Yuki-onna (Snow Creatures – Tanka)

delicate birch twigs /
snapping in the wind become /
Yuki-onna’s hair – /

is it wind that numbs my face /
and sweeps my footprints away? //

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Yuki-onna 

Yuki-onna (“snow woman”) is a spirit from Japanese folklore (a yōkai). She has many names, including “snow girl”, “snow wench”, “snow harlot” (!), “snow sis”, “snow granny”, and “snow hag”. She is a tall, beautiful woman with pale (or translucent) skin who changes into a cloud of snow when threatened. Yuki-onna may be naked or she may wear a white kimono. At times, only her face and hair are visible in the snow.

The spirit of a human who died in the snow, she is ruthless when it comes to killing mortals.  She may kill by leading them astray so they die of exposure, killing them with her icy breath, invading homes, using children to lure their parents to their deaths … or even by behaving as a vampire or a succubus.

Legend has it that Yuki-onna once spared a young boy because of his age and his beauty. She made him promise to tell no one. Later in life he married a woman who turned out to be Yuki-onna.

Yuki-onna appears many times in popular culture globe-wide: Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, Tales from the Darkside … and countless times in Japanese literature, manga and animation.

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New Series: Snow Creatures

This is the first poem in a new series – all about snow monsters, snow legends, and snow mythology.

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First image: Sawaki Sushi. Yuki-onna from the Hyakkai-Zukan, ca. 1737. Wikipedia.
Second image: Toriyama Sekien. Yuki-onna from the Gazu Hyakki Yakō, ca. 1781. Wikipedia.

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