Yukionna

Yukionna

The Snow Woman

The Kwaidan

What is the Yukionna?

Yukionna, or the snow woman, is a Japanese legend about a woman in white who embodies snow. They are also referred as Yuki Onba, or Yuki Musume (Foster, 173). She is found during snowstorms and on frosty mountain passes. She feeds on life force by freezing her victims and sucking it out of her victim’s mouth. She can also disguise herself as a normal human woman and can eat human food, as seen in Lafcadio Hearn’s rendition of the story, Kwaidan. They are often beautiful, with porcelain white skin and dark black hair, common beauty traits in Japan. Being a supernatural creature, they do not age. They use their beauty and youth to entice their victims so that she may freeze them and feed off their life force (Meyer). Their lack of aging can be counterproductive as they have a habit of falling in love with their victims and as their lovers age, they remain the same age, revealing their identity (Hearn). The Yukionna is not to be confused with Tsurara-onna, or Icicle woman. They are very similar in appearance and general demeanor, however Yukionna are born from despair and create danger while the Tsurara-onna are born from loneliness and are not inherently dangerous. The danger of a Yukionna is a key identifying feature. Yukionna is a terrifying creature that has no real place in modern folklore. People don't die in the cold like used to. As Urbanization became more prominent, the necessity of Yukionna as a cautionary tale of the cold is no longer needed.

Appearance in Tales.

The most popular form of the Yukionna tale is “Kwaidan”. In this story, two woodcutters, Minokichi and Mosaku, are caught in a big snowstorm, and find an abandoned cabin to take shelter in. They go to sleep, planning on leaving the next morning. Minokichi wakes up to find Yukionna breathing on Mosaku, freezing him to death. Yukionna is about to breathe on Minokichi to freeze him but stops and says that she will let him live because he is young and attractive. She states that if he were to tell anyone what has happened this night, she would know and she would kill him. A year later, Minokichi is married to a beautiful woman named Oyuki and living happily. One night, he tells Oyuki the tale of the Yukionna, which he says that Oyuki reminds him of her. Oyuki reveals herself to be the same Yukionna he met that night and she reminds Minokichi of the deal that they had made. She decides to spare him, not out of mercy like before, but because they have a child to care for. She then disappears, never to be seen again.

The first written appearance of the Yukionna is in the Sogi Shokoku Monogatari. Written in the Muromachi period, from 1336-1573, the monogatari chronicles the sights and tales of a monk, named Sogi, in the Nigata Prefecture. In the tale, Sogi leaves his house on a snowy morning and encounters a beautiful, ten-foot-tall women, with inhumanly white skin and stark white hair, like the snow. Her kimono is near see through and seemingly magical. He attempts to speak to her, but she disappears into the snow without a word. Later when telling the story to a local friend, the friend tells Sogi that he saw a Yuki no Seirei, or a spirit of winter. While this is the first written recording of the snow woman, the friend tells Sogi that he saw a spirit that is a tale in the region and is commonly known. (1) This lets us infer that the legend, or some variation of snow spirits, have been around for a fair amount of time before this recording.

In some regions of Nagano prefecture, Yukionna is referred to as the Yukionba (Foster, 173). They believe that she is a form of Yamanba that lives in the snow. Much like the tale of the Yamanba, it serves as a cautionary tale to keep children from going out at night. In other prefectures, like Aomori, Yukionna is considered a type of Toshigami, or a “yearly god”[1]. Toshigami appear once a year or during a certain time of year. Similar to Dr. Foster’s Toshidon on Koshikijima island, Yukionna also appears during the New Years, specifically on the “Koshogatsu”, or the small New Years. On this day, the 15^th of the 1^st month, children are kept inside to avoid Yukionna. However, on the other side, there is a positive to being a Toshigami. In Japan there is an archetype of stories known as Otoshi no Kyaku, or “New Year’s Visitor tales” (Nussbaum, 765). In these tales, people are visited by spirits or gods on New Year’s and if treated well, become gifts to the hosts. For the Yukionna, there is a tale of her arrival and being treated well, and the host awakes to her being a solid gold statue as a gift.

Depiction in Popular culture.

Yukionna is certainly one of the more popular yokai in modern culture. She appears in many card games, like Magic the Gathering and Yu-gi-oh. In both games, she has abilities related to folklore powers. In Magic, when Yukionna is played, you can destroy a target artifact and then return the card to your hand, playing on the theme of killing and disappearing (Wizards of the Coast, Yukionna). In Yu-gi-oh, Yukionna has the ability to flip a target face down, seemingly thematic to burying the card in snow (Konami, Ghostrick Yuki-onna). Yukionna appears in many games and shows. She appears in any video game revolving around Japanese folklore, like the game Nioh, and she appears as a villain in two different Super Sentai/Power Rangers shows. In almost every portrayal in media, she is a bringer of sorrow and destruction. She herself also tends to be sorrowful as well, maybe leading back to many beliefs of her being the spirit of a woman who died in the snow (Aoki 17). Yukionna also appears in Pokemon as the Pokemon Froslass (Satoshi, Ep. 582- The Drifting Snorunt). Froslass, or Yukimenoko in Japanese, is a Pokemon that has a kimono like body, a red obi sash around her torso and can freeze her enemies. In the anime, she can also create illusions. While this isn’t one of her folklore powers, it does play into the ghost archetype that Yukionna falls into. One refers to Froslass as a her, as the Pokemon is a female only species. (Satoshi, Ep. 582- The Drifting Snorunt)

Yukionna started off as a dangerous cautionary tale, warning people about wandering in the snow and being stuck in snowstorms. As urbanization increased, this cautionary tale became outdated, and peoples fear of the Yukionna waned. In this day and age no one fears the Yukionna or any permutation of her legend, she has become a novelty.