Keneō

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Keneō (懸衣翁) is a Japanese Oni who sits at the edge of the Sanzu River in the Buddhist underworld. His name means “old man of the hanging clothes.”

When someone dies, six mon coins are placed with the body to pay for entering the afterlife. After death, the adult soul reaches the river and must cross it. If they lived well, they can cross a bridge. If they were only partly good, they wade through the shallow part. If they were bad, they must swim the deepest part.

At the river, Datsue-ba and Keneō judge the sins. Datsue-ba makes the sinners take off their clothes, and Keneō hangs the clothes on a riverside branch to show how heavy the sins are. If a soul arrives naked, Keneō flays the person’s skin and hangs it from the tree.

The heavier the clothes, the heavier the sins, because the soul had to swim with water weighed down by those sins. Together, Datsue-ba and Keneō carry out punishments for different crimes. For example, thieves have their fingers broken, and the two of them tie the sinner’s head to their feet. They also walk along the river’s edge and torment the souls of children who are too young to cross.