The Story of Yuki Onna, the Snow Spirit

In a land adjacent to Sado Island on the Japan Sea lies the northern province of Echigo. In the highlands, as much as 20 feet of snow can accumulate over the winter. It is said that there are people who have been buried there and have not been found until spring. The people from the South say that those of the North take so much saké that they see snow-covered trees as women.  But the people of the North have always known about the story of Yuki Onna, the Snow Ghost.

In the northern province was the village of Hoi. Hoi was so small it had only 12 houses; its people were very poor. One of the residents, a man named Kyuzaemon, was doubly unfortunate because aside from being poor, he had just recently lost his wife and son. One late afternoon on the 19th of January of the third year of Tem-po (1833), a terrible storm hit the small village. All the residents hid inside their homes and tried to stay as warm as they could, including lonely Kyuzaemon.

Yuki-onna (雪女, the snow woman) from the Hyakkai-Zukan (百怪図巻), circa 1737.

Around 11 in the evening, Kyuzaemon was abruptly awakened by a loud rapping on his door. Disoriented and bewildered, he remained in bed until he heard another rapping and the gentle voice of a girl. Kyuzaemon immediately jumped out of bed thinking one of his neighbors’ children needed help. As he reached the door, Kyuzaemon hesitated but he heard the voice calling out again. He called out, “Who are you? What do you want?”

The voice answered, “Open the door! Open the door!”

Kyuzaemon then replied, “Open the door?! That will be most unlikely until I know who you are and what you are doing out so late on such a night.”

The voice continued to plead and said she was not after food or bedding, only shelter until the storm passed. But Kyuzaemon would still not let the stranger inside his home. As he was turning to return to his bed, Kyuzaemon was surprised to see the woman standing beside it, dressed in white with her hair down her back. She did not look like a ghost – her face was pretty and she seemed to be about 25 years of age. The woman introduced herself as Oyasu, the late daughter of Yazaemon, who lived in the next village and married another woman, Izaburo, leaving Oyasu’s father to live alone when Oyasu passed. Her spirit could not rest until her husband returned to her father to care for him.  The spirit of Oyasu left as promised when the storm passed. Kyuzaemon discovered that she had gone to her husband, who decided it was wrong of him to leave his father-in-law all alone and, so, soon returned to him.

They say, “all those who die by the snow and cold become spirits of snow, appearing when there is snow; just as the spirits of those who are drowned in the sea only appear in stormy seas.”

Even to the present day, in the north, priests say prayers to appease the spirits of those who have died in the snow, and to prevent them from haunting people who are connected with them.