As someone studying the Japanese Yokai from the outside, they just seem like folk stories told to explain away strange happenings. But just imagine this for a moment. I or anyone else who isn't from Japan is not afraid of the Yokai because they are not "real" to us. But anyone who grew up hearing these stories must have been terrified, because not only are the Yokai stories bedtime stories, they are also an integral part of the Japanese belief system and, therefore, prevalent in any Japanese person's life.
In my research I came across the stories of a few specific Yokai; below is just one of them. As you read, imagine how you would feel if you thought this Japanese demon was real.
Once upon a time when Japan was still a new land, when the humans were few and far between and the land was swarming with Yokai of all kinds, there lived one particularly strange Yokai who was quite fearsome. One fine summer day when the sun was as bright as a water droplet, a handsome young woodcutter wandered into the woods on his way to a nearby town. Once there, he planned to start a business and make a living for himself in a humble yet comfortable way.
On his way through the woods, the young man happened to pass a pool of water that rested next to a very dark cave. Thinking nothing of the latter or the former, he prepared to continue on his way, but after taking only a few steps forward, the woodcutter suddenly stumbled. Falling forward over the root that had caught his foot, he came crashing to the ground and his axe, which had been slung over his shoulder, flew out of reach and into the nearby water. Recovering from the shock of his fall, the young man was soon greeted by the new shock of his missing axe. Being unable to swim and unsure of how deep the water was, the poor man realized that his livelihood was most likely gone forever. Unable to do anything more, the woodcutter prepared to depart. But as he turned to go, he stopped still in his tracks.
Standing in front of him with his axe cradled under her arm stood a young woman whose beauty could only be rivaled by Princess Kaguya herself. Her long black hair cascaded down her shoulders in a silky web, her smile shimmered in the sunlight, and her eyes were as black as night and seemed to pierce the young man's soul. Without a word, she walked up to the woodcutter, placed the retrieved axe in his hands, and then turned and skipped off into the woods. Unable to contain his amazement or his wildly beating heart, the young man shouldered his axe and followed the young woman.
Entranced by her beauty, the young man returned to the pool every day after that for weeks on end. Every time he visited, the young woman was waiting for him and they spent the day together, talking and getting to know each other. The woodcutter quickly fell in love with the mysterious woman and even hoped that she might love him back. But as the weeks of visits wore on, the woodcutter began to sense a change within himself. His once vibrant spirit began to dim and he seemed more haggard and exhausted with every visit. On each new morning, the woodcutter would wake and sense a weariness inside himself that sleep had not abated; dragging himself out of his home, he would take one exhausting step after another and walk back to the pond where he had met the young woman. Though every visit with her seemed to awaken his tired heart, upon leaving her side the woodcutter was instantly weakened again.
Weeks went by. Every morning the sun rose and every evening it sank behind the hills. And with every new day the poor woodcutter wasted away to even less of his former self. Finally, seeing the woodcutter's haggard state, a local Buddhist priest resolved to help the young man. The priest had a theory; perhaps the mysterious young woman at the waterfall had the answer to the woodcutter's plight. So one morning the priest accompanied the woodcutter and they both traveled back to the waterfall in the woods.
The woodcutter called out for the young woman; he looked everywhere for her coming but she did not appear. Sadly, the woodcutter turned to go, but as he did the priest cried out in alarm, causing the woodcutter to look back at the waterfall. From the silvery sheet of water shot webs as tall as a man. They gushed from the water with a fury and wrapped themselves around everything on the shore. Trees, bushes, and rocks were all covered with the silky webs. In horror, the woodcutter watched as the priest repelled the webs with ancient spells and commanded the web's maker to desist. But the attack continued until the priest was forced to withdraw, pulling the shell-shocked woodcutter behind him.
Back in the village, the priest revealed the horrible truth. The beautiful young woman that the woodcutter had fallen in love with was in reality a Jorogumo, or spider demon. This particular demon had been in the region for years but no one had ever gotten so close to her before without being eaten. As a Yokai, this spider demon was a man-eater and had, in fact, killed and eaten several unfortunate young men who wandered too close to her waterfall. The priest warned the young woodcutter that if he continued to keep company with this demon, he would eventually waste away into nothing if the Jorogumo didn't eat him first.
Disheartened and forced to imagine a life without the woman who had stolen his heart, the poor woodcutter left the priest and headed for home. His mind was a blur as he tried to put everything he had learned somewhere in his mind, but no matter how he spun the turn of events, he was still heartbroken. As he turned to enter his house, the path that led to the Yokai's waterfall caught his eye, the path he had traveled so often in the hopes of seeing the beautiful young woman. As he looked at it, something stirred inside of him, a feeling that couldn't be denied, as if his heart were being pulled by a string towards one thing.
With total abandon, the young woodcutter took off running, up the familiar path towards that old waterfall. Crashing through the trees and shouting his love at the top of his lungs, he reached the edge of the water, paused for only an instant to take one final look at the village behind him, and then, with one giant leap, he jumped into the waiting arms of the spider Jorogumo. Wrapping him in her webs, the spider, who still wore the face of the beautiful young woman, kissed the young man on the lips and then retreated with him to her cave behind the waterfall.If there is a moral to this story, I'm guessing it would be, "Don't commit to a relationship before finding out what the other person really is." Or, "Don't make quick decisions when dating a Japanese demon!" ;)
There is still a waterfall today that is supposed to have the Jorogumo's cave behind it, the Joren Waterfall in Shizuoka Prefecture. Oddly enough, this waterfall and the pool of water it spills into are a popular tourist attraction and hundreds of people a year go swimming in the crystal-clear pond. While the story of the Jorogumo at the Joren waterfall is a myth, I personally wouldn't swim in that water or, at the very least, wouldn't go poking around behind the waterfall.
Photo Credit: Pinterest
Sources Cited: Overly Sarcastic Productions
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