Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Crab Girl
Category: Mountain dweller, Crab, Yokai
The Myth
In the late eighteenth century, during the lively days of Edo, crowds gathered in the Asakusa district to see strange and curious spectacles. Among them was a young girl known as the Kani Musume—the Crab Girl. She was said to have only two fingers on each hand, and this unusual trait earned her fame. People came not because she performed any special skill, but simply to look upon her rarity, and her name became well known among the curiosities of Asakusa.
As the years passed and fashions changed, the popularity of such shows faded. In later tales, the Crab Girl’s story took on a darker, more fantastical turn. She was said to have been gathered up by a demon woman who had withdrawn from human society and fled into the remote mountains of Tamba. This demon girl, bitter over her own failures and humiliation, surrounded herself with others like the Crab Girl—along with a Cat Girl, a Heron Girl, a Bear Girl, and a Snake Girl.
Together, these strange women would sit and speak ill of human women, mocking their beauty, their manners, and their lives. The demon girl dreamed of returning to the human world as a terrifying monster, one that would inspire fear instead of ridicule. But when she saw a beautiful human woman named Omiwa, whose face twisted into something truly dreadful from jealousy alone, the demon girl was overcome with fear. Realizing that human emotions could be more frightening than any monster’s form, she fled back into the mountains, abandoning her ambition.
Thus, the Kani Musume remained in legend as a figure caught between spectacle and myth—first a curiosity of the city, later a companion of outcasts and half-monsters—her story reflecting how fascination, cruelty, and fear can transform ordinary lives into something strange and unsettling.
Gallery
Sources
TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). カニ娘 (Kani Musume). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1052020047.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Kani Musume