Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Koheiji Obata, Kohada Koheiji, Ghost Koheiji, The Vengeful Spirit of Asaka Marsh
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Kohada Koheiji is a famous vengeful ghost figure in Japanese ghost stories of the Edo period. His tale is told in Fukushū Kidan Asaka Numa, one of the earliest stories about his supernatural revenge. In life, Koheiji was an actor from Edo who performed in rural theatres throughout Japan. His acting was generally considered poor, earning him the mocking name “Kohada,” after the small fish, although he excelled at ghost plays and was sometimes called Ghost Koheiji. His first wife died after giving birth to their son, Kotaro. His second wife, Otsuka, was cruel to her stepson and secretly involved with Adachi Sakuro, a drummer and acquaintance of Koheiji.

Sakuro conspired with his criminal associates to murder Koheiji so that he could take Otsuka as his wife. Under the pretext of a fishing trip, Koheiji was taken by boat to Asaka Marsh and thrown into the water. His death was treated as an accidental drowning, and the search for his body was soon abandoned. At a hideout, Sakuro found Koheiji’s corpse, covered in mud and foam. He stole five gold coins sewn into the dead actor’s collar and mocked him for being too foolish to recognize the betrayal that had led to his death. As Sakuro prepared to leave, Koheiji’s cold hand suddenly gripped his wrist. The corpse opened its eyes, terrifying Sakuro so badly that his accomplice cut off the hand to free him, eventually severing the fingers that remained embedded in his arm.

When Sakuro returned to Edo and told Otsuka what had happened, she claimed that Koheiji had already returned home sick and was resting behind a screen. A thin, blue hand emerged from behind it and held the screen shut. When Sakuro forced it open, the room was empty, and a faint flame escaped through the window. The rotten fingers left behind were unmistakably those cut from Koheiji’s corpse. Otsuka showed little fear, declaring that such hatred was to be expected. Sakuro nevertheless married her and took possession of Koheiji’s house. For a time, the couple lived peacefully, but Koheiji’s spirit continued to torment them. Sakuro began seeing a mysterious man lying beside Otsuka, and later believed he had caught her with another lover. When he attacked the figure with his sword, it vanished, leaving only mocking laughter from the roof. Otsuka lost the fingers of one hand while gripping the blade and soon fell seriously ill, her mind and body breaking under the relentless haunting.

A Shinto priest warned Sakuro that his house was cursed by the dead and gave him a talisman, instructing him to keep the doors closed and maintain ritual purity for thirty-two days. Each night, Koheiji’s ghost patrolled the house, appearing as a shadowy fire and threatening to take Sakuro’s life. On the thirty-second night, Sakuro believed the danger had passed and opened a window. A gust of wind carried the ghostly flame inside, and a scream came from the bedroom. Otsuka had vanished, leaving blood on the wall and long strands of hair on the eaves. Sakuro later sought protection from a Zen monk, who warned that his life was in danger and gave him a sealed packet that supposedly contained gold and would protect him for three days. After the period had passed, Sakuro discovered that the gold was counterfeit. When he confronted the monk, the man beat him with an iron staff. Sakuro returned home badly injured, developed a high fever, and died in delirium, imagining that he was being dragged into water and forced to drink as though he were drowning.

The tale attributes the disasters that befell Sakuro and Otsuka to Koheiji’s vengeful spirit. His soul remained at Asaka Marsh, tormenting people who encountered the place, and the story became so feared that theatrical performers reportedly avoided discussing it. Even those involved in the murder who escaped the ghost’s immediate vengeance eventually met their deaths. In the end, however, Koheiji’s spirit was said to have attained Buddhahood through the teachings of the Zen master Ryōzen, bringing the hauntings to an end. The marsh was later converted into rice fields known as Koheiji Shinden. His son Kotaro grew up to become a successful actor, but was deeply saddened by his father’s transformation into a vengeful spirit and devoted himself to Buddhist prayer.

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Sources

“Kohei Obata.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654425.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Mi-Mi, “Show Me, Show Me”
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Misho Misho is a mysterious supernatural creature described in New Tales of One Hundred Ghost Stories. It appears as a woman’s severed head that floats above the ground, accompanied by eerie flames and mournful cries. Its name is associated with the repeated words “Look, look,” which it speaks as it passes unsuspecting travelers.

