[Rhuen]

Yama-uba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Yama-uba ("mountain crone") is a monster found in Japanese folklore. The name may also be spelled "Yamamba" or "Yamanba". She is sometimes confused with the Yuki-onna ("snow woman"), but the two figures are not the same.
Appearance
Yama-uba looks like an old woman, usually a hideous one. Her unkempt hair is long and white, and her kimono is filthy and tattered. Her mouth is sometimes said to stretch the entire width of her face, and some depictions give her a second mouth at the top of her head. She is able to change her appearance, though, and she uses this tactic to great success in capturing her victims.
Behavior
Yama-uba inhabits the deep forests of the mountains of Japan. Various regions claim her as a native, including Sabana (where she is supposed to have once lived in a cave at the base of Mt. Nabekura), the Tohoku region (northern Honshu), and the Ashigara Mountains. Most stories say that she lives in a hut.
Yama-uba preys on travelers who have become lost in her wooded lair. Her exact tactics vary from story to story. Sometimes, she changes her appearance to that of a beautiful woman or possibly one of her victim's loved ones. Other times, she retains her hag-like form and plays the part of a helpless old woman. Once she has gained her quarry's trust, she often closes and eats them then and there. She is able to animate her hair (or turn it to snakes in some legends) and use it to pull the prey into the maw atop her head. She may also offer to "help" the lost soul and then lead him to a dangerous area of the mountain where he falls to his death and allows her to feed. Alternately, she may offer to lodge the victim in her hut. Once the luckless traveler is sufficiently fattened up, she pounces. In addition to killing adults, Yama-uba is often blamed for missing children, and parents use her as a sort of bogie man.
Because her behavior is similar to that of female oni, some scholars suggest tha Yama-uba is simply a named member of that class of creature. Others suggest that several Yama-uba live all throughout Japan. Unlike the invincible oni, however, Yama-uba is fallible. A few tales make her a nocturnal creature unable to move about in sunlight. At least one tradition holds that her only weakness is a flower that holds her spirit, so that if the flower is destroyed, the mountain crone is as well. She is often depicted as quite gullible, and tales of her would-be prey fooling her to make their escape are common.
Yama-uba is skilled in the arts of sorcery, potions, and poisons. She sometimes trades this knowledge to human beings if they bring her a substitute victim to eat or satisfy some similarly wicked bargain.
Despite her predatory nature, Yama-uba has a benevolent side. She raised the orphan hero Kintaro (who became the famous warrior Sakata no Kintoki, for example, a relationship that forms the basis for the noh drama Yama-uba. In this story, Yama-uba is portrayed as a loving mother, which has influenced some more modern tales to depict her as a matronly figure. Some even make her a representation of love. Other storytellers hold that she is simply a solitary wanderer who represents harmony with nature.
Origins
Some scholars place Yama-uba's origin in the Edo period when a great famine caused Japanese villagers to cast their elderly out into the woods for lack of food (others say they ate the elderly). Yama-uba was thus born out of the psychological undercurrent from such actions.
Legends of Yama-uba have existed since at least the Heian period. At this time, a village named Sabane built the Nenbutsu Toge bypass around a cave that was thought to house the witch.
Yama-uba's legend is still very much alive in Japan. A late 1990s fashion trend called "Yamanba" took its name from Yama-uba, since those who followed it were said to look like the mountain crone.

[Rhuen]

Yuki-onna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Yuki-onna (雪女, "snow woman") is a spirit or type of spirit found in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese animation, manga, and literature. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba ("mountain crone"), but the two figures are not the same.
Appearance
Yuki-onna appears as a tall, beautiful woman with long hair. Her skin is inhumanly pale or even transparent, causing her to to blend into the snowy landscape. She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face, hair, and pubic region standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if she is threatened.
Behavior
Yuki-onna is winter personified, particularly the storms common during that time of year. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in her killing of unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghostlike nature and ephemeral beauty.
In many stories, Yuki-onna reveals herself to travelers who find themselves trapped in snowstorms and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say that she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, he or she is frozen in place. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often physically invades people's homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind, to kill them while they sleep (though some legends require her to be invited inside first).
Exactly what Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see her victim's death. Other times, however, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force". She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men in order to drain or freeze them through sexual intercourse or a kiss.
Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free due to his beauty and age. She makes him promise to never mention her again, though, and when he relates the story to his wife much later in life, his wife reveals herself to be none other than the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise but spares him yet again, this time out of concern for the children she has born him. In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature.

