Mountain Witches: Yamauba
()
About this ebook
Situating the yamauba within the construct of yōkai and archetypes, Noriko T. Reider investigates the yamauba attributes through the examination of narratives including folktales, literary works, legends, modern fiction, manga, and anime. She traces the lineage of a yamauba image from the seventh-century text Kojiki to the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, and explores its emergence as well as its various, often conflicting, characteristics. Reider also examines the adaptation and re-creation of the prototype in diverse media such as modern fiction, film, manga, anime, and fashion in relation to the changing status of women in Japanese society.
Offering a comprehensive overview of the development of the yamauba as a literary and mythic trope, Mountain Witches is a study of an archetype that endures in Japanese media and folklore. It will be valuable to students, scholars, and the general reader interested in folklore, Japanese literature, demonology, history, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, and the visual and performing arts.
Read more from Noriko T. Reider
Japanese Demon Lore: Oni from Ancient Times to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Mountain Witches
Related ebooks
The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Haunted Japan: Exploring the World of Japanese Yokai, Ghosts and the Paranormal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MYTHS & LEGENDS OF JAPAN - over 200 Myths, Legends and Tales from Ancient Nippon: Tales of Japan before time began Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarly Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Modern Murasaki: Writing by Women of Meiji Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGeishas and the Floating World: Inside Tokyo's Yoshiwara Pleasure District Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strange Tales from Japan: 99 Chilling Stories of Yokai, Ghosts, Demons and the Supernatural Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFolk Legends of Japan Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nightless City: Geisha and Courtesan Life in Old Tokyo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kitsune, Little Stories and Legends of Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese Fairy Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYurei Attack!: The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manga Yokai Stories: Ghostly Tales from Japan (Seven Manga Ghost Stories) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ninja Attack!: True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts And The Japanese: Cultural Experience in Japanese Death Legends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japanese Folklore and Yokai - Daija Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales, Myths and Historical Accounts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTanuki, Little Stories and Legends of Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKwaidan: Ghost Stories and Strange Tales of Old Japan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Gathering of Spirits: Japan's Ghost Story Tradition: From Folklore and Kabuki to Anime and Manga Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Ghostly Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Japanese Folklore and Yokai - Hi no Tama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost of Japan: short stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Social Science For You
Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men Explain Things to Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Close Encounters with Addiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Women Don't Owe You Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythology 101: From Gods and Goddesses to Monsters and Mortals, Your Guide to Ancient Mythology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Questions for Couples: 469 Thought-Provoking Conversation Starters for Connecting, Building Trust, and Rekindling Intimacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Mountain Witches
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Mountain Witches - Noriko T. Reider
Mountain Witches
Yamauba
Noriko Tsunoda Reider
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Logan
© 2021 by University Press of Colorado
Published by Utah State University Press
An imprint of University Press of Colorado
245 Century Circle, Suite 202
Louisville, Colorado 80027
All rights reserved.
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University, and Western Colorado University.
ISBN: 978-1-64642-054-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-64642-055-1 (ebook)
https://doi.org/10.7330/9781646420551
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Reider, Noriko T., author.
Title: Mountain witches : yamauba / by Noriko Reider.
Description: Logan : Utah State University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021003990 (print) | LCCN 2021003991 (ebook) | ISBN 9781646420544 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646420551 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Yōkai (Japanese folklore) | Crones—Japan—Folklore. | Witches in literature. | Supernatural in literature. | Folklore—Japan.