The creature appears in a tale about Risuke, a bookseller from Samegai Street in Kyoto who regularly traveled to Nara to sell books purchased in Kyoto and Osaka. One year, after recovering from an illness, Risuke decided to make the journey alone for the first time in a long while. An errand delayed his departure, however, and he was forced to continue along the road after nightfall. As he passed a remote cemetery on the Nara Road, a cold wind swept across the fields, and the darkness of the starless night filled him with unease.

Ahead of him, Risuke spotted a wavering light that was neither foxfire nor the glow of a lantern. As it approached, he heard a woman’s cries. He quickly hid behind a large stone pagoda beside the road and watched as a woman’s head emerged from the darkness, its hair disheveled and its teeth blackened. The head floated about a foot above the ground as though carried by the wind. Passing by with a mournful voice, it repeatedly uttered the words “Look, look,” each time releasing flames from its mouth.

Risuke watched the apparition until it had traveled several dozen feet away, but he soon became dizzy and lost consciousness. He did not recover his senses until just before dawn. When he finally reached Nara and recounted the encounter to his innkeeper, he was still trembling with fear. The tale leaves the nature and purpose of Misho Misho unexplained, presenting it as a terrifying apparition encountered on a lonely road after dark.

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Sources

“Misefumisu.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1070141379.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Rokujo no Miyasundokoro, Lady Rokujo’s Living Spirit, Rokujo’s Vengeful Spirit
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Lady Rokujo is a noblewoman from The Tale of Genji, a classic work of Japanese literature, who becomes infamous for the destructive power of her jealous and vengeful spirit. The daughter of a minister, she became the consort of a Crown Prince at the age of sixteen and gave birth to a daughter. After the Crown Prince died when she was twenty, she began a relationship with Hikaru Genji, a younger nobleman. Lady Rokujo was proud, educated, and dignified, but she also struggled with her age and status in relation to Genji. Her intense and complicated affection overwhelmed him, and he gradually distanced himself from her.

In the chapter known as Aoi, Lady Rokujo’s resentment erupts after she is publicly humiliated during a dispute over the placement of carriages at the Kamo Festival. A servant of Aoi, Genji’s principal wife, treats her disrespectfully, leaving Lady Rokujo consumed by shame and anger. Although she remains physically unaware of what is happening, her living spirit leaves her body and torments the pregnant Aoi. After a difficult labor, Aoi gives birth to a son, but her condition deteriorates and she dies a few days later. Lady Rokujo realizes that her spirit has been acting independently when she notices the scent of poppies, used in prayers and rituals, clinging to her clothing. Genji also witnesses her living spirit while attending to Aoi. Horrified by what she has become, Lady Rokujo decides to end her relationship with Genji. She later bids him farewell at Nonomiya and travels to Ise with her daughter, who serves as an imperial princess at the Ise Shrine.

Lady Rokujo eventually returns to Kyoto, entrusts her daughter’s guardianship to Genji, and dies of illness. Yet her attachment to Genji appears to persist beyond death. Her spirit subsequently torments Murasaki no Ue and Onna San no Miya, directing hateful words toward Genji and demonstrating that her jealousy has not been extinguished. Her daughter grieves over rumors that her mother’s spirit has not found peace, and a memorial service is performed at Genji’s urging.

Lady Rokujo’s transformation into a vengeful spirit became especially influential in Japanese theatre and demon imagery. In the Noh play Aoi no Ue, she appears first as a suffering woman and then transforms into a terrifying spirit and demon, while Aoi herself is represented onstage by a kimono. Her story is also associated with the hannya mask, which represents a woman consumed by jealousy and resentment. The mask’s connection to Lady Rokujo was explained through a legend in which the recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra frightens away her vengeful spirit. The artist Toriyama Sekien connected this episode to the name hannya, while also depicting the supernatural oboroguruma, inspired by the carriage dispute at the Kamo Festival. Lady Rokujo thus became one of the most enduring literary examples of how jealousy, humiliation, and unresolved attachment could transform a woman into a terrifying supernatural being.

