Hashi-Hime
Hear about Hashi-Hime on Episode 34 of our Podcast, the Japan Archives. |
Hashi-Hime
Hashi-Hime (橋姫) is a is a is a type of Yōkai depicted in the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki by Toriyama Sekien.
Notes by Sekien state this creature has a shrine next to the Uji Bridge in Yamashiro Province. Tales of her can be found in the Tale of the Heike addendum, The Book of the Sword. She is also included in the Noh Play Kanawa.
Hashi-Hime has a desperate longing to find someone to live her, though her ugliness will always prevent her from finding a husband.
Before she turned into this creature it is said she was once a women consumed by jealousy as her husband has left her for another. And so she headed to the Kifune Jinja Shrine to pray to the kami Kifune Daimyōjin for seven days in a row wishing desperately to be turned into a ‘living Oni.’
Kifune taking pity on her allows this to happen and gives her instruction on how to do so, these instructions being to soak herself in the Ujigawa River for 20 days.
She returns home to prepare herself, tying her hair into five horn like locks, she paints her body and face red and places an inverted Iron Trivet (kanawa) on her head and also bites down on a torch lit at both end. After this she runs straight for the river. It is said the sight of her was scary enough to cause people to faint or even die.1
External Links
- View the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki online here: Konjaku Online.
Footnotes
1. Yoda, H. and Alt, M. (2016) “Japandemonium: Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopaedia of Toriyama Sekien.”. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
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