Tradition / Region: Japanese mythology (Mount Tsurugi, Tateyama range)
Alternate Names: Otoroshi
Category: Mountain dweller, Yokai
The Myth
High in the rugged peaks of Mount Tsurugi in the Tateyama mountain range, there was once said to dwell a fearsome yōkai known as Yama-otoroshi.
For generations, climbers failed to conquer the mountain. The reason, people whispered, was not the sheer cliffs or treacherous winds, but the presence of this demon. Yama-otoroshi waited upon rocky outcrops, silent and unmoving like a statue. It resembled a red-skinned ogre, with two horns rising from its head. Yet unlike the usual oni, it carried no iron club.
When a climber ventured too near, the creature would suddenly spring to life. With terrifying strength it would seize the victim by the collar and hurl them down the mountain slopes, casting them into the abyss below. Many believed the mountain itself rejected intruders through the hands of this guardian.
After the Meiji period, it was said that Yama-otoroshi descended from the heights of Mount Tsurugi and took up residence at temple gates. There, it no longer needed the “Yama” in its name and was simply called Otoroshi. Instead of casting climbers from cliffs, it guarded sacred thresholds. Anyone who approached without faith—those who mocked or doubted—risked being seized by the collar and violently thrown back, barred from entry.
Illustrations show the red-faced, horned demon grasping a struggling climber and tossing him away with ease, its expression fierce and unyielding.
Thus Yama-otoroshi stood as a mountain terror and later as a stern temple sentinel—an ogre who cast down the unworthy, whether from the heights of stone or from the gates of the sacred.
Gallery
Sources
tyz-yokai.blog.jp contributors. (n.d.). Yama-Otoroshi. In tyz-yokai.blog.jp, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1058924391.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Yama-otoroshi