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Sources

“六条御息所 [Rokujo no Miyasudokoro].” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1059982793.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Goryō, Mitama, Honored Ghost
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Goryō are the vengeful ghosts of ancient Japanese warriors and nobles who suffered horrible, agonizing deaths. Returning from the dead as dreadful spirits of vengeance, they are closely associated with onryō, ghosts that seek retribution against those who wronged them during their lives. Their name, written 御霊, can be translated as “honored ghost,” reflecting their association with the spirits of people who held status or importance in life.

The wrath of a goryō can bring terrible calamities upon its enemies and the wider community. Fires, wars, plagues, droughts, floods, and violent storms may all be interpreted as manifestations of their vengeance. Even the deaths of members of the imperial family could be attributed to their supernatural anger. Such disasters were understood as curses inflicted by the spirits of those who had been unjustly treated, disgraced, or killed.

Because a ghost could not simply be killed to end its revenge, the living sought to pacify these dangerous spirits and transform them into peaceful, benevolent beings. Priests and onmyōji, practitioners associated with Japanese divination and esoteric rites, performed religious ceremonies intended to appease them. These practices formed part of goryō shinkō, the religious tradition of venerating and pacifying vengeful spirits. Through such rites, a spirit feared for its power to spread calamity could instead be honored and reconciled with the living.

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Sources

“Goryō.” Yokai.com. https://yokai.com/goryou/

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Tamazusa, 玉梓, Gyokumen
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Tamazusa is a beautiful but treacherous woman in Kyokutei Bakin’s epic novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. She becomes a central figure in the events that bring ruin upon the rulers of Awa Province and sets in motion the curse that drives the story of the eight dog warriors. Tamazusa is a favored concubine of Jin’yo Mitsuhiro, lord of Takita Castle, who indulges in drinking and women and allows her to influence his government. Retainers who bribe or flatter her receive rewards, while loyal and capable servants are neglected or dismissed. Among those who benefit from this corruption is Yamashita Sadakane, a powerful retainer who secretly maintains an affair with Tamazusa. Together, they contribute to the collapse of Mitsuhiro’s rule. Sadakane eventually tricks his enemies into killing Mitsuhiro, seizes Takita Castle, and takes Tamazusa as his wife.

Sadakane’s tyranny provokes resistance, and an army led by Satomi Yoshizane eventually captures Takita Castle. Sadakane is killed by his own defecting retainers, and Tamazusa is brought before the victors to answer for her role in the corruption of the former lord’s government and her relationship with the traitor. She defends herself by arguing that, as a woman, she had little control over her circumstances and that she became Sadakane’s wife only after Mitsuhiro’s death left her without a home. Her arguments fail to persuade Kanawan Hachiro, who condemns her as a deceptive woman whose outward beauty conceals an evil heart. Yoshizane briefly considers sparing her, moved by her beauty and pleas for mercy, but Hachiro insists that her crimes demand punishment. Yoshizane ultimately orders her execution. Enraged, Tamazusa curses Yoshizane and Hachiro, declaring that they will suffer ruin and that she will lead their descendants toward the path of beasts and worldly desires. She is beheaded, but her hatred survives her death and becomes the source of a lasting supernatural curse.

Tamazusa’s vengeance continues to affect the Satomi family long after her execution. When Hachiro later commits seppuku, the shadow of a woman believed to be Tamazusa’s vengeful spirit clings to his son, Kanawan Daisuke, although only Yoshizane can see it. In time, Tamazusa’s spirit takes the form of a female tanuki named Gyokumen. The transformed spirit raises an orphaned puppy while bathing it in her resentment, and the dog is eventually taken into the Satomi household. Named Yatsufusa, it grows into a powerful animal and becomes the beloved companion of Yoshizane’s daughter, Fusehime. Through this deception, Tamazusa’s curse enters the Satomi family itself. Her vengeance ultimately sets the stage for the adventures of the eight dog warriors, each associated with a jewel representing one of the eight virtues of benevolence and righteousness. Thus, Tamazusa’s death marks not the end of her influence but the beginning of the supernatural trials that shape the epic’s central story.

