Amanojaku

What it is

The amanojaku is a demon-like creature from Japanese folklore, where it sits among the yokai, the strange beings of local story. Texts count it as a wicked ogre-god, or akukijin, and as a small ogre, a ko-oni. Its defining trait is contrariness: told to do one thing, it does the other. It is said to read human hearts, mimic people's words, stir up their darkest wishes and nudge them into wicked acts. In Buddhist temple art it takes a humbler position, a small demon trampled beneath guardians such as the Four Heavenly Kings or Vajrapani, and appearing as the ogre face on the belly of Bishamonten's armour. In Japan today the word names a person who contradicts others on principle.

Where it comes from

The name means 'heavenly evil spirit', and two streams feed it. One is Buddhist and Chinese: an ogre-faced water spirit called Kahaku, the River Earl, and a second water spirit, Kaijaku, whose Japanese reading is 'Amanojaku', merged with a native Japanese being of the same name. In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki the roots lie with two gods. Amenowakahiko, whom the goddess Amaterasu sent to settle the Central Land of Reed Plains, stayed away, married Okuninushi's daughter, and shot the messenger pheasant Nakime on Amenosagume's advice; heaven sent the arrow back and killed him. Amenosagume, a shamanistic figure able to track heaven's movements, see ahead and read hearts, was later recast as a hindering demon of heaven. The Edo-period Wakan Sansai Zue also names Amanozako, born of a fierce spirit that Susanoo vomited up, as considered ancestor of both the amanojaku and the tengu.

Peoples and places

Traditions differ sharply by region. In parts of Akita, Ibaraki, Gunma and Shizuoka prefectures the name belongs to the echo beings Kodama and Yamabiko: a repeated voice in the hills is the amanojaku copying it. In districts of Tochigi, Toyama and Gifu it names the Yamauba, the mountain crone. Around Hakone and Izu it was a giant; one legend says it tried to pull down Mount Fuji, and the spilled soil became the island Izu Oshima. In Iwate it lives in hearth ash, and in the Tohoku region it can mean a chrysalis. A superstition in Hiraka District, Akita, held that it babysits infants and keeps them from crying. Its best-known tale is Urikohime: a princess born from a melon lets the creature inside, and it kidnaps or devours her, in some versions wearing her flayed skin to take her place.

What people believe

The core idea is reversal. The amanojaku stands opposed to orders, to teachings and to the people it teases. In Buddhist thought it embodies bonno, the tangle of human earthly desires, and its image beneath the feet of guardian deities shows those desires subdued; in that setting it is also called jaki, a wicked demon opposed to the teachings. Folk belief holds that it reads what a person is thinking and mimics their words. In the mountains, people said, an echo was the amanojaku answering back. Its mischief is said to work on the heart, stirring a person's darkest wishes and coaxing them into wicked deeds.

Today

The word has moved into everyday Japanese: an amanojaku is now a contrarian, someone who speaks or acts against what others or the majority think. That trait shapes the creature's screen and page appearances. In the tokusatsu (special-effects) show Guruguru Medaman it sows conflict among friends; in Ninja Sentai Kakuranger it makes people mean-spirited. In the anime Ghost Stories one is sealed inside the hero's pet cat, and in the Touhou Project games the amanojaku Seija Kijin can turn things over. In Shin Megami Tensei it kills and impersonates the hero's mother, and a Yu-Gi-Oh trap card swaps attack and defence gains in a nod to its contrary nature. A Tokyo taiko drumming group takes its name too.

Questions people ask about Amanojaku

Good reading and sources

• Amanojaku on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data