Yuki-onna
Snow woman spirit of Japanese folklore, both feared and longed for.
Yuki-onna (雪女; lit. 'snow woman') is a yūrei or yōkai in Japanese folklore, often depicted in Japanese literature, films, or animation. She may also go by such names as yuki-musume, yukihime, yuki-onago, yukijorō, yuki anesa, yuki-onba, yukinba, yukifuri-baba, and names related to icicles such as tsurara-onna, kanekori-musume, and shigama-nyōbō. Some sources suggest her legends may date back to the Muromachi period, with a possible mention in the Sōgi Shokoku Monogatari by the renga poet Sōgi, but this reference is not widely confirmed in standard folklore texts.
- field
- Japanese folklore
- nationality
- Japanese
- known_for
- Appearing as a snow spirit or ghost in winter, often associated with children, marriage, and mountain taboos
Lore & Background
Yuki-onna appears in many regional legends across Japan. In Niigata Prefecture, a beautiful woman became a man's wife of her own desire but vanished when forced to bathe, leaving only thin icicles. In Aomori and Yamagata, a similar figure called shigama-onna visited an old couple on a snowy night; when the old man tried to stop her, she turned into a whirl of snow and exited through the chimney. In Hirosaki, Aomori, a story often associated with the yōkai 'Shōjō' or a different regional tale tells of a warrior asked to hug a child; he held a short sword in his mouth while hugging the child, avoiding the child's increasing weight that would otherwise freeze him to death, and was rewarded with treasures.
Reader's Guide
Yuki-onna legends reflect both longing and fear in rural winter life. Old tales are mostly stories of sorrow, said to originate when childless couples or single men in mountain villages heard blizzards knocking on their shutters and fantasized that what they longed for had come, living briefly in a happiness as fleeting as snow. At the same time, the sound of a blizzard on an outer shōji was called 'shōji sasuri' and used to frighten children into sleeping. Yuki-onna is often linked to toshigami (deities of the new year), as seen in legends where she returns on New Year's Day or Little New Year, and in tales where kindness to her on a blizzard night turns her into gold the next morning. She also shares traits with yama-uba and ubume, and appears in inter-species marriage stories similar to Lafcadio Hearn's version, where a mountain hunter marries a yuki-onna, has a child, and is spared when the taboo is broken because of the child.
Did You Know?
- In Nagano Prefecture, yuki-onna is called yukionba and appears on snowy nights in the form of a yama-uba.
- In Tottori Prefecture, a yuki-onna would say 'Koori gose yu gose' ('Give me ice, give me hot water') while waving a white wand; she bulged when splashed with water and disappeared when splashed with hot water.
- In Aomori, a yuki-onna comes down to the village on the third day of Shōgatsu and returns to the mountains on the first day of Rabbit, affecting the harvest.
- In Gifu Prefecture, an invisible monster called yukinobō changes its appearance to appear as a yuki-onna and asks for water; giving hot tea instead is said to make it go away.
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