Daily mythical creature 210: Yuki-Onna [Japanese folklore; yokai]!

(image from “Yokai zukan” by 京極夏彦)

The Yuki-Onna is a creature from Japanese folklore. These frozen spirits are depicted as young and pretty women dwelling in snowy mountains, freezing travelers to death. When a wanderer is tired and finds a place to rest, the Yuki-Onna appears to breathe on him and instantly freezes him solid, leaving the victim as a frozen corpse.

(image from Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyo)

Some tales, however, claim that a Yuki-Onna refused to kill her victim if he was a young and handsome man, instead letting him go with a warning to never tell anyone of their encounter. In some tales, she later shows up in the form of a beautiful human woman, proposing marriage to the guy she spared. She will then do her best to lead a good life, but mysteriously she never ages, hinting to her non-human nature.

In the 18th century work Gazu Hyakki Yagyo by Toriyama Sekien, this spirit is portrayed with hairy hands, perhaps to accentuate the fact that the creature is not human.

The Pokémon Froslass is based on the myth of the Yuki-Onna.

Source: the Gazu Hyakki Yagyo from Toriyama Sekien, I personally read the “Japandemonium” translation by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt