Oni

“ The gentle fairies which we meet with on English soil are not here; nor, on the other hand, do the imps and demons in the Japanese world seem to have as much power as those under the shadow of the Scandinavian precipices or in the twilight of German forests. There are mighty dragons, there are imps and demons, to be sure; but the oni that lurks everywhere in Japan is rather a sly, mischievous fellow, than one armed with supernatural powers. ”

“ After that, the funny old woman stayed a long time in the house of the oni, and every day cooked food for him and for all his friends. The oni never hurt or frightened her, and her work was made quite easy by the magic paddle, although she had to cook a very, very great quantity of rice, because an oni eats much more than any human being eats.
But she felt lonely, and always wished very much to go back to her own little house, and make her dumplings; and one day, when the oni were all out somewhere, she thought she would try to run away. ”

“ The Oni put her in a boat and rowed away across a river to his castle. There she cooked for him such dishes as he had never before tasted, and they were good.
But when she came to make rice dumplings, the Oni said to her, “You are a good cook, but you are wasteful. When you cook rice put but one grain into the pot.”
“One grain!” she cried. “Tee-hee-hee! how could any one live on one grain of rice?”
“I will show you,” said the Oni. “For though you are a woman and think you know much, there are some things which I know better than you.”
Sanja was silent ”

“ Enter Browfildora and Oniate.
Oni. This is a challenge! Prythee, my small friend,
May not a man take th' height of my lord's spirit,
Looking on thee?
Brow. Pray, sir, leave off your mirth,
And write my lord your answer.
Oni. Little sir,
I never learnt that pretty quality:
I cannot write; only by word of mouth——
Brow. Your place, sir?
Oni. The market-place.
Brow. 'Tis fantastic: and my lord will take it ill.
Your weapons, sir. ”

“ Well, it is because some say the child-ghosts must build little towers of stones for penance in the Sai-no-Kawara, which is the place to which all children after death must go. And the Oni, who are demons, come to throw down the little stone-piles as fast as the children build ”

“ ODIN The Father of Gods and Men ODIN, Wuotan, or Woden was the highest and holiest god of the Northern races. He was the all-pervading spirit of the universe, the personification of the air, the god of universal wisdom and victory, and the leader and protector of princes and heroes. ”

“ Ohonihe or Daijowe.—The Yengishiki places the Ohonihe in a class by itself, as much the most solemn and important festival of the Shinto religion. Oho means great, and nihe food offering. It was substantially a more elaborate and sumptuous Nihi-name (new-tasting) , or festival of first fruits, performed soon after the accession of a Mikado to the throne, and, like our coronation ceremony, constituting the formal religious sanction of his sovereignty. ”

“ A mythical history of the creation of the world, and of the doings of a number of gods and goddesses, the chief of whom, namely, the Sun Goddess, was the ancestress of the human rulers of Japan, while from the subordinate deities were sprung the principal noble families who formed their court. Add to this a ceremonial comprising liturgies in honour of these deities and we have the Shinto religion. ”

“ Sabaism, therefore, and Ophiolatreia were all one with Gadelianism; and while, apparently, purporting to be the worship of the serpent and the stars, were in reality the worship of the Sabh or Yoni—so that the dialogue in Genesis between Eve and the serpent, was, in truth, a parley between Eve and the Yoni: and the materials for the allegory were afforded by [Pg 506] the fact of serpent and yoni being both expressed in the sacred, i.e. Irish language, by one and the same name, just as the Lingam and the Tree of Knowledge have been before identified. ”

“ Among the negroes of the West Indies, Obi, or Obiah, is the name of a magical power, which is believed by them to affect the object of its malignity with dismal calamities. Such a belief must undoubtedly have been deduced from the superstitious mythology of their kinsmen on the coast of Africa. I have, therefore, personified Obi as the evil spirit of the African, although the history of the African tribes mentions the evil spirits of their religious creed by a different appellation. ”

