Dodomeki is a yōkai in Japanese mythology. Its original form was a giant, ferocious and cruel carnivorous demon. The demon was over ten meters tall, had spiky hair, and had hundreds of glowing eyes all over its body. Its mouth can spew toxic fumes. Its body burst into flames, wrapping around its body and burning everything but its body.
Dodomeki can disguise themselves as a human in the form of a human woman with very long arms covered with small bird eyes.
It is said that girls who have a habit of stealing money will be cursed to become Dodomeki. At that time, hundreds of small bird eyeballs sprouted from their arms and they transformed into this monster. This is thought to be related to the Japanese dōsen, a bronze coin with a hole in the center that looks like a bird's eye, commonly known as a chōmoku (Birds eye).
Legend : A long time ago, in what was now Tochigi Prefecture, there lived a nobleman named Fujiwara no Hidesato. He had just been given the title of kokushi of Shimotsuke Province for his bravery in defeating the Taira no Masakado rebels. One day while hunting in his new territory, Hidesato was approached by an old man who warned him that some kind of oni had been seen in the horse graveyard in Utsunomiya. Hidesato immediately grabbed his bow and went to investigate.
Hidesato went to the horse graveyard and waited until nightfall. When the hour of the ox came, a giant demon appeared and began to eat horse meat aggressively. The demon was over ten meters tall, had sharp, spiked hair, and was covered with glowing eyes all over its body. Hidesato carefully aimed an arrow at the brightest eyeball and fired. The arrow hit its mark, the demon roared in pain, fleeing into the forest until finally collapsing at the foot of Mount Myōjin.
The battle wasn't over yet, even though the demon was badly injured, it was still very strong. From its body rose a stream of fire. Its mouth opened and spit out a lot of toxic smoke. Toxic smoke and intense heat were already too much for Fujiwara no Hidesato. He had to give up and return to his palace. When Hidesato returned the next day, the ground was blackened and burned over a large area. However, not a single trace of the demon was found.
400 years have passed, during the Muromachi period, a village arose on the northern slopes of Mount Myōjin, where the Dodomeki once disappeared. And strange things started to happen on one day. The abbot of the temple in the village suffered mysterious injuries and unexplained fires started to break out at the temple. A new head priest, the virtuous and holy Saint Chitoku, has been called in to discover what the cause of these strange problems is.
Saint Chitoku noticed that a young woman regularly stopped by the temple when he gave a lecture and recognized it as a dodomeki in disguise. 400 years ago the demon was seriously injured. It retreated into several nearby caves for healing. And now it turned into a young woman, and visited the place where it fell, gradually sucking back all the toxic fumes it exhaled, and collecting all the blood it shed in the battle with Fujiwara no Hidesato. The village temple was built on top of the battlefield. So, Dodomeki caused a fire and attacked the priest to drive them away.
One day, Saint Chitoku faced the demon in disguise, and she finally revealed her true form as a Dodomeki. However, she did not attack him; While frequenting the temple, she overheard Chitoku's teachings, and became enlightened and vowed never to commit any more evil deeds for the rest of her life. me. Since then, the area around Mount Myōjin has been known as Dodomeki.
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