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Sources

“Tamazusa.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1071886536.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Iwatou, 岩藤
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Iwafuji is a notorious female villain in Japanese jōruri and Kabuki theatre, best known for her role in Kagami-yama Kokyō no Nishikie. She serves as a lady-in-waiting to Ohime, the daughter of Minamoto no Yoritomo, and conspires with her brother, Kenzawa Danjō, to seize power within the household. Driven by jealousy toward Onoe, a senior retainer who enjoys the princess’s trust, Iwafuji uses cruel schemes to humiliate her rival and ultimately drive her to suicide. Iwafuji’s triumph is short-lived, however, as Onoe’s maid, Ohatsu, avenges her mistress by killing the villainous lady-in-waiting. Iwafuji became a celebrated theatrical villain, and her character was reportedly inspired by real ladies-in-waiting in the households of powerful feudal lords. When the actor Onoe Matsusuke I played Iwafuji in 1805, rumors spread that the performance portrayed a senior woman of the women’s quarters at Edo Castle, prompting an investigation by the town magistrate’s office.

In later plays that continue Iwafuji’s story, she returns from the dead as a vengeful ghost. One prominent version appears in Kagami-yama Gonichi no Iwafuji, also known as Kotsuyose no Iwafuji, written by Kawatake Mokuami and first performed in 1860. In this story, Iwafuji’s remains are left in a horse burial ground after her death at Ohatsu’s hands. Her spirit lingers there until Ohatsu, who has earned praise for her loyalty and become the second Onoe, visits to pray for the repose of her predecessor’s soul. A dark flame suddenly rises, and scattered bones gather together before flesh begins to return to the corpse. Iwafuji reappears with disheveled hair and decaying skin, greeting Ohatsu with a curse and promising to haunt the Taga family, torment Hanazono-hime, and assist Mochizuki Danjō in his plot to seize power. Although a protective sword briefly drives her away, she returns in a beautiful, almost supernatural form, carrying a parasol and playing with butterflies as she floats through the air above the cherry blossoms.

Iwafuji continues her revenge by helping the conspirators undermine the Taga household. When Hanazono-hime falls ill under the influence of a malevolent spirit, the villains falsely accuse the second Onoe of cursing her. Iwafuji disguises herself as Danjō and uses forged documents and accusations to corner Onoe, even repeating the humiliation inflicted upon the first Onoe by beating her with a sandal. The ghost’s deception is eventually exposed when Sekiya uses a shrine of Kishimojin to make her vanish and restore the palace to its proper state. Iwafuji later confronts Onoe again, wielding a snake-eye umbrella and renewing her curses, but Inukiyo drives her away by presenting the sacred image of Kishimojin. This time, her spirit finally disappears, and her body returns to a skeleton before shattering into pieces. The play’s spectacular scene in which the resurrected Iwafuji floats through the air is known as Fuwa Fuwa and remains one of the story’s theatrical highlights. Through her resurrection and repeated attempts at revenge, Iwafuji becomes a figure of relentless malice whose grudges persist beyond death.

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Sources

“Iwafuji.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741612.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Karaginu, 唐衣
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

During the reign of Emperor Toba, Ishikawa Juro Yoshitoshi and his wife Ukihashi, who lived in Hino Village south of Kyoto, prayed to Kannon Bodhisattva for a child. Ukihashi eventually gave birth to triplets, born during the hours of the tiger, snake, and monkey. Ashamed of having three children at once, she concealed the birth from her husband and entrusted two of the girls to a wet nurse, keeping the third to raise herself. Years later, three beautiful women named Han’i, Tamaki, and Kono Kimi were brought to serve Emperor Toba by two of his consorts, Taikenmon’in and Kōyōin. Han’i gained the emperor’s particular affection and became pregnant, provoking the jealousy of Bifukumon’in, the emperor’s favorite. Bifukumon’in plotted against her rival, using false accusations to have Han’i arrested. Her companions, Kono Kimi and Tamaki, were arrested alongside her. All three women were stripped, tortured, and killed by officials acting under Bifukumon’in’s influence. Han’i’s death was falsely presented as suicide, and their bodies were buried at Shimizu Hill, at a place known as Kemonozuka, or Beast Mound.