Classification: LCC GR340 .R355 2020 (print) | LCC GR340 (ebook) | DDC 398.20952—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003990
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003991
Cover illustration: Yamauba in Kokkei sharekyōgaen (Cornucopia of humorous pictures) by Maki Bokusen (1775–1824), courtesy of International Research Center for Japanese Studies
To Brent, MaryEllen, and Warwick Reider
My family, my love
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Yamauba’s Topos, Archetype, and Gender
Yamauba as Yōkai
The Term Yamauba (Yamanba or Yamamba)
Yamauba’s Topos: Mountains Where Eerie Things Happen
Appearance of Yamauba in the Muromachi Period
Appearance of Yamauba and the Role of Yamabushi
Yamabushi Subjugating Yamauba
Yamauba as Archetype
Yamauba’s Gender
Yamauba’s Features
Organization of the Book
1. Man-Eating, Helping, Shape-Shifting Yamauba: Yamauba’s Duality
Yamauba versus Oni/Oni-Women
Cannibalism, the Destructive Side of Yamauba’s Duality, and the Power of Transformation
Kuwazu nyōbō
(The Wife Who Does Not Eat
)
Ushikata to yamauba
(The Ox-Leader and the Yamauba
)
Sanmai no ofuda
(Three Charms
)
Helper and Fortune Giver: The Positive Side of Yamauba’s Duality
Komebuku Awabuku
(Komebuku and Awabuku
)
Ubakawa
(The Old Woman Skin
)
Female Cohabitant in Oni’s House
Devouring and Helping Yamauba: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Hanayo no hime (Blossom Princess) of Otogizōshi
The Noh Play Yamanba, a Starting Point
Yamanba’s Oni Image
Yamanba Helping Humans
The Noh Play Kurozuka (Adachigahara): The Crossroads of Yamauba and Oni-Women
Legend of the Oni-Woman of Adachigahara
Kurozuka (Adachigahara), Oni, and Women
Two Sides of the Oni-Woman
Yamanba in Kurozuka
Concluding Remarks
2. Mother Yamauba and Weaving: Childbirth and Bloodsucking, Spinning and Spiders
Yamauba Worship
Mother of Divine Children and Anthropophagy
Legends of Yamauba on Mt. Akiha
Yamauba monogatari: Yamauba Legends on Mt. Hongū
Yamauba as Mother of Kintarō
Childbirth, Bloodsucking, and Oni
Strings, Spinning, and Spiders
Similarities between Yamauba and Spiders
Oni versus Tsuchigumo, Yamagumo, and Yamauba
Feared and Worshipped Yamauba
3. Reading Minds and Telling Futures: Yamauba and the Cooper,
The Smile of a Mountain Witch,
and Throne of Blood
Mind-Reading Yamauba: Yamauba to okeya
and Satori
Premodern Setsuwa of Mind Reading
The Smile of a Mountain Witch
Retelling and Re-creating Yamauba Stories
Possible Sources of Ōba’s Mind-Reading Yamauba
Selfless Yamauba of The Smile of a Mountain Witch
Fortune-Telling Yamauba: The Old Woman in Naranashi tori
(Picking Wild Pears
)
Shamanistic Yamauba in Hanayo no hime
The Witch in Throne of Blood
The Castle of the Spider’s Web and the Spider’s Web Forest
From the Woman in Kurozuka to the Witch of Throne of Blood
Desires, Impermanence, and the Wheel
From Yamauba in the Noh Play Yamanba to the Witch of Throne of Blood
Mind Reading, Future Telling, and Re-creation
4. Yamauba, Yasaburō Basa, Datsueba: Images of Premodern Crones, Yamauba’s Flying Ability, and Re-creation of a Prototype
Yamauba and Oni-Women, Revisited
Legends of Yasaburō Basa
Yasaburō Basa as Oni-Woman
Datsueba and Images of Premodern Crones
Datsueba’s Association with Yasaburō Basa and Yamauba
Medieval Prototypical Female Features
Processes of Adaptation and Re-creation of a Prototype
Commonalities between the Yasaburō Basa Story and Premodern Setsuwa
Ibaraki Dōji, Shuten Dōji, and Yasaburō Basa
Yasaburō Basa’s Influence on the Noh Play Yamanba
Yamauba no nakōdo
(Yamauba Go-Between
), a Variant of Yasaburō Basa
Concluding Remarks
5. Aging, Dementia, and Abandoned Women: An Interpretation of Yamauba
Yamauba’s Antisocial Behavior and Dementia
Gluttonous Yamauba and Dementia
Yamauba and Obasute-yama
(Abandoned Women in the Mountains
)
Mukashibanashi Obasute-yama
Obasute-yama
in Other Literary Traditions
Did the Custom of Obasute-yama
Really Exist?
