Yuki-onna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yuki-onna (雪女? snow woman) is a spirit or yokai found in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese animation, manga, and literature. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba ("mountain crone"), but the two figures are not the same.[1]
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[edit] Appearance
Yuki-onna appears as a tall, beautiful woman with long hair. 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]
[edit] 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.[6]
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.[2] 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.[2]
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).[6] In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature.
[edit] In popular culture
- A Pokémon based on a yuki-onna mixed with a kimono obi, Yukimenoko, was introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in 2006.
- The Legend of the Five Rings CCG features several yuki-onna.
- Magic: The Gathering CCG expansion Saviors of Kamigawa has a card called Yuki-Onna.
- The 2005 movie The Great Yokai War briefly features a yuki-onna.
- An evil yuki-onna appears in an episode of the anime InuYasha, disguised as a woman Miroku used to know.
- In the Bandai-Namco video game Tales of the Abyss (2005), when the party reaches a snow-covered mountain, Jade Curtiss tells a story of yuki-onna to frighten the party.
- The 1990 movie Dreams, directed by Akira Kurosawa, features a yuki-onna in the story The Blizzard
- The 1965 movie Kwaidan, directed by Masaki Kobayashi, features a yuki-onna in the story The Woman of the Snow.
- The manga/anime series Hell Teacher Nūbē has a prominent yuki-onna female named Yukime. Although in many ways she does hold many yuki-onna skills and abilities, she is consistently trying to fight against the general nature of her kind in order to return the love she holds for the spiritualist teacher.
- The English translated bishoujo game Snow Drop features a yuki-onna as a main character who can either freeze or spirit away the protagonist depending on the good or bad ending.
- An episode in series 6 of Ranma ½ features a yuki-onna, who appears at first to be a teenage girl collapsed in the snow.
- In episode 9 of Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, Yuki-Onna appears when Fuzzy Lumpkins mistakes her for Ms. Bellum (he grabs her breasts, then Yuki-Onna uses her magic to freeze him in ice).
- Yukiko-Hime of Dororon Enma-kun is a Yuki-onna. And may be a big influence on Yukime of Jigoku Sensei Nube.
- The manga Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales by Clamp contains stories centered around the snow and mentions of the yuki-onna.
- Progressive metal band Symphony X wrote of yuki-onna in the song "Lady of the Snow," from the album Twilight in Olympus.
- The manga and anime YuYu Hakusho features a yuki-onna named Yukina.
[edit] References
- ^ Yuki-onna and Yama-uba at shejapan.com
- ^ a b c Yuki-onna at japanese1-2-3.com
- ^ Seki, Seigo Seki (1963), Folktales of Japan, p. 81, University of Chicago, ISBN 0226746143
- ^ Yuki-Onna at the Encyclopedia Mythica
- ^ Smith, Richard Gordon , "The Snow Ghost," Chapter XLIX of Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan at sacred-texts.com
- ^ a b Kwaidan - Yuki-Onna (Snow Woman) at www.sarudama.com
[edit] See also
- Yokai
- The Snow Queen
- Shirahime-Syo
- Yuki-jouro
- Yukina
- Yeti
[edit] External references
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