The murdered women returned as vengeful spirits, tormenting their enemies and members of the imperial family. Their curse first brought about the deaths of a mountain ascetic’s wife and the ascetic himself. In 1153, their combined spirits took the form of a monstrous creature that appeared above the Imperial Palace, terrifying the young Emperor Konoe with its cries. The monster possessed the head of a monkey, the limbs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake, while its shriek resembled the cry of the nue. Minamoto no Yorimasa and Ino Hayata eventually shot the creature down, but its death did not end the women’s vengeance. Dark flames burst from its wounds and vanished into the clouds. The sisters’ spirits later appeared to Ishikawa Yoshikane, a nephew of Yoshitoshi, revealing their true origins and explaining that they had been falsely accused. Han’i was identified as Yoshitoshi’s daughter, born during the hour of the snake and given the childhood name Asaji. The spirits continued their pursuit of revenge, taking the forms of animals associated with the hours of their births. The slaying of the nue was therefore only one episode in their prolonged supernatural campaign against those who had wronged them.

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Sources

“Karaginu.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1084390107.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Sayogoromo Osayo, 小夜衣おさよ
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Osayo is a tragic woman who becomes a vengeful ghost in Konomaboshi Hakone no Shikabue, a Kabuki play written by Kawatake Mokuami and first performed in 1880. Born into the Iozaki family in Shizuoka, she is a beautiful and dutiful woman married to Iwabuchi Kurobei, a former samurai. After the Meiji Restoration, Kurobei’s business ventures fail and his debts mount, forcing Osayo to sell herself to a brothel called Ebiya in Odawara to support him. Working under the name Sayogoromo Osayo, she quickly becomes one of the most popular courtesans in the region. Despite attracting the attention of Gantetsu, a monk and regular customer who knows her history, Osayo remains devoted to her husband and refuses to abandon him. Her loyalty persists even as she entrusts her young daughter, Omitsu, to the care of an old acquaintance, the sword sharpener Ryosuke, while continuing to work to support Kurobei.

One day, Kurobei visits Osayo and claims that his debts have become so overwhelming that he intends to take his own life. When debt collectors arrive demanding more than one hundred yen, Osayo is desperate to help him. The innkeeper Jubei and his wife Osen take pity on the couple, lending the money needed to settle the supposed debt. Osayo later discovers that the entire scene was a deception: the collectors were Kurobei’s accomplices, and he had squandered the money she earned on his mistress, Yamaneko Okitsu, and his own indulgences. Devastated by his betrayal, Osayo is taken by Jubei to Hakone to recover. There, at the Fukuzumi Inn, she encounters both her former fiancé, Atsuhara Isonosuke, and Kurobei with Okitsu, who mock her suffering. Overcome by rage, Osayo confronts the pair with her mother’s keepsake, a Muramasa dagger. Kurobei wounds her while resisting, then attempts to kill her at Okitsu’s urging. As she dies in the mountains of Hakone, Osayo declares that her resentment will not disappear simply because people in the modern age deny the existence of ghosts. Her death marks the beginning of her transformation into an onryō, a spirit consumed by vengeance.

After returning to Tokyo, Kurobei claims that Osayo was murdered by bandits and takes Okitsu as his second wife. He soon falls gravely ill, however, and is tormented by visions of Osayo appearing in the shadows and accusing him of her murder. When the dagger he sold comes into the possession of Isonosuke, and Kurobei’s younger brother Yoshichi begins questioning him, Kurobei finally confesses his crime. He resolves to commit seppuku, hoping to preserve his family’s honor and atone for his actions, but Osayo’s ghost continues to appear before him. She acknowledges that his remorse is justified but refuses to let him escape through suicide, declaring that her hatred will not be satisfied until she has killed him herself. His delirium intensifies, and an attempted exorcism led by Gantetsu descends into violence. Clutching the dagger, Kurobei attacks Gantetsu, while Yoshichi wounds Kurobei during the struggle. Driven into complete madness, Kurobei flees and attacks the former accomplices who helped deceive Osayo, as well as Okitsu. Okitsu, who has discovered that she is Ryosuke’s long-lost daughter and regrets her past actions, accepts her fate and dies by Kurobei’s blade. Yoshichi takes responsibility for Kurobei’s crimes before the authorities, leaving Kurobei ruined and alone. The play reflects the anxieties of the Meiji period, when supernatural apparitions were increasingly explained as symptoms of nervous disorders, yet ghost stories continued to portray vengeful spirits with terrifying immediacy.

