Folklore being
Ame-Onna
A yokai depicted in Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shui (1781) as a woman who appears with the rain.
Overview
Ame-Onna is a yokai depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Hyakki Shui (Middle Volume, "Mist" section, 1781). The figure is drawn as a woman appearing with the rain.
Context of Appearance
The figure is said to appear on rainy nights. Sekien's caption invokes the Chinese classic Gaotang Fu, citing the line about the goddess of Mount Wushan ("by morning she is the cloud, by evening she is the rain"), framing the figure within continental literary precedent.
Referenced Traditions
The canonical image is Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shui (Middle Volume), Anei 10 (1781), with a Bunka 2 (1805) reprint accessible through NDL Digital Collections (pid/2606077). Tada Katsumi's Hyakki Kaidoku (2006) and related scholarship discuss the figure as a creative reuse of continental imagery rather than a Japanese folk tradition.
Sources
今昔百鬼拾遺 中之巻 霧「雨女」
Primary source鳥山石燕
もろこし巫山の神女は 朝には雲となり 夕には雨となるとかや（中之巻〔霧〕第五図、原典1781年）
https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2606077Wikipedia 日本語版 — 雨女
Secondary sourceWikipedia contributors
石燕は「もろこし巫山の神女は 朝には雲となり 夕には雨となるとかや」と記しており、中国の古典高唐賦に登場する巫山の女性に由来する
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%A8%E5%A5%B3
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