“ Many people are sure that the Onis live in the clouds and occasionally fall off, during a peal of thunder. Then they escape and hide down in a well. Or, they get loose in the kitchen, rattle the dishes around, and make a great racket. ”

“ Buddhist priests also continued to contribute to the literature of the art, and before the end of the fifteenth century some twenty dramas were regarded as the classics of the Nô. That prince of dilettante, Yoshimasa, who has already been seen extending lavish patronage to the tea cult, the incense cult, the landscape-garden cult and art in every form, gave a new impetus to the Nô by officially declaring it a ceremonious accomplishment of military men. ”

“ In Japan we have also evidence of their existence. This country, now inhabited by the Niphonians, or Japanese, as we have come to call them, was previously the home of the Ainu, a white, hairy under-sized race, possibly, even probably, emigrants from Europe, and now gradually dying out in Yezo and the Kurile Islands. Prior to the Ainu was a Negrito race, whose connection with the former is a matter of much dispute, whose remains in the shape of pit-dwellings, stone arrow-heads, pottery, and other implements still exist, and will be found fully described by Mr. ”

“ Fifth tablet of the exploits of . . . .
Here we see a picture of Oriental feeling with reference to natural phenomenon or disaster to mankind. It is supposed that some deity or angel stands with a sword over the devoted people and sweeps them into eternity.
What these Babylonians had been guihy of the record is not perfect enough to show. The first fragment shows the anger of Anu at their sin or supposed sin and his command to Lubara to take his weapon, slay the people, and desolate the land like the God Ner. ”

“ Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on hoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent certain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the mystic meaning of O —— I have elsewhere called attention to the idea that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil spirits ”

“ but he lectures with such ardour that he quite forgets himself. I once listened to him. As long as he was holding forth about the Assyrians and Babylonians, it was all right ; ”

“ He toils not, neither does he spin, yet Solomon in all his glory never lay upon a door-mat all day long, sun-soaked and fly-fed and fat, while his master worked for the means wherewith to purchase the idle wag of the Solomonic tail, seasoned with a look of tolerant recognition. ”

“ These vessels of verse, O Great Goddess, are filled with invisible tears,
With the sobs and sweat of my spirit and her desolate brooding for years;
See, I lay them — not on thine altar, for they are unpolished and plain,
Not rounded enough by the potter, too much burnt in the furnace of pain;
But here in the dust, in the shadow, with a sudden wild leap of the heart
I kneel to tenderly kiss them, then in silence arise to depart.
I linger awhile at the portal with the light of the crimsoning sun
On my wreathless brow bearing the badges of battles I've fought in not won. ”

“ I often imagine that the longer he studies English literature the more the Japanese student must be astonished at the extraordinary predominance given to the passion of love both in fiction and in poetry. ”

“ The blossom itself has no special excellence ; it is as cherry blossoms are everywhere. But by massing the trees in positions that lend themselves to a coup-d'œil, by arching them over long avenues beside broad rivers, and by setting them in a framework of exquisite scenery, there are produced glowing effects and harmonious contrasts which, enhanced by the opalescent atmosphere of a Japanese spring, are worthy of the passionate enthusiasm they arouse. ”

“ I find my earliest memories covering the anachronistic features of a previous incarnation. Clear recollections came to me of a distant life, a yogi 1-3 amidst the Himalayan snows. These glimpses of the past, by some dimensionless link, also afforded me a glimpse of the future. ”

“ So rode one sunset olden
Across the dark'ning sea,
With banners silk and golden,
The Barge of Antony!
They loom along the foreshores; they gleam across the Straits;
They guide the feet of Commerce unto the harbor gates.
In nights of storm and thunder, thro' fog and sleet and rain,
Like stars on angels' foreheads, they give man heart again, —
Oh, hear the high waves smashing
On Patagonia's shore! ”

“ "And to think of this great country in danger of being dominated by people ignorant enough to take a few ancient Babylonian legends as the canons of modern culture. Our scientific men are paying for their failure to speak out earlier. There is no use now talking evolution to these people. Their ears are stuffed with Genesis." ”

