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Onmyodo to ...
Ochi-no-Wani
A ghost from the Nara period in the Karura Mau movie who was found sealed inside a stone or shell. An Ohchi is a spirit destined to serve humans. Her clan, the Wani clan served Iruka. Ochi-no-Wani saves the twins, but she tells them she raised from death for murder so now she can't go to Nirvana. Oki-no-Jingo was the man who summoned her. Later the twins and Kenmochi cleanse her and release her spirit.
Ofuda
Paper talisman seen often in anime. From Shinto shrines they are used for good fortune. When used to stop evil spirits' advancement or to open celestial gates, these uses
come from magical folk taoism. Ofuda are sometimes used in anime by sticking the talisman to the forehead to freeze a person or monster in place. Rei in Sailor Moon uses her
ofuda thus, as does Sakura, an onmyoji, in Blue Seed. Tasuki in Fushigi Yuugi obtains paper talismans that when written on
turn into the object desired. Marron from Sorcerer Hunters uses ofuda in ep. 1 to find which mirror Regner is hiding inside, and in ep. 3 probably to freeze the servant.
Li in CCS uses orange ofuda as a practicioner of Eastern magic. His talismans have a pa-k'ua, or trigram pattern, at the top to increase the power of the talisman. Li will also use
a talisman in combination with his sword when invoking a deity or spirit. He will invoke both Fire and Wind deities by placing his sword behind the talisman and then calling them forth.
He will also invoke the magic of the Clow Cards in the same fashion by touching the tip of his sword to the card and calling the name of the spirit inside it.
A similar combining of power of weapon and talisman is seen in ep. 16 of the Miyu TV series. Yui-Li stabs her weapon's tip through the talisman before plunging both into the shinma.
Taoist magic includes other uses for paper talismans. A talisman can also be placed on a possessed person's forehead and used as an aide in exorcism to draw out a ghost.
They can also be used in healing magic.
The Tao priest in Ranma 1/2 uses a paper talisman as a seal on a box to trap an oni spirit. He also puts up spirit wards around the dojo to keep everyone inside and the oni from leaving,
which serves as an example of a talisman used as a barrier. If the priest puts the seal on a victim's forehead it will drive the oni from them. Kagome's grandfather tries to seal the well entrance with spells and seals, but they don't seem to work and Inu-Yasha finds them amusing more than anything. Yet later when Shippo
puts one on a statue of Jizo in front of Inu-Yasha, he can't move until someone removes the paper talisman for him.
Ohgi Family
From Karura Mau movie fansub endnote: The Ohgi family have been Reinoh-Ryokushas (persons with spiritual powers; ghost/spirit exorcists) for generations. The family look to Karura as their
protector god. The powers of the Ohgi family are hereditary.
Ohgi Sisters
From movie fansub endnote: Ohgi powers are usually passed down from one generation to the next. But the Ohgi sisters, Shohko (Shii-chan) and Maiko (Mai-chan) are twins. The powers
that should be in one person had split in two. Therefore the Ohgi sisters must be together for them to be effective as one rei exorcist.
Maiko (Mai-chan): Younger twin sister of the Ohgi family. Has the power to exorcise the ghosts/spirits. She uses "Karura Chi no Sho" (Writing of Earth/Ground). She is more
athletic than Shohko.
Shohko (Shii-chan): Elder twin sister of the Ohgi family. Has the power to sense the ghosts/spirits. She uses "Karura Ten no Sho" (Writings of Heaven/Above).
Ohtori Academy in Shoujo Kakumei Utena
The Academy is a kind of metaphor for dwelling in the unconscious. Time flows abnormally, sometimes not flowing at all, depending on the individual.
Okiku
From Monogatari.org: "The tragic story of the maidservant Okiku is associated with the city of Himeji, in which young Okiku was once the favorite servant of a great lord. She
loved her master dearly, and never tired of working to please him, hoping that eventually he would come to return her love. One night she was tending to her cleaning duties in the
great hall when she overheard a nobleman and his associates plotting the assassination of the castle's master. She revealed the plot as soon as she could, averting the crime, but
incurring the enmity of the escaped would-be assassin, who turned his attention to plotting revenge.
The traitor knew that Okiku was responsible for the care and cleaning of a set of ten priceless gilded plates, which her master greatly cherished, and arranged for one of
them to be broken and destroyed. When one of the plates was found to be missing, Okiku was tried and executed for the theft. Her body was disposed of in the well inside Himeji
castle.
Every night from then on, Okiku's spirit could be heard counting from one to nine. When she reached ten, instead of calling the number, she let out an unearthly wail. Anyone
hearing it would be stricken with her despair. Her master, who later discovered the innocence and wrongful death of his favourite servant, was eventually driven mad by her nightly
ritual."
In ep. 19 of Wedding Peach Yuri dresses as Okiku, complete with plates in hand. And in episode 2 of Hyper Police Sakura says she's reminded of Okiku counting her plates every night
because no matter how many times she counts her tails she comes up short.
