Yuki-onna

A Yuki-onna

Yuki Onna (雪女, snow woman) is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese literature, manga, and animation. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba ("mountain crone"), but they are not the same.

Appearance

Yuki-onna appears as a tall, beautiful woman with long hair on snowy nights. Her skin is inhumanly pale or even transparent, causing her to blend into the snowy landscape (as she is most famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono,(2) but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face, hair, and pubic region standing out against the snow.(3) Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a notable feature for many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if she is threatened.(4)

Behavior

The Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is said in some legends to be the spirit of an individual who has perished in the snow and cold.(5) She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in her killing of unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghostlike nature and ephemeral beauty.(6b)

In many stories, Yuki-onna reveals herself to travelers who find themselves trapped in snowstorms and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say that she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, he or she is frozen in place.(6a) Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often physically invades people's homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind, to kill them while they sleep (though some legends require her to be invited inside first).

Exactly what Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see her victim's death. Other times, however, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force". She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men in order to drain or freeze them through sexual intercourse or a kiss.(5)

Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free due to his beauty and age. She makes him promise to never mention her again, though, and when he relates the story to his wife much later in life, his wife reveals herself to be none other than the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise but spares him yet again, this time out of concern for the children she has born him (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. Luckily for him, he is already a loving father).(6b) In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature.

In popular culture

Yukionna from Tanaka's 1968 film

Being 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. 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. Some series, such as Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales' by Clamp use the yuki-onna as a main character.

Yuki-onna have also appeard in live action films, such as Takashi Miike's The Great Yokai War (2005), Akira Kurosawa's film Dreams (1990) and Misaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (1965).

Perhaps the classic film adaptation is director Tanaka Tokuzo's 1968 Kaidan Yuki Onna which was released in the US under the title Ghost Story of the Snow Witch.

Progressive metal band Symphony X wrote of yuki-onna in the song "Lady of the Snow," from the album Twilight in Olympus.

In the video game 'Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom yuki-onna is a monster faced in the winter regions of the game.

External references

• The Obakemono Project: Yuki-onna
• An article that references Yuki Onna in the movies Japanzine By Jon Wilks