00:09The Japanese culture is very rich in myths, ghost stories, urban legends and supernatural
00:16phenomena. In Japan, spirits and demons are popularly termed yokai. The word yokai means
00:23bewitching, attractive, calamity, spectre, apparition, mystery, and suspicious. Yokai
00:30are a class of supernatural monsters, spirits, and demons. They may be good, they may be evil,
00:38they may be in between, or they may just be mischievous. But there are three most dreaded
00:43monsters who, according to legend, pose the greatest threats to Japan's existence. They are
00:49the oni, the kitsune, and the tengu. And they still instill fear in the minds of the Japanese people
00:56even till today. Now I'll tell you their stories and how they rose to become the most feared yokai
01:01in all of Japan. 1. The Shuten Doji, popularly known as the oni. Before he became a legendary monster,
01:09Shuten Doji was a troublesome orphan child. He was very strong and very smart, so much so that people
01:16believed his father must have been a demon or a dragon. At an early age he was apprenticed to the
01:22Mount Hiwai temple complex and became a monk. However, monastic life did not suit him. He was
01:29disrespectful, he got into fights with the other monks, and he was lazy in his studies. He spent most
01:36of his time drinking sake, which is how he earned the nickname Shuten Doji, or little drunkard. One night
01:43during a festival, Shuten Doji got really drunk and decided to play pranks. He put on an oni mask and
01:50snuck around the festival, jumping out of the darkness and scaring festival goers. After the
01:56festival, he was unable to take the oni mask off. It had fused to his face, becoming a part of
02:02his body.
02:03When he sought help from the abbot, he was scolded for his wickedness. He was mocked and teased by the
02:10other monks for his ugliness. His heart became like an oni too, wicked, and full of anger.
02:17Shuten Doji left the monastery and fled into the mountains to live as a hermit. In his solitude,
02:23Shuten Doji grew to hate the world. He embraced his wickedness and began to study black magic.
02:30He used his power and wit to attack the merchants and travelers moving through his area.
02:36He kidnapped young men and women to drink their blood and eat their organs. With each passing year,
02:42he grew more powerful, and more violent. His infamy grew, and other wicked people began to flock to his
02:48cause. Like Shuten Doji, these people transformed into oni. Before long, Shuten Doji had become like a
02:56king to a small army of demons. Shuten Doji and his thugs built a castle on Maunto. He set his
03:04sights on
03:04wreaking vengeance upon the cruel world, and becoming ruler over all of Japan. Using the mountain as a
03:11base of operations, Shuten Doji's army began to attack the capital in greater frequency. Their kidnappings
03:18and murders attracted the attention of Emperor Iakiyo, who decided that Shuten Doji needed to be
03:24stopped before he became any more powerful. The Emperor commanded his bravest warrior,
03:30Raiko, to climb Maunto and bring back the head of Shuten Doji. Raiko and his men ventured into the
03:36mountains and found the army of oni inside their castle, drinking sake. They poisoned the sake,
03:43and when the oni had all fallen into a poison-induced drunken slumber, Raiko and his men snuck into the
03:49castle. They slew the oni one by one, and finally they reached Shuten Doji. Raiko swung his sword and
03:56sliced off the oni king's head. Shuten Doji was so powerful that even after he had been killed,
04:03his head continued to bite at the heroes. Eventually the head was buried outside of the city limits,
04:09where it could cause no more trouble, too. Tamamo no me, popularly called the kitsune. Tamamo no me was
04:17a wicked, shape-changing, nine-tailed fox whose evil was only matched by her ambition. She disguised
04:24herself as a human child and was found by an elderly couple who were unable to have children of their
04:29own. They named her Mikazume and raised her as their daughter. Mikazume grew to be an exceptionally
04:36talented and beautiful young woman, and attracted the attention of everyone around her. When she was
04:42seven years old, she recited poetry in front of Emperor Taba, who was so taken with her that he
04:47offered her a job as a servant of the imperial court. Mikazume excelled at court, absorbing knowledge
04:54like a sponge. There was no question she could not answer, whether it was about music, history,
05:00astronomy, religion, or Chinese classics. Her clothes were always clean and unwrinkled. She always smelled
05:08pleasant. Mikazume had the most beautiful face in all of Japan, and everyone who saw her loved her.
05:15One summer, during a poetry recital, a powerful rainstorm hit. The candles in the recital room were
05:22snuffed out by the wind. Suddenly, a bright light emanated from Mikazume's body, illuminating the room.
05:29Everybody at the recital was shocked, and it was declared that she must have had an exceedingly
05:35good and holy past life. Mikazume was given the name Tamarmonome, and Emperor Taba, already exceedingly
05:42fond of her, made her into his consort. Shortly afterwards, Emperor Taba became gravely ill. The
05:49country's best physicians could not figure out what was wrong with him. The highest priests prayed for
05:55him to get better, but he only grew worse. Sorcerers were called in to divine the cause of his illness.
06:02According to the sorcerers, the Emperor was being made sick by someone close to him. They suspected
06:08that Tamarmonome was actually a fox in disguise, but the Emperor refused to believe that his beloved
06:15could be something wicked. In fact, she had been using her magic to shorten the Emperor's life, and was
06:21responsible for his condition. Tamarmonome was ordered to participate in the divine rituals to
06:27save the Emperor's life. The sorcerers reasoned that if she were an evil spirit, she would not be able to
06:34recite the holy words or perform the ritual. She was reluctant to participate, for she was afraid of
06:40what would happen when the sorcerers identified her as the cause of the Emperor's illness. But due to
06:46court decorum, she had little choice. She recited the holy words and played her part extremely well.