Obasute-yama
from a Poem to Narratives: Creation, Dissemination, and Transformation
Aging, Yamauba, and Healthy Life Expectancy
6. Yamamba Mumbo Jumbo: Yamauba in Contemporary Society
Yamauba and Village Markets
Market, Shibuya, and Yamanba-gyaru
Yamanba-gyaru Fashion and Ganguro
Yamanba-gyaru Disappear from Shibuya
Yamauba and Yamaubaesque
Yubaba in the Film Spirited Away
Yamauba in the Manga Hyakkiyakō shō
Yamauba in Fiction
Holy Man of Mt. Koya
Yamauba
Yamauba in Poetry: Watashi wa Anjuhimeko de aru (I Am Anjuhimeko)
Conclusion
Japanese and Chinese Names and Terms
Notes
References
About the Author
Index
Figures
0.1. Yamauba in Bakemono zukushi emaki (Picture scroll of monsters, Edo period), by Hokusai Suechika
1.1. Futakuchi onna
from Tōsanjin yawa
1.2. Blossom Princess encounters the yamauba.
1.3. Yamanba in the noh play Nōgaku zu e: Yamanba
1.4. The oni-woman in the noh play Kurozuka (Adachigahara)
1.5. The woman spinning in the noh play Kurozuka (Adachigahara)
2.1. Yamauba Shrine on Mt. Akiha
2.2. Yamauba in Ehon Raikō ichidai ki (Illustrated book of Raikō’s life, 1796), by Okada Gyokuzan (1737–1808)
2.3. Yamauba in Kokkei sharekyōgaen (Cornucopia of humorous pictures), by Maki Bokusen (1775–1824)
2.4. Yamauba Nursing Kintoki, by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806)
2.5. Yamauba in Hyakki yagyō (Pictures of one hundred demons strolling at night, 1776 [1805]), by Toriyama Sekien
3.1. The evil spirit of Throne of Blood
4.1. Rōba oni no ude o mochisaru zu
(Old woman leaving with the oni’s arm, 1889), by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892)
4.2. Statue of Datsueba in Shōjuin temple in Shinjuku ward, Tokyo
5.1. The Moon and the Abandoned Old Woman, 1891, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892)
6.1. A yamanba-gyaru in Shibuya
6.2. Shibuya scramble crossing and 109 Building
6.3. Yamauba, the Mountain Woman, by Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799)
Acknowledgments
Yamauba and oni are among the cornerstones in my life that have made it so fascinating. In the score and more years I’ve been writing about the supernatural in literature I’ve benefited from the guidance of many exceptional people. I owe special thanks to Peter Knecht, Shelley Fenno Quinn, Richard Torrance, and Mark Bender, whose intellectual guidance has been wonderful. Komatsu Kazuhiko, Yamada Shōji, John Breen, Yasui Manami, Kiba Takatoshi, Araki Hiroshi, Inaga Shigemi, Kusunoki Ayako, Shiraishi Eri, Goza Yūichi, and Saka Chihiro of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) have been gracious in their assistance and encouragement. I am also very grateful to a great many scholars and intellectuals, including Tokuda Kazuo, Asakura Yoshiyuki, Kagawa Masanobu, Sasaki Takahiro, Tokunaga Seiko, Nagahara Junko, Matsumura Kaoruko, Michael Dylan Foster, Rebecca Copeland, Ann Sherif, Keller Kimbrough, Cody Poulton, Mauricio Martinez, Yuriko Suzuki, Felicia Katz-Harris, and Ben Dorman. The two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript were immensely generous and kind, giving valuable comments. Likewise, comments, friendship, and encouragement from the members of the Midwest Japan Seminar (MJS), especially Ethan Segal, Michael Bathgate, Louis Perez, Laura Miller, Elizabeth Lublin, Roy Hanashiro, and Thomas Rogers, are much appreciated. Discussions at meetings of the Midwest Japan Seminar have been invaluable for my publications. The students in my course Japanese Tales of the Supernatural at Miami Universiy have always been an inspiration, giving me new ideas and perspectives.
Utah State University Press acquistions editor Rachael Levay, director Darrin Pratt, assistant director and managing editor Laura Furney, and production manager Daniel Pratt have been so helpful and encouraging. Anne Morris Hooke, my neighbor and friend, Suzy Cincone and Robin DuBlanc, professional copyeditors, were professional and patient in proofreading my English. Appreciation is also extended to the staff at museums and historical sites in Japan and the United States. The staff at the Interlibrary Loan Office of Miami University Libraries and at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies have been invaluable in helping me obtain the many books and articles I requested for research. Many thanks go to the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, the Iwase Bunko Library of Nishio City, Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, Hiroshima University Library, Japanese National Diet Digital Library, Itsukushima Shrine, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Dayton Art Museum for supplying the illustrations for the book.
