Street Demon
History, Heritage & Religion

for further reading: Wikipedia.org

The term "Street Demon" (通り魔) initially had supernatural origins tied to mythology, but in modern vernacular it has come refers to a type of crime in Japan. It is defined as "someone that turns around and suddenly harms a passerby." Historical occurances of the mythological concept can be found in The Seiji Hyakudan (世事百談) which relates the tale of a samurai named Kawai who spies a flame burning a meter high from a garden bush. Suddenly a creature with long white hair in a white undershirt appeared in the garden and waved his spear threateningly at the samurai. Rather than react, Kawai calms his mind and sips his tea, causing the spirit to vanish. Soon he hears a commotion next door and knows that the street demon has moved on to provoke his neighbor who violently reacts and causes distruction upon witnessing the illusion. Ther term then carried on into more modern times where it has for further reading:on its more contemporary usage. The Japanese classify street demon crime in three categories:

1. Single shot offense - a sudden burst of violence at a single location that may affect a number of people
2. Spree crime - a series of crimes carried out continuously over a wide area
3. Consecutive offense - sporadic crimes carried out over time, serial killings or attacks

Of course none of this is unique to Japan, crimes such as this happen all over the world. In the United States crimes of this nature tend to use firearms because of more lax gun control laws. In Japan bladed weapons or automobiles are often used in crimes such as this. In Japan it is difficult to find examples of real life street demon crimes that took place during the 1920s when MAO is primarily set however more contemporary examples include The Osaka School Massacre, The Kyoto Animation Arson Attack and The Akihabara Massacre.

Relevance to MAO

In MAO chapter 71 Mao, Nanoka and Otoya investigate a case of a street demon. In the story Takahashi adopts both the mythical and modern usages of the term telling the story of a possessed policeman who butchers his victims in random acts of violence spread throughout his neighborhood. It is unlikely that Takahashi had any particular real life reference in mind for the murders pre-war era serial killings did exist. Japanese cases include The Hamamatsu Deaf Killer and from outside Japan the legendary Jack the Ripper.