Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternative names: Happyakubikuni, Sennenbikuni, Shirobikuni, Eight-Hundred-Year Nun, Thousand-Year Nun, White Nun
Category: Cave dweller
The Myth
Yaobikuni appears as a woman who has lived for hundreds of years without aging. She is often described as a nun with exceptionally white skin and hair, and is said to have traveled throughout Japan while remaining young or unchanged despite her great age.
According to one of the most famous traditions from Wakasa Province, a fisherman or her father encountered a mysterious mermaid and brought its flesh home. Nobody was willing to eat the strange meat, but the man’s daughter eventually ate it. From that moment she ceased to age and gained an extraordinarily long life.
After many years, she became a Buddhist nun and began traveling throughout Japan. She continued her wandering for centuries, eventually reaching the age of 800 years. Stories of the extraordinarily old white-haired nun spread widely, and records from the Muromachi period describe an elderly nun who had come to Kyoto from Wakasa. Those wishing to see her were required to pay a fee according to their social position, while the gates of her residence were kept tightly closed.
Other versions tell that her father encountered a mysterious stranger in the mountains and was taken to a paradise-like place where he was given the flesh of a mermaid. He refused to eat it and brought it home, where his daughter consumed it and gained a life lasting more than 400 years.
In another tradition, a strange fish was caught in the sea and its flesh was discarded because everyone found it disgusting. The daughter alone ate it and gained supernatural longevity.
Some versions tell of a woman from Ōishi on Sado Island who gained a thousand years of life after eating mermaid flesh. She later gave 200 of those years to the lord of the province and eventually died in Wakasa at the age of 800.
Yaobikuni is also said to have traveled with a staff or pair of chopsticks. In many local legends, she planted them in the ground, where they took root and grew into trees. Temples throughout Japan preserve traditions connected with her, including stories of caves where she entered the earth and places where she stayed or founded temples.
Sources
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “八百比丘尼 (Yaobikuni).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). August 14, 2020. Accessed August 15, 2026. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741607.html