My colleagues in the Department of German, Russian, Asian, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (GRAMELAC) at Miami University, especially Margaret Ziolkowski, John Jeep, Shi Liang, and Kazue Harada, as well as the director of the Interactive Language Resource Center, Daniel Meyers, and Stan Toops and Ann Wicks of the East Asian Studies Program, are exemplars of collegiality—supportive always.
The research in this book was made possible by financial support from Miami University (through a Faculty Improvement Leave in the academic year of 2018–2019), the Committee of Faculty Research, the Japan–United States Friendship Commission, the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. The environment—faculty, staff, resource, facilities, location—of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, where I stayed from January to July 2019, was superb and provided marvelous access to sources indispensable to completing this manuscript.
Chapter 1 is a revised and expanded version of the article that appeared as Yamauba versus Oni-Women: Devouring and Helping Yamauba Are Two Sides of One Coin,
Asian Ethnology 78 (2) (2019). I am grateful to the journal editor, Ben Dorman, for permission to use the article in its revised form. Chapter 4 is an expanded version of an article I submitted to Japan Reivew in 2018. John Breen, the editor of Japan Review, and the two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments that enabled me to enhance reader comprehension. When the publication date of this manuscript was advanced, the article was withdrawn, but their guidance specific to the work remains.
Finally, but not least, the love and encouragement of my family—my husband Brent, daughter MaryEllen, and son Warwick—are as precious as they are inspirational. As Brent was diagnosed with cancer in the winter of 2020 over 2021, my family have fought the illness with him together in unison under the COVID-19 environment. This book is thus dedicated to my family.
Introduction
Yamauba’s Topos, Archetype, History, and Gender
IN MANY CULTURES, WHEN HUMAN BEINGS ENCOUNTER some inexplicable phenomena—especially if it’s mysterious and inspires fear—they endeavor to make sense of them by invoking supernatural creatures. This is true of Japanese culture and society. As Michael Dylan Foster writes in The Book of Yōkai, yōkai (weird or mysterious creatures) have often been called upon in Japan to explain incomprehensible phenomena (Foster 2015, 5).¹ A yamauba (sometimes yamanba or yamamba), often translated as a mountain witch or mountain crone, is one such being. To many contemporary Japanese, the word yamauba conjures up images of an unsightly old woman who lives in the mountains and devours humans. The witch in the Grimm Brothers’ Hansel and Gretel
and Baba Yaga of Russian folklore can be considered Western/Eurasian counterparts of the yamauba figure. A yamauba is commonly described as tall, with long hair, piercing eyes, and a large mouth that opens from ear to ear (Komatsu 2000, 428). As Monica Bethe and Karen Brazell write, a yamauba appears in various Japanese texts as a god, a demon, an entertainer, a mother; enlightened, tormented, helpful, and harmful
(Bethe and Brazell 1978, 8). She is an enigmatic woman living in the mountains.
In recent years, the figure of the yamauba has attracted much attention among scholars of women’s literature as a woman not constrained by conformative gender norms or social expectations (Kobayashi Fukuko 2016, 2). Thus a yamauba connotes not only a mysterious female in the mountains but also the ambivalent status of Japanese women past and present, as well as the Japanese psyche that creates and re-creates prototypes. Broadly speaking, the old women who appear in the 156th episode of Yamato monogatari (Tales of Yamato, ca. mid-tenth century) and in The Old Woman on the Mountain
and How the Hunters’ Mother Became an Oni and Tried to Devour Her Children,
tales from the Konjaku monogatarishū (Tales of Times Now Past, ca. 1120), may be considered yamauba, and their portrayal has relevance to contemporary daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationships, elder issues, and dementia.²
Situating the yamauba within the construct of yōkai and archetypes, this study investigates the attributes of yamauba, and offers an interpretation through the examination of yamauba narratives including folktales, literary works, legends, modern fiction, manga, and anime. I believe a holistic image of yamauba will emerge through an examination of both yamauba’s well-known and lesser-known traits. Investigating how and why these attributes have appeared in various texts over time sheds light on the process of adaptation and re-creation of a prototype. Hence, this study also involves the creation, dissemination, and transformation of narratives and imagery.
