So, yeah, the Yuki-Onna, her name says it all. She loves the ice and cold. She would often lead travelers to certain doom. Though they are usually violent, they have had different depictions through the ages ranging from a kinky killer to a more benevolent character.

So, yeah. Now to discuss this chilly character.
Here's hoping I'm doing this right.

I've never heard of her "leading" people - from the different versions I've heard and read, she merely turns up in the blizzards. I personally think she started out as an embodiment of "death" due to the cold.
...I don't think it is that she likes or dislikes the cold and ice either (sorry for being picky!! XD ), but it is also just a part of her character.

If anyone would like me to, I can borrow the Yuki-onna book again from my sensei and translate it? It's the version of her story that I've read most often, so it might be helpful for those who would like more understanding of the her character.
A definition of what she is and her story might help fuel the discussion.




And sorry for not having been on in a while - I'm currently in Japan with a somewhat limited access to the internet ^^;

Yes, by all means, go ahead and translate it. It would indeed help with discussion. Plus anyways, it would greatly help me characterize Madame Crystal.

Please go ahead. Thank you very much!

I'm always up for reading!

I've not found any stories here that can parallel her, but then again I've been so busy with my schooling, the kids, medical dilemmas for me and my daughter and other assorted things that I've not had time to do any research outside of classes lately. And if I had found local equivalents years ago... I've forgotten them (the horror).

The version of her story that I remember most is the one wherein she spared a youth because of his beauty, though she had previously just ferried his master into death (which could been seen as a boon to the old man in the context of the story). She tells the youth to never tell anyone. He later meets a lady that looks greatly like her (presumably less icy looking) and the fall in love and become husband and wife, later producing children. Then one night he is reminded of the yuki-onna and is struck by how much his wife looks like her. Either carelessly, or perhaps seeking to compliment her beauty, he mentions the yuki-onna and sends her into a rage... discovering that SHE IS the yuki-onna.

Like the fox woman of other stories, she leaves, leaving the children behind.

I think I've already posted that story on the Kaidan board. Please click the link below:

lafcadio-hearn-s-yuki-onna-t76.html

Hmmm... I've never really thought of yukionna as all that malevolent characters. From stories that i've read about them they seem rather merciful. Sometimes leading lost wanderers unharmed through snowstorms, sometimes killing them quickly. Slow death by freezing and starvation aint exactly the nicest one imaginable you know... though apparently their pretty unpredictable.

That is the story, Rhaine - but it seems a little different from the one I read, feeling-wise, but basically the same. I've finished the translation, and transcribed the Japanese version too for those that can read it, and added it to the other board, just to give another view of it.

Some more info about the story - the author is Koizumi Yakumo, who was actually Irish (his original name was Lafcadio Hearn). He has written a lot of these sorts of dark stories, like "Mimi-nashi Houichi (Earless Houichi)", etc.

To return to the conversation, like most non-human beings, I don't think it's malevolence, so much either. I think it's just her place - a manifestation of someone dying from the cold. Minokichi was spared because he was young, and the most logical explaination was that his body could withstand the cold.
And, at the end of the story, she still could have killed him. And I'd be damn annoyed if my husband had broken his word to me, even though Minokichi didn't know O-yuki and Yuki-onna were the same person. Also, most non-human beings seem to have a rule that, if their identity is found out they need to leave - so it's jut unfortunate for the children, I suppose. Like Rain mentioned, the fox-wives do a similar thing, also a there's the story of a crane (I think) that transforms into a woman to help the poor man that helped mend her leg and she too leaves when he finds out.
...the recuring theme of those stories though is that the men don't listen to what the women tell them...