Last Updated: Oct 12, 2023

The Myth Shuten Doji

Kyoto’s Mt. Oe & the “Drunken Demon”

Admittedly, I am a bit of a history buff and love to study the annals of Japan’s past. Alas, as a busy freelance digital marketer, I often don’t have the time to sit down and pour over original source material. As eloquently put by this eternally popular meme, ain’t nobody got time for that. Instead of doing the reading myself these days, I occasionally resort to letting other content creators do the heavy lifting summarizing for me. Then, I simply consume the video, article, or podcast my contemporaries produce to further educate myself on Japanese history.

When it comes to learning about Japan’s bygone eras, lately my two go-to sources have been the History of Japan Podcast and a hilarious guy on YouTuber by the name of Linfamy. If you’re into nerdy, historical deep dives then I really can’t more highly suggest that you check out either of them. Anyway, recently by chance, both of these awesome creators put out a piece of content on the Japanese myth of Shuten Doji (sometimes also rendered as Shuten Dōji or Shuten Douji). Not one to dismiss the omens when they manifest themselves, I took this coincidence as a sign that I had to travel to the roots of this legendary ancient terror.