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Sources

“Osayo.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741630.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Akana Sōemon, 赤穴宗右衛門
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Akana Soemon is a samurai and military scholar who appears in “The Chrysanthemum Vow,” the second story in Ueda Akinari’s collection of supernatural tales, Ugetsu Monogatari. Soemon serves En’ya Kamonnosuke, the lord of Tomita Castle in Izumo Province, and is sent as a secret messenger to Sasaki Ujitsuna in Ōmi. During his absence, Amago Tsunehisa launches an attack, kills Kamonnosuke, and seizes the castle. When Soemon urges Ujitsuna to oppose the Amago clan, Ujitsuna refuses and confines him to prevent his departure. Soemon eventually escapes, but falls gravely ill while travelling home. He finds shelter in Harima Province, where he meets Hasebe Samon, a devoted scholar who nurses him with medicine and food despite the danger of contagion. Deeply moved by Samon’s kindness, Soemon promises to repay him and the two men become close friends, eventually swearing an oath of brotherhood. Since Soemon is five years older, he asks to be treated as Samon’s elder brother, and Samon’s mother welcomes him affectionately.

When Soemon prepares to return to Izumo, he promises to visit Samon again on the ninth day of the ninth month, the Double Ninth Festival. Samon trusts his friend’s word and eagerly awaits his return, preparing food, drink, and chrysanthemums for the occasion. As evening falls, Soemon finally appears, but he remains strangely silent and refuses to eat or drink. At last, he reveals the truth: he is no longer among the living and has returned only as a spirit to fulfill his promise. After reaching Izumo, Soemon discovered that the people of the province had largely submitted to the Amago clan and that his former lord’s loyalty had been forgotten. His cousin Akana Tanji introduced him to Tsunehisa, but Soemon found little reason to remain in the service of a suspicious ruler. When he announced his intention to leave and honor his oath to Samon, Tsunehisa ordered him confined within Tomita Castle. Trapped until the appointed day, Soemon feared that failing to return would betray his friend’s trust. Remembering the saying that the soul can travel a thousand miles in a single day, he took his own life with his sword and sent his spirit across the distance, borne by a shadowy wind, to keep his promise. After explaining what happened, he urges Samon to care for his mother before vanishing.

Overcome with grief, Samon entrusts his mother to the care of the Sayo family and travels to Izumo to avenge Soemon’s death and defend his friend’s honor. He confronts Akana Tanji, condemning the family’s disregard for the kindness once shown to them by Soemon’s lord and praising Soemon for preserving his oath even at the cost of his life. Samon then draws his sword and kills Tanji before departing. When Amago Tsunehisa learns what has happened, he is so moved by the brothers’ extraordinary loyalty that he orders no pursuit. The tale celebrates the sacred force of friendship and the determination to keep one’s word, even beyond death. Its story is adapted from the Chinese tale “Fan Juqing’s Relationship with Chicken and Millet,” from the collection Stories to Caution the World, compiled by Feng Menglong, with the setting transferred to Japan’s Sengoku period.

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Sources

“Akana Soemon.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1067235174.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 一本松女, The One-Pine Woman
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Ipponmatsu-onna, meaning “One-Pine Woman,” is a female supernatural figure associated with a solitary pine tree. Her descriptions vary between accounts, and it is uncertain whether she originates from an established local legend or was popularized through modern reference books about Japanese yōkai. In Japanese Yokai Encyclopedia by Ariyuki Sato, she is presented as a creature associated with Chiba Prefecture. She is depicted as a naked woman with only one leg, covering her chest with both hands. She stands beside a pine tree, beckoning to passersby before dragging herself along and biting off a single pine branch.

A different description appears in The Complete Encyclopedia of World Yokai, where the Ipponmatsu-onna is portrayed as a gigantic, ghostlike woman who rises beside a solitary pine tree. According to this account, she is formed from the ominous energy of the tree and stands alone at its base at dusk. Rather than attacking people, she appears as a lonely and unsettling presence. Another interpretation identifies her as the spirit of a woman who hanged herself from the pine tree, linking her apparition to the place of her death.

The origins of these descriptions remain uncertain. It is not clear whether either version derives from an older oral tradition or historical written source, and the details may have been created or embellished in children’s books and modern yōkai publications. Consequently, the Ipponmatsu-onna is best understood as a figure whose modern depictions combine the imagery of a solitary pine tree, a strange female apparition, and the atmosphere of a haunting at dusk.

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Sources

“Ipponmatsu-onna.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1065324512.html

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