Nure-onna

◆ The legend

On top, a woman with long black hair; below, a snake's body stretching far into the water. That's how this waterside yokai is described. She is said to appear by the sea or along rivers, her hair always damp and dripping. The Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien painted the nure-onna too, and in his picture the woman peeking out from the water also flows into the long body of a snake.

In the Iwami area of Shimane Prefecture and elsewhere, there's a tale of the nure-onna appearing together with the ushi-oni, the ox demon. A woman holding a baby by the shore asks a passerby, "Would you hold my child for just a moment?" Take the baby, and it grows heavier and heavier until you can't let go. And while you're stuck there, the ushi-oni comes up out of the sea. It's a legend that carries all the fear of the shore at night.