KYOTO'S MOST HAUNTED SPOT
Capital for over 1000 years, Kyōto has had its fair share of ghosts, ghouls, & monsters, but one of the most celebrated is the demon-king Shuten-dōji (酒呑童子).

His head was buried on Mt. Ōe (大江山), and it is said he haunts the forest here still.

Kubizuka Daimyōjjin (首塚大明神 the 'Head Burial Mound Shrine') stands within a forest of giant cedars, close to the Oinosaka Pass (老ノ坂峠), an ancient road that acted as boundary between Yamashiro & Tanba provinces (山城国/丹波国). Many burial mounds have been discovered here.

There are countless retellings of this story, but the oldest is the 14th century 'Ōeyama Ekotoba' (大江山絵詞)

Kyōto had a problem.
Young women were going missing...so much so that Emperor Ichijō (一条天皇 980-1011) asked Abe-no-Seimei (安倍晴明) for help
#FolkloreThursday

Seimei determined that the Oni-king on Mt. Ōe was responsible, and in 995 the military leader Minamoto-no-Raikō (源頼光) set off to subjugate the band of demons.
He was joined by his 4 lieutenants (四天王 the 'Shitennō'), Fujiwara-no-Yasumasa (藤原保昌), & Fujiwara's secretary.

Deep in the mountains the party encountered 4 deities in disguise who advised them to dress as mountain priests, & gifted them a special jar of saké.

Continuing through a tunnel they came upon a woman doing laundry, one of the abducted women! She had a horrible tale to tell.
#鬼

The ogres initially made slaves of the abducted women, but over time had eaten many (making more kidnappings necessary)

Pretending to be monks, the group were given beds for the night. As darkness fell the ogre king invited them to drink and introduced himself as Shuten-dōji

Shuten-dōji (酒呑童子) was named 'saké-drinking boy' after his love for the drink.
Disguised as a human during the day, at night the ogre king return to his natural form: 50 ft. tall, red of body, with a 5-horned head & 15 eyes. He had 1 white leg, 1 black, 1 yellow arm, 1 blue.

In thanks for the hospitality, Raikō presented Shuten-dōji with the saké gifted to him by the mountain gods. Living up to his name the ogre king downed the drink and fell almost instantly unconscious.
As the ogres went to sleep, the warriors took took out their hidden swords...

Slaughtering the less powerful ogres first, Raikō's team then turned to Shuten-dōji. Knowing that even an unconscious ogre king is dangerous, Raikō covered his head in 3 helmets!
This was good fortune, for when he sliced off Shuten-dōji's head, it flew at him with snapping teeth.

With the head finally caught, the victorious band began the journey back home.
Some say the head ended up in Uji-no-Hōzō (宇治の宝蔵), the treasure house at Byōdō-in (平等院), but in another tale the group are stopped at Oi-no-Saka (老ノ坂 the 'Slope of Ageing') on Mt Ōe.
#Kyoto

By the road an image of Koyasu Jizō (子安地蔵 'Easy Childbirth Jizō') was enshrined. As they passed by, the statue remarked "Do not bring something so cursed & unclean to the capital".
The head grew heavy, roots springing forth & binding it to the ground, the flesh melting away!