06:53But just as she was about to wave the ceremonial staff, she vanished. The sorcerers' suspicions were
07:00confirmed. The Emperor summoned his best warriors and ordered them to find Tamarmonome. An army of
07:0780,000 men were sent forth to hunt her down. News came that a nine-tailed fox had been spotted
07:13in the
07:14east. The army chased her all the way to the plains of Nasano. The night before she was caught, Tamarmonome
07:21appeared to an archer named Mia Nosyuk in a dream. She was crying. She told him that tomorrow he would
07:28find
07:28her, and she begged him to spare her life. Her beauty was indescribable. She appeared so pitiable.
07:35But Mia Nosyuk's sense of duty was stronger than his sense of pity, and he rejected her plea.
07:42The next day Mia Nosyuk spotted an iron-tailed fox on the plains. He fired two arrows at it, piercing
07:49its side and neck. The swordsman Kazusa Nosyuk swung his blade at its head. The fox fell,
07:56and Tamarmonome's life ended. The army returned to Kyoto with the fox's body as proof of her defeat.
08:04However, Tamarmonome's evil did not end with her death. One year after she died, Emperor Kono died,
08:11airless. The following year, her lover, the former Emperor Taba, died as well. This paved the way for a
08:18succession crisis that spelled the end of imperial power in Japan and allowed the rise of the first
08:24shoguns. 3. Emperor Sutaku, popularly known as Teng-u. Emperor Sutaku rose to the throne when he
08:32was just a child. Though official records stated that Sutaku was the eldest son of Emperor Taba,
08:38it was an open secret that he was actually sired by Taba's father, the retired Emperor Shirekawa.
08:45Shirekawa wielded considerable power behind the throne in his retirement, and he forced Taba to
08:50abdicate in favor of the young Sutaku, whom Shirekawa could control much more easily than
08:56the older and more ambitious Taba. After Shirekawa died, Taba became the power behind the throne.
09:03Taba hated Sutaku, whom he considered a bastard son. He enacted his revenge upon Sutaku by convincing the
09:10young emperor to appoint Taba's son as his successor and join him in retirement. Sutaku did so,
09:17and Kono, at only three years old, became the new emperor. Kono was entirely the puppet of his
09:23further Taba. He had all Sutaku's supporters transferred to distant provinces and filled the
09:30capital with people loyal to Taba. Emperor Kono was sickly his whole life. He passed away, childless,
09:37at the age of seventeen. This sparked a succession crisis between Taba's next oldest son and Sutaku's
09:44son, both of whom had a claim on the throne. The imperial court, full of Taba's supporters,
09:51decided in favor of Taba's son, Goshirekawa. When Taba died the following year, Sutaku's
09:57supporters attempted to overthrow the young emperor Goshirekawa. There was a brief and bloody fight,
10:04but the rebellion was quickly put down. Goshirekawa's revenge against the rebels was merciless.
10:10They and their families were executed, and Sutaku was banished to Sanuki province. Sutaku lived out
10:18the remainder of his life in exile as a monk. He shaved his head and devoted his efforts to hand
10:23copying the holy sutras. After years of work, Sutaku sent his prayer scrolls and the manuscripts to
10:31Kyoto as an offering for the imperial temples. Goshirekawa suspected that Sutaku may have cursed
10:37the work, and refused to accept them. Instead, he had the manuscripts sent back to Sutaku. This rejection
10:45proved to be the final straw for the exiled emperor. Sutaku bit off his own tongue, and as he bled
10:52to
10:52death he wrote in his own blood a powerful curse against Japan and the emperor. He poured all of his
10:58hatred and resentment from his entire life into that curse. As he bled, he transformed into a great
11:05tengu. His nails and his hair grew long, and he never cut them again for the rest of his life.
11:11When Sutaku passed away, his body was set aside while his caretakers awaited funeral instructions from
11:17the emperor. After 20 days, his body was still as fresh as it had been on the day he died.
11:24Goshirekawa
11:25ordered that nobody should go into mourning, and that no state funeral would be held. While his coffin
11:31was taken to be cremated, a terrible storm rolled in. The caretakers placed the casket on the ground
11:38to take shelter. After the storm passed, the stones around the casket were soaked with fresh blood.
11:44When his body was finally cremated, the ashes rose into the sky, and descended upon Kyoto as a dark
11:51cloud. For many years after his death, disaster upon disaster struck the capital. Goshirekawa's
11:59successor, Emperor Naijo, died suddenly at age 23. Storms, plagues, fires, droughts, and earthquakes all
12:08pounded the capital. Imperial power weakened. Clan rivalries grew more and more violent. Many of Goshirekawa's
12:17allies were killed in battles, and the country stepped closer and closer towards disaster.
12:23Finally, in 1180, civil war broke out. After five years of bloody fighting, the power of the imperial
12:30court was drained, and the Kamara Shogunate seized control of Japan. All of this was attributed to
12:37Emperor Sataku's curse. There are tales that Sataku's vengeance lingers even today. In 2012, when NHK
12:46broadcast the historical drama Terinokiyomari, an earthquake struck the Kanta region right at the
12:52moment when Emperor Sataku laid his curse. Of all the evil spirits out there in Japan, none of them has
12:58brought so much destruction and calamity as much as the Unik, the Kitsun and the Tengu. These three have
13:05brought terrors and caused dread for generations, not just among the indigenous people of Japan, but also
13:11outside the country. And so, that is how they became the three most dreaded yokai of Japan.
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