Shuten-dōji
Japanese · deity · mid heian · deity
He is killed by trickery and hospitality: Yorimitsu's party arrive dressed as mountain ascetics, are made welcome, produce poisoned sake, and cut his head off while he sleeps — and the head, in the best-known version, flies up and bites the helmet of the man holding the sword. The method is precisely Susanoo's with the serpent, eight hundred years later and with the monster given a name, a mountain and a grievance. This registry records named yōkai and not yōkai as kinds, and he is the standing reason the distinction matters.
Domains
- demons
- cannibalism
Relations
- killed by: Minamoto no Yorimitsu
- companion: Tamamo-no-Mae
Sources
- Reference treatments of Shuten-dōji and of the three great yōkai.