Oni no Kanabo
The kanabo is the iron-studded club that Japanese legend and art place in the grip of the oni, the ogre of the folk imagination, and it has become the oni's stock attribute to the point that the two are nearly inseparable in picture scrolls and festival prints. Tales from the Heian-era exploits of the demon queller Minamoto no Yorimitsu, above all his campaign against the bandit-ogre Shuten-doji, show the oni swinging the heavy mace with crushing force against heroes and their retainers; the same weapon appears in the folk tale of Momotaro, whose companions win against the ogres' island throug