The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan

This book contains 79 stories from the Japanese collection Tales from Shinshu, compiled and edited by award-winning author Noboru Wada. It features traditional tales of yokai, ghosts, mountain witches, demons and apparitions frequently sighted in and around the mountainous Shinshu region in central Japan, such as:

• The Legend of the Snow Woman: Minokichi and his father shelter from a blizzard in a mountain hut. The father falls asleep and a beautiful woman appears at the door, saying she has loved Minokichi from afar. She soon disappears, but after making him promise never to speak of this evening. As she vanishes, Minokichi's father spits blood and dies. Years later, a beautiful woman, Koyuki, appears at Minokichi's door during a snowstorm. They fall in love, marry and live happily with their five children. One snowy night, Minokichi tells her about the mysterious death of his father. Koyuki breaks into a rage, screaming that he promised never to speak about it, and says if it wasn't for their children, she would kill him too. She runs out into the blizzard and is never seen again.


• The Demon Hag and the Young Girl: A grandfather goes off to work in the mountains leaving his granddaughter alone and warns her not to open the door to anyone. But a demon hag imitates her grandfather's voice and tricks her into opening the door. After a wild chase, the girl falls, and the demon hag trips over her and screaming, plummets down the mountainside to her death.


• Kappa Taro, a legendary Yokai who lives in a lake transforms himself into a boy and challenges unsuspecting travelers to a game of "pulling a hook," where you twist a finger around another person's and pull with all your might. Kappa Taro pulls his opponents into the lake and drowns them. One day a samurai, Suwa Yorito, famed for his strength, decides he will defeat Kappa Taro by twisting his strong fingers around the Kappa's and drag him along behind his horse until he begs for mercy. Kappa Taro then flees to another lake where he never bothers anyone again.


• The Boy Who Became a Tengu: When playing with his friends one day, Shintaro's face suddenly became deformed, his legs grew longer and he flew up into the clouds. He had become a mythical Tengu. His father, Kyube, was too heartbroken to plant his rice seedlings that year. As the neighbors' paddies turned green, his remained barren. But one morning, his fields were magically filled with swaying green shoots, the best in the village. When it was time to harvest them, he awoke to find that all his rice had been cut and stacked. Kyube gave thanks to the heavens and to the son who had turned into a Tengu.


• The Yamamba's Daughter really wanted to get married. Her mother gave her a potion to drink that transformed her from a horned Yamamba mountain witch into a beautiful young woman, sent her to the village and told her to sing a song. Her beautiful song soon attracted a crowd of admirers. One man after another asked her to be his wife, but she chose Kamesa, the most foolish and gullible man in the village. After their marriage, Kamesa's mother saw her daughter-in-law in her true Yamamba form when she was sleeping. But when she told her son, he said he didn't care. Kamesa never revealed his wife's secret to anyone and they lived happily ever after.