Yuki-onna

The Snow Vampire of Japan

The woman who would one day become remembered as Yuki-onna is believed to have been born in the rural provinces of northern Japan. Oral accounts suggest she was of humble origins, the daughter of a traveling herbalist and a shrine attendant. She was lovely to behold, her eyes the shade of gray-blue, long, dark hair thick with waves, and a gentle presence.

Those around her noted that she rarely spoke and seemed to sense the emotions of others before they were expressed. If someone nearby grew angry or sorrowful, she would double over as if in pain herself. If a villager fell ill, she would suffer the fever as though it were her own. What she came to learn was that she was deeply empathic. When surrounded by people, she would grow faint or fevered, overwhelmed by their collective pain. Solitude brought her peace while human contact brought suffering. For a time, her strange empathy was regarded as divine, a blessing from the Kami-tachi of healing. But as misfortune visited the village and crops failed, Yuki-onna was blamed, and as a result of her rejection, she departed on her own.

Exile

For several years she wandered southward through the mountain passes, living off snowmelt and foraged roots. Records from a monastery in Echigo province describe a “white woman” who appeared one winter, exhausted and half-starved, but she tended the sick monks during a fever outbreak. According to their chronicle, the monks recovered miraculously, but within days, the woman collapsed, her body icy to the touch. When she regained consciousness, she fled as soon as she could.

It is thought that during this period she began to understand the terrible equilibrium of her existence: if she absorbed the pain and sickness of others, it offered relief, but destroyed herself in the process. Every act of compassion weakened her. Every attempt to live among people condemned her to exhaustion and near death.

Captivity

Over time, her sensitivity grew until she could no longer bear the nearness of human emotion. She began to avoid villages entirely, traveling only at night or in snowstorms when the world fell silent and still. It was during such a solitary existence that the most harrowing chapter of her life began when she was captured by Shuten-dōji, the infamous oni lord of Mount Ōe. Accounts vary as to how this occurred, but one enduring version tells that she was discovered while crossing a ravine and taken to his lair, mistaken for a wandering spirit. 

There, among the tormented souls of other abducted, her empathic nature turned against her completely. The agony of Shuten-dōji’s victims, their terror and mutilation, struck her like physical blows. She felt every lash, every scream, every drop of blood drawn by their hands. From the oni, she appeared almost impervious to harm, for though they rarely touched her, she convulsed and fainted from pains but only when endured by other human stock.

This condition amused Shuten-dōji, who kept her alive long after her capture, calling her his mirror of suffering. She endured for months, perhaps years, before escaping during a snowstorm that buried any pursuit. 

After her escape, she sought refuge in the northern mountains, far from any human settlement. There, she constructed a life of silence and solitude, surviving on the energy of passing travelers who strayed too close. At first, she did not absorb their emotions or pain intentionally; the warmth of others simply flowed into her as naturally as breathing. But desperation and trauma eventually changed her. She began to take their warmth in order to live. 

Her isolation, her pallor, and her strange ability to draw life-force gave rise to local legends. Hunters told of a woman who appeared during snowstorms, offering comfort to lost travelers, only for their bodies to be found days later, perfectly preserved in death. To those she spared, she was silent but sorrowful, vanishing into the wind like mist.

Over time, her existence drifted from memory into myth. Villagers began leaving offerings to her during harsh winters, praying that the “Snow Vampire” would pass them by. The stories spread across Japan, each generation reshaping her into something more supernatural whether an ice spirit, a ghost, or a goddess of winter’s mercy.

By the Edo period, Yuki-onna had become one of Japan’s most famous yōkai, and her human origins were forgotten. Artists depicted her as a haunting beauty, poets called her the breath of snow that kills with a kiss, and villagers spoke her name with reverence and fear. 

The Wheel of Time

1st Age – Daphne Du Cadeau de Volthström

2nd Age – Odette Dravahl

3rd Age – Raqual Vasudevna, Aes Sedai of the White Ajah

4th Age – The Snow Queen

5th Age – Yuki-onna