Iso-onna

◆ The legend

Iso-onna is a female yokai told of along the coasts of western Japan, especially Kyushu. On a lonely rocky shore, a woman stands alone on the rocks, her black hair hanging all the way down to her feet. From a distance, it is said, she looks like a beautiful woman.

But anyone drawn closer may find her long hair reaching out, winding around them, and drinking their blood through its tips. That, at least, is how the stories go. She is also said to visit sailors who moor their boats near the shore to spend the night, and among people who worked by the sea, the tale was passed down as a warning to be careful of the rocky shore after dark. The coast has another female yokai with a similar look, the "nure-onna," but the iso-onna is told of as a woman in human form, standing on the rocks.