The legend of the Snow Woman of Hokkaido

Due to heavy snowfall, cars were stranded on the Kan'etsu Expressway in Niigata Prefecture around December 16th, and the road was cleared at 10pm on the 18th, about 52 hours later. At its peak, about 2,100 cars were stranded on both the inbound and outbound lanes.

This year, snow started falling later than usual, but it looks like it will snow heavily all at once, so you need to be careful of snow and cold around the New Year holidays.

This time, we will be looking at the most famous snow-related monster,Yuki OnnaWe will introduce you to the following:

Snow woman legends remaining throughout Japan

There are legends of Yuki-onna all over Japan, and in Yamagata PrefectureYukijoroIn Niigata Prefecture, there are Yuki-onna andSnow sisterIn Miyagi Prefecture,Snow BambaIn Suwa, Nagano Prefecture,SikkenkenIn Uwa, Ehime Prefecture,Snow GrannyIn Miyazaki Prefecture,Snow BajoIt is also called, etc.

In many cases, they appear on snowy nights or during blizzards, but in Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, they appear on the night of Little New Year or on the night of a winter full moon, and in Nishitsugaru County, Aomori Prefecture, they appear on New Year's Day and return on the Day of the Rabbit, the beginning of the year, and some have set dates for their appearance.

In Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, it is said that if you encounter a Yuki-onna, you will have your spirits drained away, and in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, it is said that if a Yuki-onna calls out to travelers who come across her, and the traveler does not reply and then turns her back on him, the traveler will be thrown into the valley.

The legend of "Takikawa's Snow Woman"

Hokkaido also has its own snow-woman legends. The most famous of these is the "Takikawa Snow Woman."

This is a story that is told on the banks of the Sorachi River in Takikawa City.

Around 1892, when the Hokkaido Coal Mine Railway was laid from Iwamizawa to Sorachida, at dusk when the snow was falling, a fair-skinned woman wearing a hakama would always be standing by the banks of the Sorachi River, waiting for someone.

The young people from the nearby pioneer farms and the workers on the railroad construction site were constantly gossiping about who the woman was, wondering if she was a fox or a raccoon dog in disguise, but no one knew what she was. When the snow stopped, the woman disappeared into thin air.

Gosuke, who works as a railroad construction worker near the Sorachi River, has come to Yamagata to work, leaving his girlfriend behind in his hometown. One snowy evening, Gosuke bumps into a woman. The woman looks a lot like the girlfriend he left behind in his hometown, with a fair complexion and a gentle demeanor. Gosuke calls out to her.

"Why were you standing there when it was so cold?"

"I've been waiting for you."

The woman invites Gosuke into her small house by the river. When he wakes up in the morning, the woman is gone and his futon is damp.

The next day, the woman is standing in the same place, and when Gosuke arrives, she silently invites him to her house by the river. This continues every evening, and Gosuke gradually becomes thinner and weaker.

A worried colleague follows him and finds him sleeping in a riverside cave, clutching an icicle. Soon after, Gosuke's cold corpse is discovered.

The woman never showed up again.

The woman's true identity is said to be that of Gosuke's lover, whom he left behind in his hometown. After Gosuke went to work away from home, she suddenly fell ill and passed away, and then appeared as a spirit wandering the snowy northern country in search of the man she loved.

It is told as a love story from the pioneering days that is too sad to be called "Snow Woman."

New Year's Eve event at Nakanosawa Onsen featuring a Yuki-onna procession

This time we have mainly introduced the Yuki-onna of Hokkaido, but in Fukushima Prefecture there is an event where Yuki-onna actually appear.

This is the Nakanosawa Onsen New Year's Eve event, hosted by Yokai-ya.

https://www.kokuchpro.com/event/af4b880aac11da0a27d887fb57568100/

You can watch the promotional video below.

https://youkaiya.jp/youkai-ch/?movie=%E4%B8%AD%E3%83%8E%E6%B2%A2%E6%B8%A9%E6%B3%89%E9%9B%AA%E5%A5%B3%E4%BC%9D%E8%AA%AC

https://youkaiya.jp/youkai-ch/?p=1868

Due to the impact of COVID-19 this year, many people will likely refrain from traveling over the New Year holidays, but why not go to a hot spring resort away from the city and avoid crowds and watch the Yuki-onna procession and snow-prayer ceremony, which are filled with prayers for abundant snow and the elimination of epidemics.

 

Images: "Snow Woman" from "Gazu Hyakki Yakou" (Toriyama Sekien), "Takikawa City Library Yokai Tapestry" (Hirose Katsuya, Hokkaido Shimbun)

References: "Hokkaido's Mysterious Stories" (Godah Kazumichi, Genyosha), "Hokkaido's Scary Stories" (Godah Kazumichi, Genyosha), "The Definitive Japanese Yokai Encyclopedia: Yokai, the Otherworld, and Gods" (Mizuki Shigeru, Kodansha Bunko), "Japanese Yokai Encyclopedia" (Mizuki Shigeru, Murakami Kenji, Kadokawa Bunko)

Text by Keishiro Watanabe

 

■ Keichan Watanabe

He currently lives in Sapporo, Hokkaido. He was born in Asahikawa. He graduated from the School of Human Sciences at Waseda University. He is an independent researcher of yokai. He is an IT coordinator, a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

He currently works as a management and IT consultant, residing in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and traveling throughout the prefecture and Tokyo. However, he studied folklore and cultural anthropology at university, and continues to research yokai as his life's work.

I am currently writing articles about monsters associated with Hokkaido, where I currently live, as well as current news about business and economics.

Twitter:https://twitter.com/keishiro_w

Blog:http://blog.livedoor.jp/meda3594/