Is it true, that Oni hide in the black tombs of Adachigahara in the deep northeast?
The silent depths of Autumn in Adachigahara in northeast Japan... Later in the evening, when the temperature started to drop, the woman went into the mountains to gather firewood. But before leaving, she gave the group of men strict orders never to look into her bedroom. Thinking the woman suspicious, one of Yukei's men broke the promise and peeked into the woman's bedroom where he found a countless number of human corpses. Shocked by the stench of the dead bodies, he woke the other men, and together, they all left the house in a great hurry. A little while later, the woman returned and saw that she had been betrayed. In her fury, she manifested her true nature, as an Oni, and swinging an iron bar, chased after the men. Yukei, with a prayer to the guardian deities, began to fight her, all the while rubbing a string of prayer beads. At the end of a seemingly eternal battle, the Oni was finally subdued by the power of Yukei's chants. Letting out a terrible scream, in anger that its true nature was exposed, the Oni disappeared into the night wind.
The oni mind
In contrast with other Noh plays such as "Dojoji," "Aoi no ue," and "Kanawa," it is not the vengeance of lost love that triggers the manifestation of the Oni nature in the tale of "Adachigahara," but rather, the internal emotion of shame. With the secrets of her numerous passions exposed, her sense of shame reaches its limits and manifests itself as an Oni The story is only beautifully human.
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