ONI

ONI
The oni are mythical creatures from Japanese folklore similar to western demons and ogres. They are popular characters in art, literature and theater in Japan.
In the first oni legends, like the girl in the pit, benevolent creatures were believed to be able to keep away evil spirits, evil and malicious, and to punish malfattori.Durante Heian era Japanese Buddhism, which had already imported some of the Indian demonology (represented by figures such as kuhanda, gaki, and others), incorporated these beliefs calling these creatures aka-oni ("red oni") and ao-oni ( "oni blue") and making them the guardians of hell or the torturers of the damned. Some of these creatures were recognized as incarnations of Shinto spirits.
It was hypothesized that oni are nothing but a transposition of the Ainu, an ancient europoidal population of northern Japan, which still survives on the northern island of Hokkaido. It is known that the Japanese regarded the Ainu animalistic beings because of different physical characteristics and the strong hairiness, cha still occur. In the legends finally oni were defeated, an echo in popular iconography of the wars of extermination which led the Japanese for centuries against the Ainu.