TIDBITS 08/06/06

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We encourage you to forward this email to friends and colleagues. ====================================== Oni ... Converted and Unconverted. How does one call an Oni. I imagine it would be: Yo Oni! C'mere. So Oni ambles over ... and now what does one do with him? What ... in fact ... one might well ask ... is an Oni? An Oni is ....

Oni ... Japanese devils. They are depicted in many sizes and colors. There are tiny little Oni and there are enormous Ogre Oni--bigger even than Shrek--who serve as Temple Guardians. They are fierce and evil looking. They have two horns. They have pointed ears. They have protruding fangs. They have glaring, hateful, malignant eyes. They have three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot and each appendage is well-clawed. They have muscular human-like bodies and they are always naked ... except for a tiger-skin loincloth which surely covers an unthinkable organ too grotesque for the human eye to ponder. Of course ... I could be wrong on this last issue ... but who's going to go look? Unlike our western devils however ... Oni do not have tails. Quaint ... eh wot?

Though there are many Oni ... three are well known. There is the Oni of thunder and lightning. There is the Oni of winds and storms. And there is the Oni of seas and tides. None of these were pleasant chaps. But here's the kick of it all. Spiritual redemption was available to all Oni. I tend to think of the ceremony a bit the same way I think of a Bris. The road to conversion involved the removal of a body part. The path to Buddhism and redemption entailed the sawing off of Oni's horns. You want to convert ... something's got to go. In any case ... once de-horned ... Oni were allowed to enter the monkhood. Oh the joy of it all. The pure ecstasy. Off with the horns ... on with the monkery.

But there's a problem. I have an image of two Oni. Image on the left is ceramic. Image on the right is bronze and gold. Look closely. The guy on the left is miserable. He's been converted. He's unhappy. He may well be able to now become a monk ... but he's lost his horns in the process. Poor li'l tyke. So ... in any case ... the moral of this story ... don't try to make an Oni--or anyone else for that matter--into something they are not ... because if you do ... they will put on an ugly face ... and really look like an Oni.

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at

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where you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits ... and then click on it in order to view a pair of Japanese Oni which were often worn as good luck charms.

And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark