Sacred Warding Beasts

Since ancient times in mainland China, people have believed in spiritual beasts and deities possessing the power to repel strange phenomena, plague demons, and misfortune. Their iconography and associated beliefs crossed over to Japan alongside Buddhism and Onmyodo. Hakutaku, the auspicious beast who knows every yokai in the world; Shoki, the demon-quelling deity who catches and devours oni; Hososhi, who purges plague demons during the imperial court's Tsuina rituals; and the Baku, which devours nightmares—because of their protective power to keep evil at bay, they were all incorporated into daily life as talismans, roof tiles, votive tablets, and bedside motifs. Gathered here are the sacred warding beasts, drawn and enshrined not as objects of fear, but as protectors of humanity against disaster.