Onibaba

◆ The legend

A single house stands alone on the wild Adachigahara moor in the far north. A traveler who asks for shelter at sunset peeks into the back room in the middle of the night — and sees a mountain of white bones. The old woman of the house was really an onibaba, a demon hag who preys on travelers.

Yet this onibaba is said to have once been human, with a tragic past. She was a wet nurse in service to a princess in the capital, and set out on a journey to find a cure for the princess's illness — only to lose her way, in more ways than one. Still performed today as the Noh and Kabuki play "Kurozuka" (Adachigahara), it's a story where terror and sorrow stand back to back.