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Yamanba

Also known as Yamauba (山うば), Yamamba, Onibaba (鬼婆), Yama-onna (山女), Yama-hime (山姫), and Kijo (鬼女).

Description

Yamanba are female yōkai that live alone in mountain huts. They occasionally offer a place to sleep for the night to travelers in the form of an old woman or beautiful young woman. After their guests fall asleep, they transform into their true form and eat their guests. Stories of yamanba encounters have been spread through those lucky enough to escape. Stories of yamanba are often bedtime stories for children to not go near the mountains.

In classic folklore, yamanba typically preys on travelers and merchants such as ox-drivers, horse drivers, and coopers, who often travel between villages and walk through the mountains. They are thought to have widely spread the tales of yamanba. Yamanba has typically been portrayed in two tales. There are tales where yamanba was a fearful monster that attacks and eats travelers, and tales where yamanba is a benevolent yōkai that gives good fortune to people who were kind to her.

Appearance

Yamanba is generally believed to have been once human and transformed into a yōkai. In their human form, they usually appear as a kind old woman or a beautiful young woman offering a place for the night.

In her true form, a yamanba is believed to be as tall as 7-9 feet tall with gleaming eyes, a wide mouth from ear to ear, with messy long hair. Some regional storied also include fangs and horns as well. She is sometimes depicted naked from the waist up.

In another tale, a mother traveling back to her village gives birth in a mountain hut assisted by a kind, old woman. Only upon giving birth does the woman realize that the woman was yamanba and intended to eat her helpless newborn.

Origin

1. Created when young women flee to the mountains to escape false accusations of crimes or wrongdoings. Their life in exile transforms them into yamanba overtime.
2. Created from abandoned old women out of rage or desperation. During times of famine, it was an old custom to remove a member of the family (typically infants or the elderly) so the rest can have enough food to survive. It is said that elderly women left in the mountains to die transformed into yamanba to feed on humans.
3. Originally a miko (female monk) for mountain gods who storytellers made into a yōkai.

Regional Variations

In the Masaeki town in Miyazaki Prefecture, a beautiful young lady, or “Yamahime” would bathe and sing in a lovely voice in the mountains. She would appear to look around 20 years old and have beautiful black features.

In parts of Hokkaido, Shikoku, and southern Kyushu, there is also a yama-jijii (山爺), yamanba, and yamawaro that would appear together.

In Shizuoka, yamanba are known to be a woman that wore clothes made of tree bark and rests at certain houses. She would borrow a pot to boil some rice, but the pot would become full with rice with just two cups worth of rice.

In Hachijō-jima, a "dejji" or "decchi" would appear to stow people away by leading them in the night. She would also nurse children who go missing.

In Kagawa, yamanba residng near rivers are called “kawajoro” or river lady. Whenever a river dike is about to collapse, she would exclaim in a loud voice, “my house is going to be washed away.”

In Kumakiri and Haruno towns of Shizuoka, there are legends of yamanba referred as “hocchopaa” that would appear on roads at night. Mysterious phenomena, such as vocal curses and mysterious sounds come because of hocchopaa.