Nure Onna

 

 

 

 

                                Nure onna



Nure Onna means .. wet woman
She is also called  nure yomejo:

Nure Onna live in water on coasts, rivers, and other bodies of water; native to Kyūshū.

She is a dangerous vampiric sea serpents who hunts along the shores and rivers looking for humans to prey.

 

 They are most often found on the shores of the island of Kyūshū, but there are stories of nure onna encounters as far north as Niigata Prefecture and as far east as Fukushima Prefecture. 

There are two variations of this yōkai: one without arms, which resembles an enormous sea serpent with a woman’s head, and  one with   arms.

                                          

 

                             

 Aside from this difference, the two act in exactly the same way. Their faces are hideous and betray serpent-like features such as a forked tongue. They have long black hair which sticks to their dripping bodies. Their name comes from the fact that they always appear soaking wet.

 

 While physically much stronger than a human, nure onna prefer not to rely on brute force and use trickery and guile to catch their prey. 

 

They most often appear near the water, on a coast or by a riverbank. Nure onna magically disguise themselves as a distressed woman carrying a bundled up baby. They cry out for help from fishers, sailors, or anybody passing by. When the prey approaches, a nure onna will plead with their victim to hold her baby for just a moment so that she can rest. 

                                       

If he agrees and takes the bundle, the “baby” becomes as heavy as a boulder. The victim is unable to move. 

 

The nure onna is then free to attack her helpless victim, feeding by draining his blood with her long, serpentine tongue.

Nure onna frequently appear together and cooperate with ushi oni, as they inhabit the same environments and share the same diet.

Monsters, Cryptids and Yokai; The Hashihime

 

 

                          Pic by Grace iu on artstation..  https://grapejuice.artstation.com/projects/xJNxmW

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 Hashihime: The Maiden of the Bridge  or Lady of teh Bridge

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Hashihime (橋姫, Hashihime) is a yokai that first appeared in the Heian-period literature.

The hash'i from Hashihime means 'bridge', while hime means 'princess', therefore her name meaning "bridge princess". However, the word airashi (pretty, adorable) can also be said hashi, so her name has the second meaning of "charming princess". 

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Hashihime are insanely jealous goddesses who inhabit bridges — in particular, very old and very long bridges. 

As goddesses, hashihime they can take different forms depending on the occasion, however they are commonly depicted wearing white robes, white face-paint, an iron trivet, and carrying five candles. This is a ceremonial outfit used to perform curses. 

 

Hashihime ferociously guard the bridges they inhabit. 

 

As with most gods connected to a location, they are very competitive and jealous. 

If one praises or speaks positively about another bridge while on top of a hashihime’s bridge, or if one recites lines from certain Noh plays that feature a woman’s wrath as the main theme, something terrible is likely to happen to that person.

Despite their fearsome nature, they are highly honored by the people who live nearby, and shrines are established in their honor near the bridges they inhabit. In times of war, residents will beseech their local hashihime to guard the bridge against invaders. In times of peace, hashihime are goddess of separation and severing, and are asked to aid people in things such as break-ups, divorce, and severing bad luck. So strong is their power of severing that it is considered taboo for lovers to pass in front of a hashihime shrine together, or for wedding processions to pass in front of one. If newlyweds need to cross a bridge inhabited by a hashihime, 

they will instead pass underneath it on a boat rather than risk cursing their marriage. 

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The most famous hashihime story comes from Tsurugi no Maki, in The Tale of the Heike, and is retold in the noh play Kanawa.

A woman visited the the Kifune-jinja in Kyoto at the hour of the ox (roughly 2 am), filled with rage and jealousy towards her ex-husband who had thrown her away for another woman. Night after night she visited the shrine, praying to the gods enshrined there to turn her into a powerful demon. The woman wanted nothing else other than to see her ex-husband destroyed, even at the cost of her own life. After seven nights of pilgrimage, her prayers were answered: the gods told her that if she immersed herself in the Uji river for twenty-one nights, she would become a living demon.

The woman did as she was told. She donned a white robe and tied her hair up into five horns. She painted her face and covered her body in crimson dye. She placed an upturned trivet on her head and attached torches to each foot. She lit a torch on both ends and placed it in her mouth. She immersed herself in the Uji river and for twenty-one days she kindled the hatred in her heart. Then, just as the gods told her, after twenty-one days she transformed into a terrible kijo with supreme power. She had become the hashihime of Uji.

 

 

 That night, her husband awoke from a horrible dream with a premonition of danger. He quickly sought out the famous onmyōji, Abe-no-Seimei. Seimei recognized the dream as a sign that the man’s former wife would come and destroy the couple that very night, and promised to save them. He went to their house, recited magical prayers, and crafted two katashiro — magical paper doll representations of the man and his wife, meant to be used as substitutionary targets for the kijo’s rage. That night, as Seimei had predicted, the demon appeared. She attacked the two katashiro instead of the real couple, and Seimei’s magic worked: her power was reflected back upon her and she was driven away. The demon woman, realizing that she could not overcome Abe-no-Seimei’s magic, vanished, threatening that she would come back another time.