The Gate of Oni's Teeth

KOMACHI'S TRAVEL GUIDE:

The original gate here was torn down and enlarged as traffic in the area grew. The first gate was built by the Suna family but was replaced with a structure honoring the lovers Riko and Okami after they freed the city from Oni no Hukuro, the dreadful Owl With Teeth.
The demon was reported to be twenty feet tall, with the head and wings of an owl, and legs that were shaped like human arms. Ifyou examine the teeth embedded in the road,you can see that they're as long as a shinbone - lending credence to the reports of Hukuro's great size. Oni no Hukuro flew from the great forest one day and began tormenting the people of Ryoko Owari - carrying off young maidens, dropping great stones upon the temples and terrifying the peasants in the fields.
The magistrate could not stop it; the priests could not stop it; theThunder Guards could not stop it.
Seeing this, Okami decided that he would be the one to kill the demon, and he set forth in his armor, getting great cheers from everyone in the city. He rode out the Fisherman Gate and into the forest, and there he found the great Owl Demon sitting in a tree.
"Come down and fight!" Okami said. Now, the Owl Demon was afraid of Okami, because he knew Okami's heart was pure. Therefore he decided to trick him.
"I accept your challenge," the oni said, "And to show the respect I have for you, I will give you the choice of weapons:"
Okami thought this was very fair, and he immediately said "Katana"
"Very well. Katana it is. Would you care to name a time?"
"As soon as possible!"
"No time like the present. A place?"
"Right here!"
At that the Owl Demon clucked and cooed, finally saying, "I'm not sure I am completely comfortable with that. After all, this tree is my home. If I am fortunate enough to kill you, I should hate to have the blood of such a courageous bushi polluting my residence."
"Very well, name your place."
"Perhaps the Great Lunar Cave?"
"Certainly"
The two traveled to the cave, and, with a gracious bow, the Oni gestured for Okami to precede him. Anxious to begin the battle, Okami went in, whereupon the Owl Demon rolled a great stone over the entrance, trapping him inside.
"That wasn't very difficult," the Owl Demon said. "I will let you out when you agree to give me your name."
"Never!"
"Very well; enjoy your lingering, honorless death." With that, the Owl Demon departed, cooing with laughter. Okami no doubt would have starved if a Tanuki had not heard him praying to the Fortune for freedom from his predicament.
"How did you come to be trapped?" asked the tanuki.
When Okami told him what had happened, the tanuki laughed and laughed. ''Truly, that was a marvelous trick." the tanuki said.
"Oh, that was nothing compared to the trick my wife played on me," Okami said, and told the tanuki the story of the porridge stick.
"I wonder who is the more clever," the tanuki said, "The Owl Demon, or your wife?"
"I can think of no way to find out." Okami said. The question of which was the more clever plagued the tanuki until eventually he was driven to run into Ryoko Owari on his quick little legs and find Riko.
"I know where your husband is, for he has been imprisoned." the tanuki told her. "I will tell you where if you can outwit the Owl Demon."
On hearing that, Riko immediately put on her husband's training armor and went into the forest. "Oni no Hukuro!" she cried, "I am Riko, brother of Okami, and I have come to kill you!"
Seeing another samurai, the Owl Demon came down and asked "What makes you think you will succeed where your brother failed?"
"I will succeed," Riko said "Because I am even stronger than my brother!"
"Oh really?"
"Indeed. Name any boulder along the riverbank, and I will break it into pieces before the next sunrise."
"If you fail?"
Riko took a deep breath. "You shall have my name!"
"And if you succeed?"
"Then I shall put a test of strength to you"
"Very well" the oni said, and selected a boulder as long as a horse, and as thick as a mill-wheel.
Riko, however, did not strike at it even one time; instead, she began gatheringa great quantity of wood,and soon she had built a roaring fire all around the rock. Then she took a shovel and began digging a trench around the stone and to the riverbank.
She only stopped digging to add wood to the fire, and only stopped feeding the fire when it was too hot to approach. Just before sunrise, the Owl Demon returned.
"What are you about?" he asked. "I said you were to break the stone, not set it on fire. Your name is mine!"
"I will break it - but with cleverness, not strength." Riko said, and with that, she completed her channel from the river to the stone. When the cold river water touched the red-hot stone, the contrary elements smashed the stone to pieces.
"Now I have a test of might for you - remove the stone in front of the Great Lunar Cavern."
The Owl Demon was filled with dread, but it had to fulfill her command. Okami had been sitting in the cavern, nursing his anger at the Owl Demon, and when it lifted the stone he leaped out and killed it with a single stroke. Okami pried the teeth from the Owl Demon's head and set them in the ground outside the gate, so that everyone who walked by could trample them with their filthy feet.
Riko had the blackened pieces of the stone she had broken collected, and these were set into the gate. That is why it is now called the Gate of Oni's Teeth.