Creature Feature Short Take: Shuten Doji

It's been a few days since my last post, so today's Creature Feature Short Take is that loveable fratboy of the Asian Underworld, Shuten Doji:

Not to be confused with the crummy Star Hand Kid series a while back:

But rather the monstrous oni from Japan, particularly residing at the top of Mount Oe until the hero Raiko and 4 BFFs snuck into his house during a party and cut his head off.

I'll be honest, I first ran into the term Shuten Doji while playing Legend of the Five Rings back in the 90s and seeing Steve Morales' design:

And until I bothered to do the research I thought he was some sort of vampire.

But au contraire, it turns out that Shuten Doji's full name translates into Giant Drunken Boy. Or Big Drunkard Demon, or some similar combination involving "large", "blitzed" and "being an ass."

It seems old Shuten Doji is also a cannibal demon. It's bad enough of course that he's either a cannibal or a demon, but he's both!

And he liked to kidnap beautiful girls from the capitol to 'hang out' with him and his oni buddies at their Tower of Murder during their keggers featuring buffets of human sashimi and blood.

If anyone had it coming, it was Shuten Doji:

Japundit.Com has some great pictures of the Nebuta Festival of Aomori City, including this float of Raiko taking down Shuten Doji.

These floats have to be seen to be believed. In fact so much so, that I'm going to call attention to their other entry:

The Vampire Cat of Nabeshima! Bad kitty!

If you like fun and gruesome ghost stories and Japanese art, this entry at Japundit will keep you busy for an afternoon. Great stuff!

That's all for now!