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No.054

Ibaraki-doji

THE ONI WHO CAME BACK FOR HIS ARM

Ibaraki-doji
Pixel artOriginal art by Pixel Yokai
"The Old Woman Carrying Off the Demon's Arm" from New Forms of Thirty-six Ghosts
For reference: old artTsukioka Yoshitoshi（1889）
"The Old Woman Carrying Off the Demon's Arm" from New Forms of Thirty-six Ghosts
Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
Japanese name
茨木童子（IBARAKI-DOJI）
Type
Oni
Found in
Mount Oe and the old capital, Kyoto
Where the legend lives
  • Kyoto — Ichijo Modoribashi bridge, said to be where Watanabe no Tsuna cut off the oni's arm. Some versions set it at the Rashomon gate instead

◆ The legend

Among the oni who served Shuten-doji, the chief of Mount Oe, the one known as his top follower is Ibaraki-doji. When Minamoto no Raiko and his four retainers stormed Mount Oe, many oni were slain, but Ibaraki-doji is often said to have escaped, and several stories tell what happened next. Where it came from is not settled: one theory says Settsu's Ibaraki (in today's Osaka Prefecture), another says Echigo (today's Niigata), and there are others.

The best-known Ibaraki-doji story is about an arm. In the capital, one of the four retainers, Watanabe no Tsuna, cut off the oni's arm, and later, it's said, the oni came back in human disguise to take it home. Because it so often appears as a beautiful woman or an old woman to get close to people, Ibaraki-doji is frequently pictured as an oni with a gift for disguise, and it became a familiar figure on the Noh and Kabuki stage.

◆ Stories about this yokai

Coming Back for the Arm — Watanabe no Tsuna and Ibaraki-dojiIbaraki-doji is said to be Shuten-doji's right-hand man, but its most famous story begins on a bridge in the capital, not on Mount Oe. An arm cut off by Watanabe no Tsuna, and the oni who came back for it. A gentle walk from Ichijo Modoribashi and the Rashomon gate to the Noh and Kabuki stage.