Gyuki or Ushi-Oni

The Gyuki or Ushi-Oni is represented by this odd Japanese statue said to represent what several people had been seeing in the 1600s. Although it is called an "Ox-headed Demon" and translated also as "Minotaur", most commentators bring attention to the odd capelike effect of the area under the arms and at the sides.

The creature seems to be the same creature as is called Xing-Xing in Chinese, pronounced Shing-Shing and said to mean "Lively-Lively." In the Japanese version it means a distinctly reddish creature, but one of the Chinese descriptions has it being green or blue. Presumably that was a copyist's error. One Chinese description says it has the body (belly?) of a pig but a face more like a man's, which is a fair description of an orangutan, and the word is used in modern Chinese and Japanese (and on the larger nearby islands such as Taiwan) as a direct translation for the recognised name of the orangutan.

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