Futakuchi-Onna image

Folklore being

Futakuchi-Onna

Publicly verified

A yokai with a second mouth at the back of her head, depicted in the Edo-period collection Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841).

Overview

Futakuchi-Onna is a yokai depicted in the Edo-period collection Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841). She appears as a woman with a hidden second mouth at the back of her head.

Context of Appearance

The narrative is set in Shimousa Province and frames the second mouth as the visible result of a stepmother who mistreated her stepchild. The second mouth is normally hidden beneath the hair, but at times of hunger the hair is said to move like serpents to carry food to it.

Referenced Traditions

She appears in Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (Tōsanjin's Nightly Tales), Book Two, entry 17 "Futakuchi-Onna," published in 1841 with text by Tōsanjin and illustrations by Takehara Shunsensai. The story belongs to a family of stepmother-cruelty narratives in Edo-period yokai literature.

Sources

Read next

Your ties

Trace your own ties

Begin from what you have just read, and open the connections that are yours.

Trace your ties