect their temples from disasters. The belief in oni reached its zenith in the 18th and 19th centuries."

At the very least, this describes Mutant Muro well. For that matter, all the known Daodan symbiotes are violent individuals. Barabas is an elite Striker, and Mukade tempts Mai to come over to the dark side and 'embrace the oblivion'; Mai ends their fight with gratuitous violence. Kerr tells her later that her final form will be a manifestation of her true self, leaving us to wonder if her true self is naughty or nice, and what appearance this will result in.

Incidentally, mukade are large centipedes native to Japan. Pagan mythology depicts giant versions of these things alongside gods, dragons and other beasts. As opposed to e.g. dragons, the Mukade were irredeemably vile, so of all the beast-gods they're the most likely to fall in the category of oni, super-oni even.... See Mukade's page for more.

Barabas

The Japanese have a saying, "oni ni kanabo", "like an oni with its iron club". The phrase conveys the concept of an already strong entity with a weapon to make it even stronger. In line with that, Barabas is already represented as a very strong fighter, and on top of that, he has the game's biggest weapon in his hands when Konoko first confronts him.

But there's more. Barabas also possesses a regenerative ability, which is an occasional attribute of oni, as well as horns, and to top it all off, he's guarding a gate, as many oni do in folk tales. Coincidence?

Miscellany

• Dark Horse's comics series (scans here) works in the original understood meaning of "oni", "ghosts". Thus, in issue 1, "Syndicate thieves have been spreading rumors of a ghost-like entity that attacks them after successful jobs and steals their loot". In issues 2 and 3, "mysterious 'ghosts' are plaguing Syndicate operations, and Agent Konoko, while investigating the Syndicate, finds out what these 'ghosts' are."

• The Iron Demon is an oni (demon), at least in name. The "Iron" may be a reference to the kanabo, discussed in the "Barabas" section above. The Dark Horse comic runs the risk of being too on the nose by also equipping the Iron Demon with a literal iron club.

Alternate universe titles for Oni

What if Brent had received an accurate response that day as to the Japanese word for "ghost"? Well, the most common words for ghost seem to be youkai, yurei, youma, and konpaku. So in an alternate universe, it could be that we're all big "Youma" fans or avid players of "Youkai".

It's probably worth pointing out here that an "ou" is one of the ways of representing the long 'o' sound in the standard Hepburn romanization system. The sound can also be written as an 'o' with a macron: ō. Since most English speakers don't know the proper reading of "ou", they would be inclined to pronounce "youma" as "yuu-ma" when it should really be said "yoh-ma". So presumably Bungie would have ended up just writing it "Yoma" or "Yokai" to avoid confusion if Brent had used one of those words for the project's code name instead of "Oni".

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Coincidence?

捣 - D ǎ O 蛋 - D à N 鬼 - G U ǐ | 鬼

Alternatively, it may have made sense to call the project "Dǎo Dàn Guǐ" 捣蛋鬼 (which is Chinese for "troublemaker", or "trouble-making ghost/spirit/demon" if taking the last symbol literally/fundamentally). Appropriately echoing Shirow's "Kōkaku Kidōtai", such a title would have emphasized the historical source of the "oni" kanji 鬼 (referencing a language where "ghost" actually was its primary meaning), and it would also have highlighted Oni's core concept (the Daodan Chrysalis), which breaks every balance and sends the world tumbling into uncertainty.

Apparently it was deemed that "Oni" was catchier and snappier (and spookier?) as a title. Admittedly, "Dǎo Dàn Guǐ" (or even "Yōkai") doesn't exactly roll off the tongue for a non-otaku, whereas "oni" is mainstream enough to have a Wikipedia article in English, so it's one of those Japanese words that sound exotic yet "work" without a translation. The deep ambiguity of the "Oni" title - not clearly meaning "ghost" or "demon", and not even clearly singular or plural - was another possible plus.

If Bungie had settled for an English translation of "Dǎo Dàn Guǐ" instead, we could have known Oni as "Rebel Spirit(s)". Or "Stirring Demon(s)". Or "Restless Souls".