Futakuchi-onna (Tochigi)

Futakuchi-onna ("two-mouthed woman") is a female entity with a second mouth on the back of the head, hidden by her hair. The visible mouth is ordinary, but the rear mouth is voracious; the hair moves like snakes to carry food into it and she eats huge quantities. The figure is told as the karmic result of a stepmother who starved a stepchild to death or a husband who denied food to his wife. Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo, in no maki (1776) depicts "Futakuchi-onna" eating rice from the rear mouth with hair for chopsticks. The Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841), with text by Momoyama Jin and pictures by Takehara Shunsen, also carries a picture with karmic explanation. Yanagita Kunio and other modern folklorists discussed it in connection with stepchild tales. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database systematize the tradition.