Ura

Ura is the oni chief of Kibi (present-day Okayama). Tradition derives him variously from a Paekche prince, an immigrant chieftain, or the leader of a tatara ironworking community. He is said to have ruled the region from Ki-no-Jo (a 7th-century ridge-fortress at 397 m in Soja, now a National Historic Site) until he was defeated by Kibitsuhiko-no-Mikoto, dispatched as one of the Shido-shogun in the Nihon Shoki (720 CE) reign of Emperor Sujin. The Kibitsu-jingu engi (origin record) preserved at Kibitsu-jinja in Okayama recounts how Ura flew, summoned wind by shooting arrows, and continued to roar even after his head was severed; his head was buried beneath the cauldron of the shrine, originating the Narukama Shinji (cauldron divination), still performed there. The Kibi Onko Hiroku and Bicchu-shi (early-modern Bizen/Bicchu gazetteers) record the tradition. Popular interpretation reads the tale as a source-current of the Momotaro story: Kibitsuhiko = Momotaro, Ura = the oni, the three retainers Inukai-takeru, Sasamori-hiko, and Tomedama-omi = the dog, monkey, and pheasant. Related sites include Ki-no-Jo, Koikui-jinja (where Ura's head is said to have become a carp), and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database.