Hebi-obi (Oita)

Hebi-obi ("serpent belt") is an entity in which a woman's sash changes into a snake, or a snake coils around a person as if it were a sash. The figure is read as an expression of grudge, jealousy, or curse through an object once worn against the body, joining the artifact-entity tradition with female serpent-body tales (Kiyohime, Hashihime). Typical patterns include a dead woman's leftover sash moving as a serpent at night, or a jealous woman's thought turning the sash into a serpent body that strangles its target. Oita gazetteers and folklore reports from Beppu and the Kunisaki Peninsula record analogous cases. Early-modern kaidan collections such as Shokoku Hyaku Monogatari, Kokon Hyaku Monogatari Hyoban, and Otogi Boko contain related tales; the Noh and joruri plays Dojoji and Kanawa carry forward the woman-as-serpent theme. The International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database and Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) organize the tradition.