【丑寅のもの、ushi-tora no mono】
[The first word is a combination of the characters for the Chinese zodiac signs of the Ox and the Tiger, which was once used to refer to the northeast. The 'mono' part is ambiguous, it could mean the 'premodern oni' we heard about, but could also just mean 'thing' or 'person'. For this reason, I chose to be vague and say 'those'.]A way to refer to onis.
According to Onmyoudou (the way of Yin and Yang), the northeastern direction was considered to be unlucky [It can even be called the "oni gate" in Japanese], as it is the direction from which evil beings, or oni, enter and exit.
Some people believe that the image of an oni with horns and a tiger-skin loincloth is also derived from the northeast, which is the direction of the Ox and Tiger in the traditional 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac.
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