Yamauba as Yōkai
According to Ema Tsutomu (1884–1979), historian and the author of Nihon yōkai henge-shi (History of Japanese yōkai shape-shifters, 1923), the majority of yōkai shape-shifters in narratives created before the Muromachi period (1336–1573) took male form when they appeared in front of humans. However, in narratives created after the Ōnin War (1467–1477), and especially in the early modern period, the number of yōkai shape-shifters in female form increased dramatically, appearing two and a half times more often than male figures (Ema 1923, 131). The reasons for this were, Ema writes, because in tales of the early modern period ghosts and apparitions were motivated by passion or grudges, traits associated with women because they form stronger attachments than men. Yōkai that originally appeared as animals, plants, or tools were also probably transformed into women because, Ema states, being female made it easier for them to trick and cajole men (Ema 1923, 131).
Folklorist Miyata Noboru’s (1936–2000) explanation for the large number of female yōkai is more sympathetic to women. He contends that in narratives young women often played the role of messengers between this world and the world beyond, and in doing so they had a tendency to become yōkai. Miyata noted that a young woman’s spiritual power, a kind of spirit possession, was at work, particularly among young maids of the lowest social strata. Fundamentally this is because of the spiritual power that women possess. Women are said to be more attuned to the spiritual realm than men; Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962), the founder of Japanese folklore studies, called this power imo no chikara (women’s power) (Miyata 1987, 117, 248–49).³ But the question remains whether men were considered to be more attuned to the spiritual realm than women before the Ōnin War. I speculate that a key to the answer lies in societal changes surrounding women in Japan. The period of increasing numbers of female yōkai in narratives coincides with a decline in the status of women.
The early modern period is often referred to as a dark age for Japanese women (Hayashi R. 1982, 325), a time when women’s social activities were extremely limited (Fukuda M. 1995, 257). Even before the early modern period, attitudes toward women had steadily declined. "Conventionally, the fourteenth century is known as the period when virolocal institutions (yomeiri kon) became common, as evident in the delivery of dowries and a new term for divorce (oidasu, ‘to chase out [the wife]’). Moreover, the wife increasingly came to be viewed as the husband’s possession" (Farris 2006, 156). Probably women, increasingly confined and suppressed by societal and cultural norms and constraints, found their emotional outlet in ghostly, monstrous figures. In the same vein, men’s feelings of guilt or sympathy toward such women may have helped create and increase the number of female yōkai.⁴
The Term Yamauba (Yamanba or Yamamba)
The terms yamauba, yamanba, and yamamba are presently all written in the same kanji, or sino-characters, 山姥, and many Japanese use these terms interchangeably. Some dictionaries, however, make the distinction that the pronunciation yamauba often seems to be used for legendary or folkloric figures, whereas the nasalized forms, yamanba or yamamba, are used in texts for the performing arts such as noh and kabuki.⁵ In this study, I have chosen to primarily use yamauba because of my heavy reliance on folktales and legends.
Whereas the characters 山姥 are used in contemporary Japan, various other characters were used in premodern times. For example, the characters 山優婆 (literally, gentle crone in the mountains) are used to describe the noh play Yamanba (early fifteenth century), generally attributed to Zeami (1363–1443), and in an otogizōshi tale titled Tōshōji nezumi monogatari (Tales of mice at Tōshōji temple, 1537).⁶ The edition of the Japanese dictionary Setsuyōshū from the second year of Kōji (1556) defines the term uba, 優婆, as an ordinary old woman
(Sasaki R. 2008, 203). Isshiki Tadatomo (d. 1597), a military lord and poet, also used the characters meaning gentle crone in the mountains in his Getsuan suiseiki (Getsuan’s collection of tales) (Isshiki 2008, 84). But the yamanba of the noh play had also been written as 山祖母 (grandmother in the mountains), 山婆 (old woman in the mountains), and 山伯母 (elder aunt in the mountains) (Sasaki R. 2008, 203).
