Devil's Tower: Oni No Tou

Title: Devil's Tower (Oni no Tou)
Size: 22" x 30", Pen & Ink
© 2005, Scott Moore

Devil's Tower is based on the four carved wooden devils at each corner at the base of the pagoda.

There is a little known Buddhist folklore that says there are four devils, one for east, west, north, and south, to protect the pagoda. In this piece I took them out for a drink. They're drinking "ichi no ide" sake, which is brewed in the town of Usuki, Japan, where the pagoda resides.

The way I found this out was from my mother-in-law. I was showing her some drawings I had done of the pagoda, which is right down the street from our house in Japan. Then she asked if I'd seen the wooden devils. I said I hadn't, and then my father-in-law chimed in "there's no devils there, what are you talking about?". And so the conversation continued...

So the next day I went to the pagoda with my camera, and sure enough, there they were. But nobody knew they were there, or why, so it took some digging and talking to some Buddhist priests and friends in the area to figure it out. That's when I decided that they really needed some notoriety, and I took them out for a party. I also put this in a local art show, and although it was just too "wild" for most people there, it drew a lot of comments and attention.

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