Where the Oni Are
Fortresses, buried heads, handprints in rock and the one shrine that calls them in
10 places
The oni is the one yokai with a geography. Its fortresses are on hilltops you can climb, its severed heads are buried under shrines you can visit, and its handprints are in a rock in a city park. These places follow the creature from the raider of the old tales to the guardian of the Setsubun rite, ending with the masked visitors of Oga, who wear the oni’s face and are not oni at all.
Kinojō, the Oni's Castle 鬼ノ城
An ancient hilltop fortress of stone ramparts above the Kibi plain, the castle of the oni Ura in the tale.
Yokai you will meet: Oni
Kibitsu Shrine 吉備津神社
The great shrine of the Kibi plain, where the head of the oni Ura is buried under the kettle whose rumble tells fortunes.
Yokai you will meet: Oni
Japan Oni Exchange Museum 日本の鬼の交流博物館
A museum of oni at the foot of Mount Ōe, where the oni king's fortress stood in the tale, with a roof tile five metres high outside.
Yokai you will meet: Shuten-dōji, Oni
Onitake Inari Shrine on Mount Ōe 鬼嶽稲荷神社
A lone shrine at the eighth station of the oni's mountain, where the trail to Shuten-dōji's summit begins and the valley below fills with cloud at dawn.
Yokai you will meet: Shuten-dōji, Oni
Kubizuka Daimyōjin 首塚大明神
A small shrine on the old road at the pass west of Kyoto, where the oni king's head was buried because it could not be carried into the capital.
Yokai you will meet: Shuten-dōji, Oni
Mitsuishi Shrine and the Oni's Handprints 三ツ石神社（鬼の手形）
Three granite boulders in a city grove where an oni pressed its hands into the rock as an oath, and gave the prefecture its name.
Yokai you will meet: Oni
Gangōji 元興寺
The old temple in the lanes of Naramachi whose bell tower was haunted by the demon Gagoze, caught by a boy of superhuman strength.
Yokai you will meet: Oni
Kinasa Folk Museum and the Demon Woman Momiji 鬼無里ふるさと資料館と鬼女紅葉の里
A mountain village named "no demons", with a museum of its festival floats and the grave of the woman the capital called a demon.
Kijin Shrine 鬼鎮神社
The shrine that worships oni as its guardians, where iron clubs are offered and the Setsubun cry is "oni, come in".
Yokai you will meet: Oni
Namahage Museum and Shinzan Folklore Museum なまはげ館・男鹿真山伝承館
The masks of every district of the Oga peninsula in one hall, and next door a farmhouse where the New Year's Eve visit is performed for those who cannot be there on the night.
Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.