Winter Yokai: Oshiroi babā

 

❄️Oshiroi babā❄️

The white face powder hag.

This Yokai can be traced back at least as far as 1537.

Oshiroi babā are yokai that take the form of  old woman who appear in snowy mountainous areas near the end of the year. 

Oshiroi Baba (oshiroi; white face powder) +  (baba; old woman, hag). The word oshiroi specifically refers to the white face powder used by geisha and maiko.

She wears a tattered old kimono and a massive, straw umbrella hat covered in heavy snow,she carries a bottle of sake, usually a classic ceramic tokkuri and her face is covered in oshiroi powder, usually slathered on without  care for appearance.

Some claims say you will hear the sound of a mirror dragging and clattering abut from behind her as they hobble through the streets. Though the mirror is almost never actually seen.

 Her back is disfigured, twisted and bent like an old woman’s after a lifetime hard work. 

She carries a cane in one hand, and a sake bottle in the other, and wear a broken straw hat. 

Her most defining feature is their wrinkly old face caked with thick, sloppy, white face powder.

Oshiroi babā don’t tend to interact with humans too often. For the most part, their looks alone are  enough to ward if interactions.

 Though they will occasionally bother people, demanding makeup or trying to buy sake. In this way they are somewhat similar to other old hag yōkai who wander the streets at night, such as amazake babā. However, nearly every account of oshiroi babā describes them as hideous or scary, but not dangerous. 

Other version of the myth claims she appears on cold snowy nights and offer's warm sake to those in need.

According to some local legends, oshiroi babā are a variation of yuki onna. They leave the  mountains and wonder into villages on snowy nights.

 Others say they are more similar to yama uba, who sometimes demand makeup from travelers or can be found  at the bases of mountains trying to buy alcohol.

 According to Toriyama Sekien, oshiroi babā serve as the attendants of Shifun Senjō, the goddess of cosmetics which would explain the mirror, and make up requests.

  

❄️🍺🪞🧓🏔️

Japanese Myths : The Snow Bride

 

 

 

                             ❅❄💙The Snow Bride💙❄❅

Mosaku and his apprentice Minokichi journeyed to a forest, some short distance from their village. 

It was a bitterly cold night when they neared their destination, and saw in front of them a cold sweep of water. They desired to cross this river, but the ferryman had gone away, leaving his boat on the other side of the water, and as the weather was too inclement to admit of swimming across the river they were glad to take shelter in the ferryman's little hut.

Mosaku fell asleep almost immediately he entered this humble but welcome shelter. Minokichi, however, lay awake for a long time listening to the cry of the wind and the hiss of the snow as it was blown against the door.

Minokichi at last fell asleep, to be soon awakened by a shower of snow falling across his face. He found that the door had been blown open, and that standing in the room was a fair woman in dazzlingly white garments. For a moment she stood thus; then she bent over Mosaku, her breath coming forth like white smoke. After bending thus over the old man for a minute or two she turned to Minokichi and hovered over him. He tried to cry out, for the breath of this woman was like a freezing blast of wind. She told him that she had intended to treat him as she had done the old man at his side, but forbore on account of his youth and beauty. Threatening Minokichi with instant death if he dared to mention to anyone what he had seen, she suddenly vanished.

Then Minokichi called out to his beloved master, "Mosaku, Mosaku, wake! Something very terrible has happened!" But there was no reply. He touched the hand of his master in the dark, and found it was like a piece of ice. Mosaku was dead!

During the next winter, while Minokichi was returning home, he chanced to meet a pretty girl by the name of Yuki. She informed him that she was going to Yedo, where she desired to find a situation as a servant. Minokichi was charmed with this maiden, and he went so far as to ask if she were betrothed, and hearing that she was not, he took her to his own home, and in due time married her.

Yuki presented her husband with ten fine and handsome children, fairer of skin than average. When Minokichi's mother died, her last words were in praise of Yuki, and her eulogy was echoed by many of the country folk in the district.

One night, while Yuki was sewing, the light of a paper lamp shining upon her face, Minokichi recalled the extraordinary experience he had had in the ferryman's hut.

"Yuki," said he, "you remind me so much of a beautiful white woman I saw when I was eighteen years old. She killed my master with her ice-cold breath. I am sure she was some strange spirit, and yet tonight she seems to resemble you."

Yuki flung down her sewing. There was a horrible smile on her face as she bent close to her husband and shrieked, "It was I, Yuki-Onna, who came to you then, and silently killed your master! Oh, faithless wretch, you have broken your promise to keep the matter secret, and if it were not for our sleeping children I would kill you now! Remember, if they have aught to complain of at your hands I shall hear, I shall know, and on a night when the snow falls I will kill you!"

Then Yuki-Onna, the Lady of the Snow, changed into a white mist, and, shrieking and shuddering, passed through the smoke-hole, never to return again.

 ........

💙❄️👻👻❄️💙

Zimadevushka, The Snow Woman of Russia..

 

 Zimadevushka, The Snow Woman of Russia.

