yasha 夜叉 Yaksha

Indian female devil who eats people

The yaksha (jap. yasha) were an ancient class of usually-benevolent spirit from Indian myth, who presided over subterranean treasures and were worshipped as tutelary deities. Early Buddhism, which often held native Indian gods which it had not yet assimilated to be man-eating demons, saw the yaksha as such heretical creatures and sank them into the same category as the much less wholesome rakshasa (jap. rasetsu 羅刹 = devils). Thus the image of the yaksha which was brought to Japan was decidedly ferocious, and they were incorporated into Japanese culture as a type of oni. Eventually, however, Buddhism incorporated the yaksha and the rakshasa into its pantheon of deities which defend Buddhist law, and these fierce beings were treated in a more favorable light. In some parts of Japan, deities classed as yasha found their way into sectarian worship and folk religion.