Ohaguro-bettari (Miyagi)

Ohaguro-bettari is a faceless woman yokai. The figure has neither eyes nor nose, only a large mouth blackened with ohaguro. From behind she resembles a young woman, but when called to, she turns and shows a face with only the blackened mouth gaping wide, startling those who approach. The figure stands as a representative female yokai of the early-modern kaidan and picture-book traditions. The canonical narrative places her in a shrine precinct or at a dark crossroads at night. Ohaguro, until the early modern era a signifier of marriage, becomes here the only feature remaining of the woman's face, an image read in early-modern terms of failed marriage and unsettled female karma. Sources include the Edo-period kaidan-shu and picture-scroll cycles, the Ehon Hyakumonogatari (Toyama Mitsunobu/Sawaki Sushi, 1841) lineage, the Hyakkai Zukan and Bakemono Zukushi Emaki series, Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005), and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database. Regional variants: Osaka and Kyoto "nopperabo," Kanto "nopperi," Tohoku "ohaguro-bettari." Miyagi-local records are limited.