Watanabe no Tsuna- Japanese HeroHero"Chief of the Shitennō"

The Demon at Rashōmon

Reports had spread that a demon haunted the ruined southern gate of Kyōto, terrorizing anyone who passed after dark. Watanabe no Tsuna rode to Rashōmon Gate alone one night. As he crossed beneath it, a hand reached from behind and seized his helmet. He wheeled around and found himself grappling with a monstrous oni.

The struggle was fierce, but Tsuna drew Higekiri, the Beard-Cutter, a blade of the Minamoto house, and severed the demon's arm at the elbow. The oni fled howling into the darkness. Tsuna brought the severed arm home as proof, and the yin-yang master Abe no Seimei examined it and instructed him to seal the limb in a chest and observe seven days of ritual seclusion. He was to admit no visitors.

On the sixth night, an old woman appeared at his door claiming to be his aunt from the countryside. She pleaded and cajoled until Tsuna relented and let her in. When she asked to see the famous severed arm, Tsuna opened the chest. The old woman's form dissolved to reveal Ibaraki-dōji, who snatched back the limb and crashed through the roof into the night sky.

The Expedition Against Shuten-dōji

Tsuna's other great exploit was collective. The oni king Shuten-dōji had been abducting women from the capital, and Minamoto no Raikō gathered his Shitennō to end it. They disguised themselves as yamabushi mountain priests and climbed to Shuten-dōji's fortress on Mount Ōe.

Inside, they sat with the demon king and served him drugged sake. Shuten-dōji drank. When he fell unconscious, Raikō beheaded him while his retainers fought the remaining oni. The Otogizōshi illustrated scrolls show Tsuna in the thick of the battle, cutting through demons beside Sakata no Kintoki.