“ The Yogi teaches that the mind itself has a higher state of existence, beyond reason, a superconscious state, and when the mind gets to that higher state, then this knowledge, beyond reasoning, comes to man. Metaphysical and transcendental knowledge comes to that man. ”

“ Not only from garment or eyes, but from anything or anywhere, indeed, even from a cough, our ancient deities, it was supposed, had such a power or magic to produce anything and everything by their free will, and they inspired their own personalities into the things they created. All the phenomena thus exhibited were, in our ancient Japanese mind, nothing but the symbol of life’s active spirit; the great reverence of our forefathers toward the deities or gods was only fierce adoration or praising expression toward the power or strength which overflows from the bosoms of mighty personalities. ”

“ Synods are mystical bear-gardens, 1095
Where elders, deputies, church-wardens,
And other members of the court,
Manage the Babylonish sport; ”

“ Peoples and nations exalt thee, and the awe of thy terror is in the hearts of men, and Spirt-souls, and the dead. Thy soul dwelleth in Tetu, and the awe of thee is in Hensu. Thou settest the visible emblems of thyself in Anu, and the majesty of thy transformations in the holy place. I have come unto thee. Truth is in my heart, and in my breast there is neither craft nor guile. Grant thou that I may have my being among the living, and that I may sail up and down the river among those who are in thy following. ”

“ I dare say that it would do justice to class it with the common pantheism or Nature-worship you find in ordinary barbarous tribes; when Japanese scholars like Motoori declare that the gods or deities of old Japanese mind were human beings, it is from their belief that the conception of gods should be based on the true realisation of life’s fire.
Therefore, where was the real expression of life was a deity; there are no men who created so many gods or deities as the old Japanese ”

“ Malignant and uncanny beings are also called Kami if only they are the objects of general dread. [3] Among Kami who are human beings I need hardly mention first of all the successive Mikados—with reverence be it spoken...... Then there have been numerous examples of divine human beings, both in ancient and modern times, who, although not accepted by the nation generally, are treated as gods, each of his several dignity, in a single province, village, or family...... Amongst Kami who are not human beings I need hardly mention Thunder [in Japanese Naru kami or the Sounding God] . ”

“ I am sure you will feel yourself to be a god or goddess in the beginning of the world as in the Japanese mythology, who by accident or mystery has risen above the opalescent mists which softly cover the earth of later night. ”

“ The gods are only men of prowess or renown. A kami is anything wonderful—god or man, rock or stream, bird or snake, whatever is surprising, sensational, or phenomenal, as in the little child's world of to-day. There is no sharp line dividing gods from men, the natural from the supernatural, even as with the normal uneducated Japanese of to-day. As for the kami or gods, they have all sorts of characters; some of them being rude and ill-mannered, many of them beastly and filthy, while others are noble and benevolent. ”

“ It is thus explained by the native scholar Motoöri, one of the chief authorities on Japanese religion: “The term Kami is applied in the first place to the various deities of Heaven and Earth who are mentioned in the ancient records as well as their spirits (mi-tama) which reside in the shrines where they are worshipped. Moreover, not only human beings, but birds, beasts, plants and trees, seas and mountains, and all other things whatsoever which deserve to be dreaded and revered for the extraordinary and pre-eminent powers which they possess, are called Kami. ”

“ The Japanese had thus, like the Polynesians, a garden paradise and a sea-dragon-king’s paradise, as well as the gloomy Yomi. It may be that the beliefs and stories regarding these Otherworlds were introduced by the earliest seafarers, who formed pearl-fishing communities round their shores. The Ainu believe that Heaven and Hell are beneath the earth, “in Pokna moshiri, the lower world”, but they have no idea what the rewards of the righteous are.8 Nothing is definitely known regarding [382] the beliefs of the earlier and more highly civilized people remembered as the Koro-pok-guru. ”