Futakuchi-onna

Lore & Background

The origin of futakuchi-onna's second mouth is often linked to how little a woman eats. In many stories, the soon-to-be futakuchi-onna is the wife of a miser and rarely eats. To counteract this, a second mouth mysteriously appears on the back of her head, often mumbling spiteful and threatening things and demanding food. If not fed, it can screech obscenely and cause the woman tremendous pain. Eventually, her hair begins to move like a pair of serpents, allowing the mouth to help itself to her meals. While no food passes through her normal lips, the mouth in the back of her head consumes twice as much as the other one would.

Reader's Guide

In another story, the extra mouth is formed when a stingy woman is accidentally hit in the head by her husband's axe while he is chopping wood, and the wound never heals. Other stories have the woman as a mother who lets her stepchild die of starvation while keeping her own offspring well fed; presumably, the spirit of the neglected child lodges itself in the stepmother's or the surviving daughter's body to exact revenge. The most famous prototypical story tells of a stingy miser who marries a beautiful woman who never eats, but his rice storage steadily decreases. Spying on her, he sees her hair part, her skull split open, and the second mouth grab rice with hair-like tentacles and shove it in, causing him to flee in fear.

Did You Know?

• The second mouth on a futakuchi-onna is located on the back of the head beneath the hair, where the skull splits apart to form lips, teeth, and a tongue.
• In many stories, the futakuchi-onna is the wife of a miser who rarely eats, leading to the appearance of the second mouth.
• The second mouth can screech obscenely and cause the woman tremendous pain if not fed.
• One origin story involves a stingy woman accidentally hit in the head by her husband's axe, with the wound never healing.

Anatomy and Classification

Futakuchi-onna, literally "two-mouthed woman," is a yōkai — a Japanese supernatural creature — distinguished by the presence of a fully functional second mouth on the back of her head, hidden beneath her hair. This is not a mere cosmetic oddity; her skull splits apart to form genuine lips, teeth, and a tongue, creating an entirely operational oral cavity. The woman retains her normal facial mouth, so she possesses two complete sets of oral anatomy. In the taxonomy of Japanese folklore, she belongs to a specific class of female yōkai narratives alongside rokurokubi, kuchisake-onna, and yama-uba. What unites these figures is a shared narrative structure: each woman is afflicted by a curse or supernatural disease that transforms her, and her true monstrous nature remains concealed until a climactic moment of revelation. This pattern of hidden identity and late disclosure is central to how futakuchi-onna stories are constructed and experienced by audiences.

Origins of the Second Mouth

The folklore offers several explanations for how the second mouth comes to be. The most common narrative links it to a woman's starvation at the hands of a miserly husband. In these tales, the wife rarely eats, and the second mouth appears as a supernatural countermeasure. It mumbles spiteful, threatening words to the woman and demands food; if denied, it screeches obscenely and inflicts tremendous pain. Over time, the woman's hair begins to move like serpents, enabling the back-mouth to independently seize food from her meals. Remarkably, while nothing passes through her normal lips, the posterior mouth consumes twice the amount the regular one would. Alternative origin stories diverge significantly: in one, a stingy woman is accidentally struck on the head by her husband's axe while he chops wood, and the wound never heals, eventually forming the second mouth. In yet another variant, a mother allows her stepchild to starve while keeping her own child well fed, and the spirit of the neglected child lodges itself in the body of the stepmother or surviving daughter to exact revenge.

The Prototypical Tale

The most celebrated futakuchi-onna story unfolds in a small village. A miser, unwilling to bear the cost of feeding a wife, lives entirely alone. One day he encounters a woman of extraordinary beauty, admired by every villager. Strikingly, she eats nothing at all, and the miser immediately takes her as his wife. He is thrilled: she is beautiful, she works hard, and she consumes no food. Yet a troubling mystery emerges — his rice stores are steadily dwindling. Suspicion grows until one day the man pretends to head out for work but instead stays hidden to spy on his wife. What he witnesses shatters him: her hair parts at the back of her skull, and the bone splits wide open to reveal a gaping, hungry mouth. She unbinds her hair, and it reaches out like tentacles, grabbing rice and shoving it into the orifice. Overcome with horror, the man flees the scene in terror.

Cultural Echoes and Scientific Parallels

Futakuchi-onna occupies a specific niche within Japanese supernatural literature, sharing narrative DNA with other female yōkai such as rokurokubi, kuchisake-onna, and yama-uba. The common thread is a woman whose supernatural affliction is concealed until a final, revelatory moment, making the disclosure the story's emotional and narrative climax. Beyond folklore, the figure resonates with real medical conditions: craniopagus parasiticus and diprosopus offer a scientific parallel to the dual-mouthed anatomy described in the legends. The legend also intersects with the broader obake tradition of shape-shifting Japanese monsters. In modern popular culture, the futakuchi-onna has been referenced by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki and novelist Tomie Kawakami, while the historical figure of Edward Mordrake is frequently cited alongside her as a parallel case of a hidden secondary face.