Question: How Do You Say "Demon King" in Japanese?
The Demon King is commonly the top villian in anime, manga, or video games. The Japanese word for this is 魔王, which is pronounced “mah-ohh”. It is written with the kanji for evil (魔) and king (王).
But this is boring. You can look up this answer in any good dictionary. Google translate can probably even do it for you. I think the more interesting question is why is Demon King so common in media, as I mentioned above usually the top baddie.
"Demon King" as a title comes from Nobunaga, whose nickname in later life was demon king.
This guy:
Oda Nobunaga was the first of the three great unifiers of Japan, the other two being Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. He is viewed as the most bloodthirsty of the group, the most ruthless and violent one.
This image of him (and the other two) is best shown in this simple Japanese kid's poem:
What if a bird doesn't want to sing?
"Kill it!" said Nobunaga.
"Make it want to sing", said Hideyoshi.
"Wait", said Ieyasu.
His image as a bloodthirsty warlord explains why when he appears in games and anime it is usually not as a good guy and is nearly always as villain and evil tyrant.
In Japanese the nickname "Demon King" was 第六天魔王 (dai-rokuten maoh), which in full is something like "Demon King of the 6th Heaven". It is said he gained this nickname when he was hit by an arrow during a battle but did not die or even appear injured. I'm sure all his other savage actions also contributed to the name.
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 | David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time. More? |
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