Onama
The Onama-Sama's appearancein Spirited Away is inspired by the costumes of festival participants of Oga Peninsula. It begins on New Year's Eve. The namahage are demons with blue or red faces, the
latter being female and the former male.+
+http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/calendar/december/namahage.html
Oni
A type of devil in Japanese folklore. They could be red, green, or another color and had horns. Oni could fly and were said to
wear tiger-skin loincloths. Some came from hell with the duty to take souls to the underworld, and others were simply known
for mischief making on earth. Probably the most popular depiction of an oni in anime or manga is Lum of Urusei Yatsura, the alien
girl in love with the lecherous Ataru. Lum is green-haired, with horns and a tiger-skin bikini. She has the powers to fly and shoot
electricity from her fingers. She is not evil but instead caring of her earth friends and eager to please the boy she is in love with.
Another example of an oni and one whose personality fits more in with the mischievous nature of legend is the oni in an OAV
episode of Ranma 1/2. This oni once released from his seal proceeds to possess one member of the dojo after another (shown
by the oni horns on the possessed person's head), and feed upon their human desires, turning them evil. While still weak, he's
shown as a comical creature, but once his strength is gained back he becomes a large, red beast eager to soon cause destruction.
Gray in Hyper Police is an oni. Yura of the Hair makes her first appearance
in volume 1 of Inu-Yasha. She's an oni who uses hair like a puppeteer and weapon. She controls the young girls of the village by stringing their fingers and such with strands of hair and moving
them about like marionettes. Hair is her weapon and object of magic.
From Kit: There are numerous references to Oni in Yu Yu Hakusho. In the series, Koenma's servant is a classic Oni, with blue skin, yellow hair, and a tiger skin loincloth.
Oranges and Tangerines
"Oranges and tangerines in Japanese culture represent wealth. They're also a traditional fruit eaten during new years. These subtle themes do appear in anime, if you're observant enough to catch them. For example, Nami, the resident money obsessed thief of One Piece, has orange colored hair and is often associated with oranges. And in Risky Safety, just after new year's, Moe Katsuragi's room is filled with tangerines".*
*Jan. 26, 2004 Ask John article at AnimeNation.com:
What's the Significance of Fruits in Japanese Culture?
Orihalcon
According to some sources the name comes from a special metal said to be from Atlantis. Natsuki has a dagger of orihalcon in Hyper Police.
Orpheus
Mythical Greek poet who's music could tame wild beasts and move any being. He was husband to Eurydice, and moved Persephone so that she allowed the poet
to take his wife from the underworld on condition he not look back before they completely cleared the underworld. Impatient, Orpheus looked back, and Eurydice
was forced to return to Hades forever.
In Riyoko Ikeda's manga, Orpheus' Window, there is a legend of a tower named Orpheus' Window that says if two people met at the tower they'd fall in love. But their love
would end unhappily just as the love of Orpheus and Eurydice. Julius (a student who is really a girl) meets two other students Klaus and Isaac, and is reminded of the legend.
Oshira-sama
Oshira-sama in Spirited Away is a daikon (which is a type of radish) god. The shira means white. While here Oshira-Sama is a radish spirit, the name Oshira is used elsewhere in very different contexts. In the film
The Legend of Sayo, Oshirasama is the name of a silkworm deity.*
A second and unrelated legend is the following: "... Once upon a time there was a poor farmer. He had no wife but did have a beautiful daughter. He also had one horse. The daughter loved the horse, and at night she would go to the stable and sleep. Finally, she and the horse became husband and wife. One night the father learned of this, and the next day without saying anything to the daughter, he took the horse out and killed it by hanging it from a mulberry tree. That night the daughter asked her father why the horse was not anywhere around, and she learned of the act. Shocked, filled with grief, she went on to the spot beneath the mulberry tree and cried while clinging to the horse's head. The father, abhorring the sight, took an axe and chopped off the horse's head, which flew off to the heavens. It was from this time on that Oshira-sama became a kami. The image of this kami was made from the mulberry branch on which the horse was hanged. (pp.49-50)" Because of
this Oshirasama is sometimes represented in some parts of northeast Japan as a pair of figures (human and horse).**
*http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/n5_a1.html
**The Legends of Tono, foreword by Richard Dorson, tr. and introd. by Ronald Morse [Tokyo: The Japan Foundation, 1975]; http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/n5_a1.html
Ouija
Board with the letters of the alphabet printed as well as Yes and No. A three-sided pointer is part of it. It is used by lightly placing the fingers
on the pointer and asking the spirits or the board a question, and then supposedly one or the other will guide the pointer and answer by giving a clue or
word through resting over certain letters. Or guiding the pointer over the Yes or No if the question is one that can be answered thus. Used by most for fun or as a game,
also a method of fortunetelling. An ouija board is conjured by Yami Bakura during a duel in Yu-Gi-Oh.