Ubume
Ghost of a woman who died in childbirth, often carrying a baby.
The ubume is a type of Japanese yōkai, also called ubumedori or ubumetori. It is the ghost of a woman who died in childbirth, though her child may have been born alive. The creature is related to the Chinese guhuoniao, or "wench bird," but Japanese folklore has added its own details to the legend. Its appearance and identity vary across stories and literature, but it is most often shown as a spirit of a woman who died giving birth. She looks like an ordinary woman holding a baby and tries to hand the child to a passerby before vanishing. When the person looks at the baby, it turns out to be a bundle of leaves, a large rock, or a stone statue of Jizō.
The name ubume can be written with the characters 産女, meaning "birthing woman." The Chinese name 姑獲鳥 is also used in Japan and read as ubume or ubumedori. Another name is nyūbochō (乳母鳥), or "mother's milk bird," because of its resemblance to a wet nurse. In some Edo-period scholarship, the ubume was equated with the Chinese guhuoniao, which was also called rumu niao (乳母鳥) or yèxíng yóunǚ (夜行遊女, "nighttime traveling girl").
According to tradition, when a pregnant woman dies and is buried, but her child is born alive after her death, her soul turns into this monster. She is soaked in blood below the waist and looks frail. She asks passersby to hold her baby. If someone refuses or flees, they may gain a boon, like extraordinary strength. If they agree to hold the child, they may be cursed with a fever that can kill them. In many folk tales, the passerby takes the swaddled baby, and the mother disappears. The baby then grows heavier and heavier, until it becomes impossible to hold, and is revealed to be a boulder, a stone image of Jizō, a stone tower, or tree leaves. Edo-period artists often showed her wearing a blood-stained loincloth.
The ubume may also try to snatch other people's babies because she craves a child of her own. If she bore a child alive, she might seek nourishment for it. She has a habit of trying to breastfeed the children she kidnaps, which is why she is called nyūbochō. Another sign of her presence is that she leaves droplets of blood on clothing when she enters a house. In some lore from Ibaraki, her milk is poisonous and marks a child's clothing.
- Type
- Yōkai (supernatural spirit)
- Origin
- Japanese folklore, with Chinese equivalent Guhuoniao
- Also known as
- Ubumedori, ubumetori, nyūbochō (乳母鳥), obo (in Fukushima)
- Associated with
- Childbirth, death in childbirth, night, blood, baby-snatching
- Common depiction
- Woman soaked in blood below the waist, carrying a baby
Lore & Background
The ubume is explained to be the ghost of a mother who died giving childbirth. When a pregnant woman dies without delivering her child and is buried, but the child still comes out alive, her soul (konpaku) turns into this monstrous female, soaked in blood below the waist and frail-like, asking passersby to hold her baby. If the person refuses or flees, he gains some sort of boon (e.g., extraordinary strength); if he complies and holds the child, he may be cursed and develop a fever, even unto death. Typically, the ubume asks a passerby to hold her child for just a moment and disappears when her victim takes the swaddled baby, which then becomes steadily heavier until it is revealed to be a boulder, a stone image of Jizō, a stone tower, or tree leaves.
Reader's Guide
The ubume holds a significant place in Japanese folklore as a yōkai that embodies the tragic and restless spirits of women who died in childbirth, a common theme in many cultures. Its importance lies in its dual nature: it can be a source of blessing (granting extraordinary strength) or a curse (causing fever and death), reflecting the ambivalent feelings surrounding childbirth and maternal death. The ubume's legend also illustrates the blending of Chinese and Japanese folklore, as it is explicitly equated with the Chinese Guhuoniao, and its various names—such as nyūbochō—show how local beliefs adapted foreign concepts.
The ubume appears in key historical texts and art, including the Konjaku Monogatarishū, the Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban, the Kii zōdan shū, the Wakan sansai zue, and Toriyama Sekien's Gazu hyakki yagyō (1776), which features perhaps the most famous depiction of the ubume standing by a river holding a child, topless but clad in a blood-stained sheet. Local lore in Ibaraki and Fukushima prefectures preserves variations, such as the ubametori that poisons children's clothing and the obo of Fukushima that bites the throat of those who hold its baby. The ubume's legacy endures as a cautionary tale about the dangers of childbirth and the supernatural consequences of unresolved maternal attachment.
Did You Know?
- The ubume is equivalent to the Chinese Guhuoniao (姑獲鳥, 'wench bird'), and the Chinese written name 姑獲鳥 has been coopted to be read as ubume or ubumedori.
- In some narratives, a person who holds the ubume's child gains extraordinary strength; one man who did so later succeeded as a powerful sumo wrestler.
- The ubume is also called nyūbochō (乳母鳥, 'mother's milk bird') because it tries to breastfeed the child it kidnaps.
- In Ibaraki Prefecture, a similar yōkai called the ubametori marks children's clothing with its poisonous milk, and there is a taboo against leaving clothes hung out to dry overnight.
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