YAMAMBA

Lore

In tales that cast Yamamba in a demonic light, she is a malicious yokai dwelling in the mountains and preying on travelers. She is described as a tall, emaciated woman with elongated arms ending in clawed fingers. Her mouth stretches from ear to ear, while her eyes glow in the dark with an eerie fire. Often, her tangled white hair writhes like snakes.

She lures victims by posing as a kindly old woman living in a hut. If a wanderer accepts her hospitality, by nightfall she reveals her true form. One story tells of a woodcutter who narrowly escaped her home after overhearing her sharpen knives to feast on him. He managed to reach a river and leap across—Yamamba halted at the edge, unable to cross the water, which symbolizes the boundary between realms.