[Rhuen]

"this is also in the asian thread"

Kirin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A qilin, also spelled kylin and qilin (麒麟 pinyin: qi2 lin2; Cantonese: kay-lun), is a mythical horned Chinese deer-like creature that is said to appear only when a sage has appeared. It is a good omen that brings Rui4 (瑞 roughly translated to serenity and prosperity). It is often depicted with what looks like fire all over its body. In most drawings, its head looks like that of a Chinese dragon. The qilin is sometimes translated as unicorn in English, because it is superficially similar to the unicorn in being a hooved imaginary beast having a single horn on its head.
Although it looks fearsome, the Qilin only punishes the sinners; when it walked on grass, it could not trample it. Being a peaceful creature, its diet did not include flesh.
In Japanese, the qilin is called a kirin. Japanese art tends to depict the qilin as more deerlike than in Chinese art. The word kirin has come to be used in modern Japanese for a giraffe.

[Rhuen]

Kamaitachi : A Japanese monster said to resemble a weasel, literally “sickle weasel.” They attack their victims in teams, knocking the victim down and slashing him.

Kasha : Japanese ghoul. It usually lives near crematoriums and tries to feed on the dead before they are burned

Katawaguruma : Japanese female ghost distinguished by moving from place to place as a wheel of flame

[Rhuen]

Nyaki: shapeshifting cat that has to absorb life force to use its magic other wise it is basically a talking cat.

a story about such a creature

Shapeshifter Cat (Japan)

Legend concerns a cat and is set on the island of Sado.
An old couple had a black catto which they were much attached. They were exceedingly poor and when there hardship seemed to have no solution.
The cat, in return for there sacrifices for it down the years, turned into a geisha, taking the name of Okesa. She thus made money for the couple though at considerable cost, for apparently she did not relish the life, which involved having sexual intercourse with her customers as well as giving them the more formal entertainment of conversation, singing and dancing. At the last of which she was particularly adept.
One of her clients, a boatman, once caught a glimps of her in her cat form, eating. She made him promise not reviel her true idenity, but when taking a boatload of passengers to Hokkaido, he could not resist the temptation of telling them that the famous dancing geisha of Sado was really the cat belonging to the old couple, and in the circumstances it is hard to blame him.
Immediately he had betrayed Okesa's confidence, it is said that a dense cloud appeared in the sky and from it a vast black cat appeared and snatched him from view. The passangers apparently escaped unharmed: they had, after all, only listened to the story. One can still buy dolls doing the Okesa dance. It is a story much told, depicted and danced.

[Rhuen]

