(host) A snowstorm is one weather phenomenon you don't want to be surprised by. The same can be said of the Yuki Onna, one of Japan's harshest winter monsters. This icy snow maiden might steal your heart or your life. She's beautiful and dangerous. The incarnation of winter storms. In some regions of Japan, just catching a glimpse of this figure will cause your soul to leave your body. Other places give her the trait of motherhood. She will ask you to hold her baby or may appear accompanied by snow children. And in some region stories, she's a vengeful spirit, actively seeking out those who wronged her when she was alive.

(Describer) A huge orange eye opens.

[dramatic music]

I'm Dr. Emily Zarka, and this is "Monstrum." Many legends of the Yuki Onna originate in the Tohoku region. Located in the mountainous northeastern part of the country known as one of the coldest regions of the island, the area sees more snowfall than any other region in Japan. The Yuki Onna is identified by the blizzards she travels with as beautiful and pale as the falling snow. She may have black or white hair, but it is always very long. Her thin tall body can appear naked, but more often it is wrapped in a blindingly white kimono. Yuki Onna looks like a woman. So, many mistake her for a ghost, but she isn't the spirit of a dead person.

(Emily) That's Hiroko Yoda, author of the yokai book, "Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide."

(Hiroko) She is a yokai, a living personification of cold and winter.

(Describer) In the movie Kwaidan, 1964, she walks through a snowstorm. Wind blows her long black hair and it turns white.

[ominous music]

But I don't consider Yuki Onna a monster. I see her as an avatar of nature. The fact she's wearing a thin kimono in such condition. It's strange, but the white color, it's odd too. Of course, it's symbolizes frost and snow.

(Describer) In the movie Dreams, 1990, she tells a man, “The snow is warm.”

[Yuki Onna speaking Japanese]

But traditionally, white kimono are also used as a burial dress for the dead. It would be very scary to see a woman dressed in a light white kimono in a blizzard.

(Emily) She can shapeshift into mist or falling snow. Making her invisible against the blizzard she appears alongside. The better to sneak up on her victims.

(Hiroko) Yuki Onna's story is a classic example. She tells us to never underestimate the power of nature and to be extra cautious when going out in the winter, especially into the wilderness.

(Emily) The Yuki Onna is a kind of winter succubus-type yokai. Stories tell of her acts of seduction. Encounters that always end with her draining the life force of the men she has relations with. More notoriously, however, victims die of the cold either through exposure to the elements or the woman's icy breath. The snow woman first appears in a collection of poetry written in the 15th century by Sogi, a zen monk. He describes the Yuki Onna he encountered as tall and beautiful with very pale skin and white hair. His experience is accompanied by another tale that would become one of the most enduring versions of the Yuki Onna. The story of the woodcutter. Legend has it that while cutting down trees, Minokichi and his mentor Mosaku were caught in a horrible blizzard. Unable to cross the river to return home, they seek shelter in a boatman's hut. Later that night, Minokichi wakes up freezing. Noticing the door to the hut is open, he turns to his mentor and sees a stunningly beautiful woman standing over him. She has extraordinarily pale skin and is wearing a snow white kimono. She freezes the mentor with her icy breath then turns her piercing gaze to Minokichi, but is immediately taken by the man's own beauty. He was unusually handsome. She agrees to let him live on the condition that he tells no one what happened. She then walks out of the shelter disappearing into the blizzard. A year later, Minokichi meets a very beautiful woman who coincidentally also has very pale skin. The two marry and have 10 children. Clearly, they were into each other. But strangely, she never seems to age remaining as young and beautiful as she was on their wedding day. All was well until one fateful night. Seeing his wife dressed all in white Minokichi absentmindedly comments that she looks just like the snow woman he encountered so many years ago. To his surprise and horror, his wife reveals she herself is the Yuki Onna.

(Describer) Yoda:

The wife turn on him, furious. She screamed, "It was me who spared you that day. I should kill you for breaking your promise."

(Emily) She abandons him, turning into a white mist and floating out of a window, never to be seen again. This particular Yuki Onna legend is the most popular today largely because of Patrick Hearn's 1904 translation of the story in his book "Kwaidan." This Irish Greek author published under a Japanese pen name and claimed to have recorded the story from a local of the Musashino district. However, scholars are careful to point out that the story is unlikely a direct translation. Romance between the Yuki Onna and the young lumberjack is significantly more detailed in his telling than in other variations. According to his version, the Yuki Onna when disguised as a human woman is named O-Yuki. Her name literally translates to snow, which you think would've been a clue for the woodcutter. But I digress. The marriage element is common in other Japanese folk tales. As is the husband breaking a promise to his supernatural wife. Other traditions across the globe also use this trope so it's an interesting thread to explore. These supernatural unions seem to reflect an idealistic fantasy. The preternatural wife is always incredibly attractive as defined by the ideal beauty standards of that community. And Yuki Onna stories, for instance, female beauty is defined by pale skin, long hair, and thinness. All characteristics still held in high regard by popular culture in Japan today. But Hiroko has another opinion. I don't think portrayal of Yuki Onna's beauty is about women at all. Instead, she's a personification of the beauty of winter. She's like a metaphor reminding us that the cold month are beautiful, but it can also be deadly.

(Emily) Another well-known tale of the Yuki Onna that diverges from the supernatural marriage trope appears in a 1705 play titled "The Five Battledores of the Yuki Onna." Penned by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, a noted kabuki and puppet theater playwright. He wrote both historical and domestic dramas. In other words, he wrote about both legendary deeds and heroic figures as well as everyday domestic life. "The Five Battledores of the Yuki Onna" falls somewhere in between both categories. His version removes the relationship between yokai and man in favor of a vengeful ghost story. The drama centers on a man planning on assassinating a shogun in his home during the New Year holiday. In order to do so, he must get the shogun's devoted maid out of the house. So, he tells her that her boss is planning to send an army to fight the Lord of her lover. He instructs her to warn the others in the household ensuring the woman that his brother is waiting outside the garden gate to help her leave the property. In truth, this is a lie. No one waits for her outside the still locked gates and the trapped maid freezes to death inside the snow-covered courtyard, but she does not perish entirely. Upon her death, she transforms into a snow woman. Her blue kimono replaced with a white one. Then she seeks revenge against the man who sent her on the false errand. While the dangers of being stuck outside on a snowy evening are self-explanatory, this Yuki Onna tale also warns of the consequences of trying to change the social order by usurping the leader of the community, in this case, the military. After all, the would-be assassin is punished by the vengeful snow woman. But the fact that the maid becomes the monster herself also suggests that all lives are valuable. Even if a person is not perceived as a high-ranking member of society, their lives are no less important. While the dangers of frostbite and hypothermia are universal the minor changes in the yokai's appearance and actions reflect regional cultural expectations and potentially real life events.

(Hiroko) She's popular character in folk tales so they are many variations, but generally speaking, her attributes don't change much. She's a beautiful woman in a white kimono in the depth of winter. She reminds us of that, but her story also tells us never to make promises we cannot keep.

(Describer) Froslass appears.

(Emily) So there you have it, and I mean, hey, once you inspired a Pokemon it's pretty hard to ignore the pop culture relevance. What was once a metaphor for the dangers of winter, and a warning against false assurances of trust has become a beloved but less terrifying character. Expanding her reach, but also her variation.

(Describer) Outtakes:

What was once a metaphor for the dangers of winter and a warning against false insurances of trust... Assurances not insurances.

(Describer) Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.