山姥 (Yamanba) – Japanese Mountain witch

8th March – 弥生

Old women monster who lives in deep mountain. Very tall and have sharp eyes, teared mouth till ears . She runs very fast like a wind. She can also be called 鬼婆 (Onibaba), 鬼女 (Kijo).

As it has been told that Japanese mountains are mysterious and have relations to spirits and unknown things. Just like Tengu from previous blog, there are believed to live 山姥(Yamanba) in the deep forest and have made peoples scared.

In many districts in Japan, there are various Yamanba stories inherited till nowadays, both good and bad. The most famous things about Yamanba is that she eats humans and animals. However, there are other stories that Yamanba gives fortunes to people who she likes, helps child births, becomes a match maker for marriage. Therefore, it is better to be kind to her rather than making her angry!

Hypothesis for origin of the Yamanba can be this:

In the old time, there were Miko (who serve gods, from previous blog) for mountain gods. when the faith for that religion became obsolete, those Miko became monsters and those ladies were started to called Yamanba.

One district are saying that Yamanba has got beautiful white skin, but other many districts are believing she looks very old and scary.

One famous most-known story of Yamanba is that when the traveler lost in the mountain in the night, beautiful lady offered her house to stay over night and when the traveler sleeps, she ate the traveler. Therefore, most people consider Yamanba as very scary women.

On the other hand, there are stories that Yamanba is explained as nice and kind:

In the one region, when the baby boys were born, the mom left one bunch of hair at his head and shaved the rest, this hair style was called ととっ毛 (Totokke). This custom was done as it was believed that when the kids drowned in the river or pond, Yamanba would hold that hair and help the kids. Once they turned to the age for elementary school year, they cut the hair and provide it for Yamanba to thank her for looking after the kids.

Therefore, some districts worship Yamanba as a great spirit.

Even there are nice stories about Yamanba, the famous ones are always illustrated as a bad monster:

Once upon a time, there were Buddhist priest and little boy. This little boy asked priest that he wanted a permission to go into the mountain to get chestnuts. Priest allowed the boy and gave him 3 talismans in order to escape from Yamanba if he met her. As priest had imagined, Yamanba came while the boy was picking the chestnuts. She asked him that she could boil the chestnuts for him to eat. The boy got excited and being tricked by her. On the way to Yamanba’s house, the boy realized that she was actually Yamanba, so he told her that he wanted to go for peeing. Yamanba tied the boy with rope so she would not lose her dinner for today. When the boy went into the bathroom, he tied the one talisman and ask the talisman to reply Yamanba’s qustions so he can escape from her. When the boy escaped from the bathroom window, Yamanba noticed he ran away, so she ran crazy fast and almost catching up with him. The boy asked another talisman to make a flood so Yamanba could drown. However, Yamanba drunk all the water and still chased him. So he asked the last talisman to make a fire so she could not come close to him. But Yamanba extinguished fire by spitting out the water she drunk. Now the boy does not have any talisman… but he was almost back to the temple! So he ran fast and hided inside the temple. The priest came and met the Yamanba, Yamanba asked him where the little boy is. Priest told her “if you compete with me and you won, I will tell you where he is”. Then priest showed his skill to make the Yamanba small like a bean. He wrapped her with rice cake and ate her at the end!