another demon cat story that better illustrates its demonic nature

A Japanese legend called The Cat of Nabeshinia tells the story of an erotic cat vampire. The Prince of Hizen, a member of the honored Nabeshima family, had as his favorite concubine a charming woman whose name was O Toyo. One evening the lovers wandered into the garden and stayed out enjoying the flowers until sunset. While returning to the palace, they realized that a cat was following them.O Toyo retired to her own room and went to sleep. At midnight, awakening with a start, she became aware of being watched by a huge double-tailed crouching cat. Before she could cry for help, it sprang at her throat and throttled her to death. The cat then scratched a hole under the verandah, buried O Toyo, and assumed her form. The prince knew nothing of this tragedy. He had no idea that the beautiful woman who came and made love to him every night was in fact, a demon who was draining his life's blood. Day by day the Prince of Hizen's strength dwindled; his face became both pale and livid, as he appeared to be suffering from a fatal illness. He took all the medications prescribed by doctors, but none did any good.Since his sufferings always increased at night, it was arranged for one hundred servants to form a guard every evening when he retired for bed. Each evening the watchers took up their positions, but around ten o'clock they were overcome by drowsiness. The vampire would prey upon her victim as usual. The prince's health deteriorated steadily each day. His counselors realized that they were up against something supernatural. They turned to the chief priest at the temple, begging him for prayers for the prince's recovery. The prayers of the priest were disturbed by noises from the garden, a soldier called Ito Soda, who served in the infantry of Nabeshima. The young man begged to sit up one night with the prince to try to resist the drowsiness and detect the evil spirit.Eventually his request was granted. However, as the others, at ten o'clock he felt drowsiness overcoming him. To ward off the sleep, he thrust his dagger deep into his thigh so that sharp pain would keep him awake.As he watched, the sliding doors of the prince's room opened, and a beautiful young woman slipped into the room making her way to the bedside. Suddenly she became aware of another presence. Though she called out, Ito refused to answer, staying hidden. Several times she attempted to cast her spells over the prince, but as long as Ito glared at her, she was unable to concentrate. Finally she retired in frustration to her own sleeping chambers, leaving the prince undisturbed. The following night the soldier again took up his vigilance and the same thing happened. After two undisturbed nights, the prince's health began to improve. Again and again the vampire returned, only to have fruitless attempts at the prince. Gradually the night guards ceased to be overcome with drowsiness.It was obvious to Ito that the being who appeared at night as O Toyo was really a demon; he began making plans to kill her. At nightfall the soldier went to her chambers, pretending to deliver a message from the prince. As he approached, he struck at her with his dagger but she sprang away. Finding herself no match for Ito, she formed herself into a cat, leapt to the roof, and escaped into the mountains.The cat demon harried the local residents until one day the prince, having fully regained his health, organized a great hunt for the cat. He succeeded in avenging his beautiful concubine, for the vampire of Nabeshima was finally destroyed.
It is interesting to note, after reading of this legend, of a report that was published in Sunday Express, July 14, 1929 from Japan: The vampire cat of Nabeshima is once more about its nightly business, bewitching the beautiful wives of the descendants of the old two-sworded fighting Samurai.

[Dream Forger]

Rhuen, you are a wealth of information! I know where to come to now, when I want to know about pretty much anything anbout anything (well supernatural I guess) I love anything about the Far East. :) Thanks for the time you've taken to post all you have.

[Rhuen]

your welcome, I am currently looking into far east Phantom cats, as they came up as I side note in my ever increasing research into fox spirits.

[Rhuen]

Raiju
A Japanese demon whose name means "thunder animal". It is a demon of lightning in the shape of a cat, badger or weasel. During thunderstorms it becomes extremely agitated and leaps from tree to tree. If a tree shows the marks of lightning, people say that Raiju's claws have scratched it open

[Anathema_Ceres]

Rhuen... I think you should know that I officially love you now. :wub: :wub: :wub: Lol, youkais and kitsunes, onis and shishis.... I'm falling deep into the hole of depressive joy you people call 'love.' :heart:

lol, sorry, I'm into the whole Japanese culture thing and I absolutely ADORE anyone who does too. :devilflip:

[Dream Forger]

Long time ago, I posted saying thank you for doing all this, well, Rhuen, this time your hard work, has been used. This defenation of the Oni-

Quote

Yet another definition of the Oni
Oni are devil-like demons with long nails, wild hair, a fierce look and two horns on their forehead like the devil images known in Western Christian cultures. They wear tiger skins and can fly. Oni hunt for the souls of those who did evil things in their lives. In a nutshell, a guy one would not like to encounter in the darkness!
The Oni character is a deep-rooted aspect of Japanese culture. Japanese children grow up with tales of Oni. In medieval times, people living on distant islands were considered as oni. And during the time of the Japanese seclusion from the rest of the world and during war times, foreigners were looked at as Oni.

Will be used in the story I am writing in dark whispers. Say thank ya. :) :thumbsup:

[Rhuen]

your welcome

[Azriela]

this thread has been very informative, rhuen you are one of the best posters on this site. i have learnt alot from you. :cofpap:

[Rhuen]

thanks. ^_^

[Hamato]

hey what u mean research us writting a book or are u in college doing this for your major or minor?

[Mysterium]

Over the last couple years I have grown an obession for Japanese Ghosts. I wanted to start a topic and see if anyone had anything about it.

The one particular type of ghosts I see the most of but want to learn more about is the Yuurei. Usually they are women who die tragically and so haunt for revenge. This ghost is seen in the movies (Ringu, The Grudge) and in the video gae Fatal Frame. I find the extremely creepy.