As great fans of the Japanese folklore, today we bring you a creature from a popular folktale, the Yuki Onna (Snow Woman). She is a Japanese snow spirit known for her beauty and also for killing humans.
In some versions she is described as having very pale skin with black hair contrasting with her white kimono, she leaves no footprints as she floats over the snow and sometimes her feet are invisible.
Following one of the legends about its origins where a snow spirit of a Yuki Onna is born from a woman that fell on the snow, the decision for a regretful girl taken by the sadness of a letter she just received, laying on the snow and perishing from exposure gives us our own Yuki Onna, with the fleeting reminiscence of being human in the past, when faced by the beauty of the cherry trees under the snow.
Gathering some courage we felt compelled to give a haiku a try…
“No footsteps, no sound,
A letter filled with regrets
of being human.”
The Yuki Onna calls out to people on snowy nights and if you reply, she attacks, but there’s also the version where she will push you off a cliff if you don’t reply as well, so if you ever meet one… Good luck?…
★Happy Friday happenings to all. See you next week and stay inspired★
Fascinating… I wonder how the legend came to be…
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It is said that the legends were born from the isolation and hardships that people suffered while living in the mountains.
We hold on to the supernatural since otherwise it could mean some beautiful women decided to start pushing people off cliffs…
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I learned of the Yuki Onna when I watched Masaki Kobayashi’s film Kwaidan last year. It was a fascinating watch – definitely deserving of being considered a classic.
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Thank you for recommending it, we’re definitely checking it since we also were advised to watch another movie Yuki Onna themed called Kaidan Yukijorou (The Snow Woman) by director Tokuzou Tanaka.
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