******************************************

WELCOME TO GOTHIC DIVINE!

THIS BLOG WAS CREATED IN NOVEMBER 2009 WITH THE GOAL OF GATHERING ALL INFORMATION POSSIBLE ABOUT GOTHIC CULTURE.

IT'S NOT A PROPER MAGAZINE SO DON'T TAKE US TOO SERIOUSLY.. :)

SO FAR MORE THAN 300 POSTS ABOUT MUSIC, FASHION, ART, MOVIES AND CURIOSITIES HAVE BEEN WRITTEN!

SUPPORT GOTHIC DIVINE BY COMMENTING THE POSTS, ANSWERING THE POLLS AND SUGGESTING OR SENDING US LINKS OF INTERESTING GOTH-RELATED TOPICS!


GOTHIC DIVINE... YOUR GOTH MAGAZINE!

NEW: Are you a goth artist, an illustrator, a musician, a band, a writer, a model or a photographer? Want to make yourself known among goth community online? To be featured or obtain a free interview in Gothic Divine Magazine it's easy: leave a comment in the guestbook with your name,your job or hobby (model, photographer etc.), your email address where we can contact you and a link to your website.
Incomplete "applications" won't be taken taken in consideration.

RECRUITING NEW COLLABORATORS FOR THIS BLOG!! Click on link below for more information

Followers

12 September 2011

The Legend of the Yuuki-Onna



Yuki Onna ( snow woman) is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese literature, manga, and animation. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba ("mountain crone"), but they are not the same.

Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and red lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened.

Some legends say the Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is the spirit of someone who perished in the snow. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in killing unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty.

In many stories, Yuki-onna appears to travelers trapped in snowstorms, and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, they are frozen in place. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often invades homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind to kill residents in their sleep (Some legends require her to be invited inside first.)

What Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see a victim die. Other times, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force." She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men to drain or freeze them through sex or a kiss.

Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free because of his beauty and age. She makes him promise never to speak of her, but later in life, he tells the story to his wife who reveals herself to be the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise, but spares him again, this time out of concern for their children (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. Luckily for him, he is a loving father). In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature.

1 comment:

Miles R said...

Good readding your post

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...