![]() ![]() Like many yōkai, it has been the basis for a Pokémon character and a Magic: The Gathering card, as well as often appearing as a character, in anime, such as Yukime in 'Hell Teacher Nūbē or in Ranma 1/2, even as gag appearances as in Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z. No one saw her again.īeing a creature of Japanese folklore, the yuki-onna has naturally been used as a character in a wide range of Japanese fiction and pop-culture. However, I can't kill you because of our children. I do not know if it was a dream or if she was a Yuki-onna."Īfter finishing his story, Oyuki suddenly stood up, and said "That woman you met was me! I told you that I would kill you if you ever told anyone about that incident. When I was young, I met a beautiful young lady like you. One night, after the children were asleep, Minokichi said to Oyuki: "Whenever I see you, I am reminded of a mysterious incident that happened to me. Minokichi and Oyuki had several children and lived happily for many years. Several years later, Minokichi met a beautiful young lady, named Oyuki (yuki = "snow") and married her. If you tell anyone about me, I will kill you." You must not tell anyone about this incident. She then approached Minokichi to breathe on him, but stared at him for a while, and said, "I thought I was going to kill you, the same as that old man, but I will not, because you are young and beautiful. She breathed on old Mosaku and he was frozen to death. On this particular evening, Mosaku woke up and found a beautiful lady with white clothes. They found a hut in the mountain and decided to sleep there. One winter day, they could not come back home because of a snowstorm. Minokichi was young and Mosaku was very old. However, she departs to the afterlife afterward the same way.Ī long time ago, there lived two woodcutters, Minokichi and Mosaku. In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature. In some versions, she chose not to kill him because he told her, which she did not treat as a broken promise (technically, Yuki-Onna herself is not a human, and thus did not count). She reviles him for breaking his promise, but spares him again, this time out of concern for their children (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. She makes him promise never to speak of her, but later in life, he tells the story to his wife who reveals herself to be the snow woman. #Succubus in japanese freeIn one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free because of his beauty and age. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. ![]() ![]() Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. Other times, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force." She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men to drain or freeze them through sex or a kiss. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see a victim die. What Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. In these stories, she often invades homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind to kill residents in their sleep (some legends require her to be invited inside first). Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, they are frozen in place. Other times, she manifests holding a child. Other legends say she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. In many stories, Yuki-onna appears to travelers trapped in snowstorms, and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. ![]() She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in killing unsuspecting mortals. Some legends say the Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is the spirit of someone who perished in the snow. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. #Succubus in japanese skinHer inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. ![]()
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