Yamauba

Yamauba (also Yamanba) is an entity in the form of an aged woman living in deep mountains. With long white hair and a split mouth, she is at once a fearsome devourer of travelers and the gentle mother of Sakata no Kintoki (Kintaro), and at times a mountain deity governing weaving and silk-raising. She is distributed almost nationwide and is one of the most regionally varied and ambivalent entities. The tales include the "Ushikata Yamauba" and "Three Talismans" type, in which she lodges travelers at a solitary mountain house and tries to eat them by night; the Mount Ashigara cycle, in which she gave birth to Kintaro on the border of Kanagawa and Shizuoka; and the Noh play Yamamba (Zeami or Konparu lineage, Muromachi period), in which she becomes a poetic figure of the mountain's nature. Otogizoshi Yamauba Soshi, the early-modern folktale collection Hyaku Monogatari Hyoban, and Yanagita Kunio's Yamauba Kibun and Tono Monogatari Shui record the tradition; Kitagawa Utamaro's Yamauba and Kintaro prints spread the figure widely.