The first appearance of the term yamauba in literary materials occurred in the Muromachi period (Komatsu K. 2000, 428; Orikuchi 2000, 300). As attested by early works that describe yamauba, including the aforementioned noh play Yamanba and the entry on the sixth month of 1460 in Gaun nikkenroku, a diary of Zen priest Zuikei Shūhō (1391–1473), the term predates the Ōnin War. It does not appear in the Wamyō ruijushō (Japanese names for things classified and annotated, ca. 930s), the first Japanese-language dictionary, or in an encyclopedia complied during the Muromachi period titled Ainōshō (ca. 1446). However, the Nippo jisho (Japanese-Portuguese dictionary), compiled by a Jesuit missionary and published around 1603–1604, has an entry for yamauba that reads: The face of the yamauba is not known. They are believed to live in the mountains
(Doi et al. 1980, 809). Several years later a yamauba is mentioned in the entry for the fourth month of 1609 in Tōdaiki (Records of the present age), a historical record possibly written by Matsudaira Tadaaki (1583–1644), a maternal grandson of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616). In this entry, a yamauba appears in a show in the area of the Tōfukuji temple of Higashiyama in Kyoto: Her hair is white and she is red around the eyes. She swallows her food in a gulp. The high and low see her. If one listens carefully, she is a crazy albino, so I hear
(Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai 1995, 149).
Interestingly, the Wakan sansaizue (Japanese-Chinese collected illustrations of the three realms, ca. 1713), an encyclopedia, explains the yamauba as an animal, native to the regions of Guangdong and Guangxi in China, that has only one leg, three toes and three fingers on each hand, and begs for food from people at night. The author, Terajima Ryōan (b. 1654), mentions nothing about Japanese yamauba. I should note, however, that the presence of three toes and three fingers is typical in portrayals of oni (demons, ogres, monsters). Yamauba have a very strong relationship with oni.
Yamaoka Genrin (1631–1672), a widely recognized intellectual of seventeenth-century Japan, states that the uba, 姥, of yamauba is more in line with the hime, 姫, of Tatsutahime (goddess of autumn) and Yamahime (princess of the mountains), interpreting it more broadly than meaning simply an old woman (Yamaoka 1993, 46). This is the same as Yanagita Kunio’s observation that yamauba and yamahime were originally euphemisms (used by villagers) for a mysterious woman living deep in the mountains (Yanagita 1978–1979, 1:255). In the same vein, folklorist Konno Ensuke (1914–1982) explains that yōkai-like creatures that are believed to live in the mountains are usually considered the yamahime type; and if they are old, they are called yamauba or yamahaha (literally, mountain mother). As there are a number of people who believe that hime refers to young women and uba to old women, they came to be thought of as two distinct types: young and old, yamahime and yamauba. But originally there was probably only one type: strange women in the mountains.
Figure 0.1. Yamauba in Bakemono zukushi emaki (Picture scroll of monsters, Edo period), by Hokusai Suechika. (Courtesy of International Research Center for Japanese Studies.)
Konno categorizes female yōkai into three types: yamauba, spirits of snow (yuki no sei), and strange creatures of the ocean (umi no kai) (Konno 1981, 221; 223–66).⁷ Ōba Minako (1930–2007) writes in her short story Yamanba no bishō
(The Smile of a Mountain Witch,
1976): Surely these old witches [yamauba] cannot have been wrinkled old hags from birth . . . For one reason or another, however, we never hear about young witches living up in the mountains
(Ōba M. 1991, 195).
Yamauba’s Topos: Mountains Where Eerie Things Happen
"Perhaps no image signifies the danger of the uncontainable, ravenous female as readily as the yamamba, writes Rebecca Copeland, scholar of Japanese literature (Copeland 2005, 21). As she says, the voracious appetite of the yamauba, especially her man-eating trait, is her most well-known characteristic. Indeed, a survey conducted by Komatsuzaki Susumu and Komatsuzaki Tatsuko reveals that
the image children have of yamanba is fixed regardless of their age or gender; children say that
a yamauba eats people and changes her appearance. She knows everything about mountains. She lives in the mountains and eats people who are lost. She eats oxen and horses. A creepy old woman" (Komatsuzaki and Komatsuzaki 1967, n.p.).⁸ The survey notes that yamauba’s fixed image could be due to well-circulated folktales, but the influence of illustrated children’s books and manga is believed to be significant, too.
