Yuki-onna 雪女

Yuki-onna (雪女), the “Snow Woman,” is one of the most beautiful and tragic figures in Japanese folklore—a spirit of the winter storm who can freeze a man’s heart with a single breath or a cold, haunting gaze.

Meaning and Origin

The name literally means “Snow Woman” (yuki - snow, onna - woman).

Her origins are ancient, with written records dating back to the Muromachi period. She is the personification of the Japanese Winter: breathtakingly beautiful, silent, and potentially lethal. She is particularly prominent in the folklore of northern regions like Niigata and the Tōhoku area, where heavy snowfalls can isolate communities for months. Historically, she was a way to explain the tragic deaths of people who “vanished” in white-out conditions or were found frozen to death in the morning.

Characteristics

Yuki-onna is described as having skin as white as a fresh drift, long black or white hair, and deep violet eyes. She is often depicted wearing a thin, white kimono that blends perfectly into a blizzard.

She has no feet and drifts silently over the snow without leaving a single track. Her very presence lowers the temperature around her. She is a “spirit of coldness”—she can exhale a cloud of icy mist that instantly turns a human into a frozen statue. While she is often associated with “Energy Vamping” (draining the Seiki or vital energy of men), she is more commonly portrayed as a spirit of isolation and detachment.

Legends

The most famous legend, popularized by Lafcadio Hearn, tells of two woodcutters, a father and a young man named Minokichi, trapped in a blizzard. Yuki-onna appears and kills the father, but spares Minokichi because of his youth and beauty, warning him: “If you ever tell anyone what you saw tonight, I will kill you.”

Years later, Minokichi marries a mysterious, beautiful woman named Oyuki. They have many children and a happy life. One night, Minokichi tells his wife about the “Snow Woman” he saw as a boy. Oyuki suddenly turns cold and reveals herself as the Yuki-onna. She tells him she should kill him, but spares him for the sake of their children, before melting into a white mist and vanishing forever. This legend highlights the “Tragedy of the Threshold”—the idea that the supernatural and the human can coexist, but only as long as the “secret” of the spirit world is kept.