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The , or gyūki, is a creature which appears in the folklore of Japan. There are various kinds of ''ushi-oni'', all of them some sort of monster with a horned, bovine head. ==Mythology== Perhaps the most famous ''ushi-oni'' appears as a protective symbol in the Uwajima Ushi-oni Festival, which is held in late July in Uwajima of Ehime Prefecture. Something like the dragon dancers at a Chinese New Year celebration, this ''ushi-oni'' is represented with a huge, multiple-person costume with a cloth body and a carved, painted head held upon a pole. It has a sword for a tail, and is thought to drive away evil spirits. Another well-known ''ushi-oni'' is a massive, brutal sea-monster which lives off the coast of Shimane Prefecture and other places in Western Japan and attacks fishermen. It is often depicted with a spider- or crab-like body. This ''ushi-oni'' seems to be connected to another monster called the ''nure-onna'', who sometimes appears before an ''ushi-oni'' attack and tricks the victim into holding her child, which then becomes stuck to the person's hands and grows heavier in order to hinder escape. Yet another ''ushi-oni'' is depicted as a statue on the grounds of the Negoroji temple in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. It is a bipedal monster with huge tusks, spurred wrists, and membranes like a flying squirrel. A sign nearby explains that this creature terrorized the area about four-hundred years ago, and was slain by a skilled archer by the name of Yamada Kurando Takakiyo (山田蔵人高清). He dedicated its horns to the temple, and they can still be seen to this day. 〔()〕 ''Ushi-oni'' are also mentioned in Sei Shōnagon's tenth-century diary ''The Pillow Book'', and in the ''Taiheiki'' of the fourteenth century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ushi-oni」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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