Tsurara Onna つらら女

By Katerina Kuzel

Keeping with the theme of a dangerous winter woman, let’s look at a tale of ice instead of snow. This month’s yokai is Yuki Onna’s lesser known sister, Tsurara Onna, or as she is known in Aomori, Shigama Nyobo (シガマ女房).

Like the Yuki Onna, the Tsurara Onna appears to men who are in desperate, lonely situations. The stories deal with themes of love, marriage, and of course betrayal. Like most ghost stories in Japan, there are many different variations based on the origin of the story. This time I am going to focus on two iterations: one stemming from Aomori, and the second originating from Niigata.

Tales of the Tsurara Onna all have about the same beginning but diverge in their endings. Being in line with most tales from Japan, none of course have a happy ending. With ice comes the same ephemerality that snow brings: it is beautiful, dangerous, and is only around for a short period of time. This transient nature of the winter season is what leads us to the plethora of divergent endings we get.

The tale begins with a lonely man who is gazing out of his window. He stares longingly at the icicles that are accumulating on his roof. He thinks to himself how beautiful the icicles are, and then his thoughts wander to that of a woman who could be as beautiful as the icicles dangling outside his window. That very night, a severe winter storm is howling outside when suddenly he hears a soft knock on the door. Believing it was just the wind, he goes to check when, wouldn’t you believe it, the spitting image of the woman he was just dreaming about stands right outside his door, icy winds whipping at her cloak. His loneliness is finally at an end — his dream woman is standing right before his eyes! What luck! Nothing strange could come of that, right!? 

The man offers his house as a refuge from the bitter cold and howling winds, and after the first night the man invites her to stay again, and again, and again. The two naturally fall in love and decide to get married. (At this time there was no official marriage ceremony or anything, so if you live together for a long period of time you were just married. In this case, a couple of weeks). 

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Now, here is where the storylines diverge. 

Let’s first look at the Aomori version, a tale with no betrayal or anger, but a tale of remorse and regret, where a man hopelessly in love is undone by his own admirable actions.

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The two, after being married for quite some time, are very happy with each other. However, the man notices that his wife has yet to bathe since coming to stay with him. He, being concerned about his wife’s health, insists on her taking a bath. She relentlessly refuses him, but he keeps persisting. The wife, not wanting to refuse her husband anymore, agrees to take a bath.  He then proceeds to run her a bath since he is worried about her getting sick during the cold winter months. The wife reluctantly goes to enter the bath. An hour or so passes by, the husband starts to get anxious but decides to wait. More time passes. The husband, now very worried, goes into the bathroom to check on his wife, but he discovers that his wife is missing. He frantically searches the bathroom but, to his dismay, only discovers ice floating on the top of the water. Little did he know that his perfect wife was merely made out of ice.

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The next tale originating from Niigata is a tad spicier. Here is the tale of betrayal, rage, and ultimately demise. 

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Just like the previous tale, the man and woman are very happily living together and enjoying the winter months. However, as the last winter winds blow through and the sweet scent of spring begins, the wife mysteriously vanishes.

The husband is devastated. He begins to think that the woman was only using him for warmth and protection during the bitterly cold winter months. (I mean it was cuffing season after all.)

However, the man doesn’t let this get him down; he quickly finds himself a new woman to get hitched to. They spend the warm spring, summer, and fall together. 

Eventually the warm seasons come to an end, and the first storm of winter brings much snow and ice.  The husband once again gazes outside of his window and notices the beautiful icicles dangling from his roof. However, he notices a peculiarly large icicle forming on the side of his house. 

Thinking nothing of it, he turns away from the window, but suddenly he hears a faint knock from the door.  Much to the man’s surprise it was his dream woman from last winter! In shock and disbelief, he asks her where she has been and why she left him! She only replies with anger that she thought they promised to be faithful to each other. She storms away, and the husband goes to chase after her, but from inside the house he hears his wife asking what was the matter. “Wait here,” he yells to her and rushes to find his love from last winter. 

The wife waiting inside the house hears an agonizing shriek of pain. Concerned about her husband, she rushes outside to see what was the matter.  She arrives outside only to discover an icicle piercing her beloved husband’s head straight through the eyeball.

お仕舞い