Ningin Halloween Special: Top told Japanese Demon Folklore legends

Danny Truong on Saturday, October 31, 2009 8:00PM

In all throughout Asia, the tales of ghosts, ogres, and oni are the most gruesome compared to any tale in the U.S. And especially in Japan, since out of all their folklore, a majority are of Kaidan, or tales of evil spirits. Perhaps it was the predominant Shinto beliefs in fear of the dead? In any case, these are among the most legendary tales of ghosts(demons) who haunt specific regions in Japan. Bring an exorcist should you travel to these spots. You’ve been warned!

Yuki Onna
Demon type: Succubus / Ubume
She is known as the snow woman. In other European lore, as the blizzard mage. The consistent telling of the story includes that she was a pregnant woman who died during childbirth, and appears as a youthful woman of 20 years of age. She haunts the snowy mountain tops as a beautiful, nude, and occasionally white robed woman.

After one has viewed her beauty, they are confused by her terrorizing eyes, which have caused shock. At other times she’d be carrying a baby in her arms. She would kill everyone in her path with her icy-breath freezing them during a romantic kiss or sexual encounter. There were a few whom she decided to show mercy to, and those who she thought were handsome or had children. Those who were spared must keep the secret of Yuki Onna or suffer an icy cold death. She kept her promise and did kill every man who told her tale.

She used her beauty and her seductive trance to control the handsomest men and married them. Many of these Japanese men, gave birth to half-men, half-demons and afterward, she would leave them or seem to melt during the spring, and repeat the cycle with another man.

However, there seems to be a different snow woman, legend who instead of envying children, would rip out of the livers out of them. Perhaps she is a different demon altogether.

Jorōgumo
Demon Type: Succubus
She is the known to the dead man as the golden-orb spider lady guarding the waterfall. The Japanese were always weary about this breed of spider, since when it awakened at 400 years, and would gain special powers and become the Jorōgumo. Although today these spiders are not known venomous, many millennium ago they were once fatal enemies to man.

An incident describes a wood cutter who visited a waterfall saw a woman of great beauty at Joren Falls. He was absolutely in love with her, so every day he would come to visit her, as each day he lost more and more of his vitality and energy. The next time he came with a monk, and once again the logger entered the waterfall. The spiderwebs attempted to wrap around him, and the monk let out a loud cry and it interrupted her trance long enough to discover he was trapped by a monstrous spider. Although knowing this, his love for this monster would see no end. He asked the protector spirit, Tengu of the mountain for his help, but the Tengu only warned him of his deadly fate.

Unable to quench his desires, the man came back to the waterfall, pulled into the spider web and was never seen again.

Other men who came to see the demon were told never to tell her tale, much like the Yuki Onna, as she slew every man, making this a dead mans tale.

Funayūrei
Type: Haunting
These are said to be the dead of people who died at sea. At night they would appear as boaters lost at sea, asking for something they could use to scoop water. If the person agreed to give them a scoop, ladle or bucket they would use it to pour water into their boat and drown them, while displaying their true presences as evil spirits.

Jiki Ninki -
Type: Man Eating Goblin
This once was a human priest who was the only one in a great desolate area. His greed for food and material items, like clothing were greater than his need to help others. He came back reborn as a goblin who fed on the corpses of human flesh. Although he is cursed, he asks people who have witnessed him to pray for him that he may become freed from his curse.

Thanks to Sarudrama

This blog posting is part of the 2009 Ningin Halloween Special. (Insert sinister laugh here.)

Categories :