As Mizuta Noriko (1937–), scholar of comparative literature, emphasizes, Yamauba’s identity is the topos of mountains
(Mizuta 2002, 13). Mountains are considered to be sacred places in many cultures, and this is true in Japan as well. Miyake Hitoshi (1933–), scholar of religious studies, gives several reasons for this, but two are especially pertinent to this study: Mountains are viewed as the dwelling place of spirits of the dead and ancestor spirits. Tombs are built on mountains,
and Mountains are regarded as liminal space between this world and the otherworld. The mountain is an avenue to heaven; a mountain cave is an entrance to the otherworld
(Miyake 2001, 78–79).
The idea that mountains are the dwelling place of spirits of the dead and ancestor spirits
reminds one of the mukashibanashi (old tales, folktales) called Obasute-yama
—stories of abandoning old people, especially old women, in the mountains. While there is no evidence of abandoning old people in agricultural societies, such tales are still popularly narrated in various media. Ōshima Tatehiko (1932–), folklore scholar, notes that mukashibanashi and legends of Obasute are deeply related to Japanese funeral customs such as aerial sepulture (fūsō) and the double-grave system (ryōbosei). In the double-grave system, a single deceased person has two graves, one for burying the body and one a tombstone erected by the family to visit and pray for the deceased. The place where old women are abandoned in Obasute stories would correspond to the burial site or aerial sepulture, where the actual dead body is buried (or abandoned). The word obasute is considered to have come from the term ohatsuse, originally meaning a burial site. That is, Obasute was a name for a graveyard called Ohase or Ohatsuse. Hase temple and Hatsuse in Kyoto are located on the borderline between the sato (settlement, village) and the mountains, indicating there was once a cemetery there (Ōshima 2001a, 4–5; Miyata 1997, 20).
There are many cases in real life where a mountain is designated as a place for burial. The purpose was to appease deceased spirits through the spiritual power of the mountain (Saitō 2010, 274). Indeed, in the noh play Yamanba, Yamanba projects a mountain landscape of the dead in her song: Awesome, the deep ravines. In graveyards, beating their own bones, fiendish wraiths groan, bemoaning their deeds from former lives. In cemeteries, offering flowers, angelic spirits rejoice in the good rewards of enlightened acts
(Bethe and Brazell 1978, 217; SNKBZ 1994–2002, 59:575).
Wakamori Tarō (1915–1977), historian and folklorist, assumes that the Obasute-yama
stories focus on a belief in the existence of some eerie beings deep in the mountains or at the bottom of nearby mountain valleys. Wakamori suspects this belief arose because of the strange or disorienting experiences villagers had when they went into the mountains, including having hallucinations or visions of human-like beings. Perhaps long ago, villagers surmised, people were pushed into deep valleys or mountains to put an end to their lives, and their angry spirits, forced to die untimely deaths and unable to go on to the other world, appeared in the mountains to harass villagers (Wakamori 1958, 215). Although Wakamori is writing about the Obasute stories, these eerie beings can be easily interpreted as old women, yamauba. The basis for the belief that something eerie existed in the mountains was already there, and the groundwork for yamauba to emerge in the medieval period (1185–1600) already existed in ancient times.⁹
Baba Akiko (1928–), poet and critic, asserts that "it is important to acknowledge these setsuwa (tale literature or narrative; myths, legends, folktales, anecdotes, and the like) have been handed down as reality.¹⁰ That is, people had strong beliefs of and fear about the existence of strange, aged woman in the mountains—like a mountain mother who could be a counterpart of a mountain father . . . these women never wanted to live a life outside the mountains" (Baba Akiko 1988, 279). Baba finds a clue to an origin of yamauba in a description of three entertainers met by Lady Sarashina (the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue, b. 1008) at Mt. Ashigara. Lady Sarashina left a memoir known to us as Sarashina nikki (As I Cross a Bridge of Dreams, ca. eleventh century). In the memoir of her experience traveling to Mt. Ashigara as an impressionable twelve-year-old girl, Lady Sarashina writes: We lodged at the foot of the mountain, and I felt fearfully lost in the depth of the moonless night. From somewhere in the dark three women singers emerged, the eldest being about fifty, the others about twenty and fourteen . . . Our party was charmed by their appearance and even more impressed when they started singing, for they had fine, clear voices that rose to the heavens . . . We were all so sad to see them disappear into those fearful mountains
(Sugawara no Takasue no musume 1971, 47; SNKBZ 1994–2002, 26:287–88). Baba believes that these entertainers made their based on being near the mountains, and she conjectures that as these