Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Sōzugawaba, Shōzukaba, The Old Woman Who Strips Clothes, The Old Woman with the Cotton
Category: Giant
The Myth
Datsueba is an elderly demon who dwells beside the Sanzu River, the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead in Japanese Buddhist tradition. When the deceased arrive at the riverbank, she strips them of their clothes. She is also known as Sōzugawaba or Shōzukaba and is commonly depicted as a terrifying old woman associated with the judgment of the dead.
According to the Jizō Bosatsu Hoshin In’en Jūō Kyō, a Buddhist text concerning the Ten Kings of the underworld, government offices stand along the banks of Hatsue, in front of which flows the great river Sōzugawa, another name associated with the Sanzu River. A large tree called Eryōju grows before these offices, beneath which Datsueba lives alongside another demon named Ken’eō, also known as Kenneō.
Datsueba removes the garments of the dead, while Ken’eō hangs them on the branches of the Eryōju tree. The degree to which the branches bend under the garments reveals the severity of the sins committed by the deceased. Their actions therefore form part of the supernatural process through which the dead are assessed after crossing into the afterlife.
In traditional depictions of hell, Datsueba often sits beneath a tree with one knee raised, clutching a garment in one hand and wearing a frightening expression. Some images portray her with her breasts exposed. Statues of the demon can be found at temples throughout Japan, where she is represented with similar features.
One particularly famous statue is enshrined at Shōjuin Temple in Shinjuku. It became popular around 1849, when rumours spread that it could grant wishes. Alongside other religious figures that attracted devotion during the same period, Datsueba became a subject of woodblock prints. The statue was especially associated with curing coughs and warding off epidemics. Worshippers who recovered from coughs offered cotton to the statue, placing it over her head like a hood. This custom gave her the additional name “the Old Woman with the Cotton.”
Sources
“Datsueba.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010655131.html