Winter Cryptids...❆❄❅

The Zimadevushka is similar to the Japanese  Tsurara onna (Icecicle Woman) and the  Yuki onna (Snow Woman).

This icy cryptid spends the warmer months in hibernation especially during Summer
The winter is her hunting season...

Her powers are..

Freezing Breath
Human Appearance
Immune to Cold
and seduction.

A typical  encounter with her usually stars when she see's a potential victim she will the  will approach the man with a sly smile with her full beauty on display.

Then she will walk away, The man fully under her spell, will then follow her out.

Only to be led to an out of site location a back ally, forest's or even the  cold mountains.

Once the man has followed her far enough, she will turn around and exhale her freezing breath. 

 

Her ice-cold breath will cause her prey to freeze and instantly die of hypothermia, though he will see a brief flash of her true appearance
before death.

The Zimidevushka will then feed on his corpse until there is nothing  left but bones.

She will then freeze the skeleton and hide it. 

Afterwards she will pretends to be a doctor and approaches his family with fake sympathy, claiming the man was found dead in the  mountains  and she'd done everything she could to help him, but it hadn't been enough. After that's finished, she moves on to  her next victim.

Month of Monster Girls; The Yuki-Onna

 

 

 Month of Monster Girls; The Yuki-Onna

Its officially autumn now and there's a chill in the air,
So who better to start my month of monster girls post with then a this stone cold beauty --

The Yuki Onna.

The  Yuki onna is one cool yokai, but she dose have a somewhat chilly disposition and she's been known to give people the cold shoulder from time to time....lol sorry, .... i'll cool it with the ice jokes . :)
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Almighty  on to the info.....
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The snow woman was ether a woman that died in the cold from a broken heart, now her hart is cold as ice and she freezes others to death.or She was never human to begin with and was a supernatural being from the star.

the Yuki-onna, being a snow woman is of course associated  with winter, snowstorms and the cold, most people think she is the spirit of someone who died in the cold.

She has snow white skin that's is cold to the touch and is most often seen in snowy mountain areas but can appear any place cold enough.

Some believe this yokai was never human to begin with and is just an evil spirit that can manipulate the cold or possibly even an elemental spirit.

In older story's she was almost always viewed as evil, however in more modern versions she is much kinder.

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Myths and legends of the snow woman.


The Yuki Onna Or Snow Woman is a yokai from Japanese mythology.

Like many yokai, she can appear solid or in a more  ghost like form. Sometimes she has visible feet other times she is far more ghost like
with no feet or an almost translucent lower half.

She sometimes wears a white kimono, though other legends say she appears  nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow.

                                                           Yuki Onna Fan Art : Nioh


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She's most often described as a beautiful young woman, with snow white pale skin, blue lips and  icy blue eyes (sometimes white) that can strike fear into any lost traveling unlucky enough to meet her gaze.

In other descriptions she is said to have long black hair, blue or grayish lips and  inhumanly pale or even slightly transparent skin that makes her blend into the snow around her.

she's also believed to have the ability to transform into a cloud of mist or snow when threatened or when just trying to hide and wait for her target..

In some tales she walks just like you or me, in other versions she is said to float across the top of the snow, in both versions she moves along the top of the snow without leaving any footprints behind her.
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=======================yuki onna killing her victims================
 

There are  some stories where the Yuki-onna will appear to travelers trapped in snowstorms, and uses her icy cold breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses.

She will also lead travelers off the path and into the forest to die of exposure without killing them herself.

She has even been known to appear on a deserted road in front of a traveler holding a child. She will then ask the traveler to hold the baby for a moment however once the unlucky person takes the "child" from her, they are instantly frozen where  they stand.

Parents searching for lost children are especially vulnerable to this trick.


                          

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Another odd trait is that she sometimes  seems to be somewhat vampire like, requiring an invitation into a home or cabin etc, before she can enter.
 

but there are versions that claim she can invade homes at will, with or without permission, she would simply blow in the door with a strong gust of wind to kill  whomever is in there  sleeping.

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The reason for her murderous attacks varies from one version of the myth to the next.
Sometimes she just gets satisfaction watching her victim die. Other times, she will drain her victims' blood or "life force." (again vampire like)

But she has also been described as a succubus-like creature preying on weak-willed men to drain their life force or freeze  them during sex or sometimes even just a kiss.

She dose not always kill her victims though, sometimes she will let them go, and from time to time  she even ends up marrying them.
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Yuki onna in modern media 

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Yuki from interviews with monster girls.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/rkartworks/art/interview-with-monster-girls-yuki-668954347

 

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Monet from One Piece

 

 

 https://www.zerochan.net/2939021

 

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The Pokemon Froslass is based on the Yuki-Onna.

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Nara Rise of the demon clan-- Tsurara Oikawa

 

 

 

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Rosario + Vampire Mizore 

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and there was an episode of the Canadian TV series MythQuest was based on the story of Oyuki and Monokichi.


Hope you all enjoy , i will be adding Monster Girl posts all October long :) Happy Early Halloween everyone :0