Japanese Youkai.
A Yokai is a kind of creature or form of mythology in Japanese folklore. I’ve chosen the Tsurara Onna (literally “icicle woman”) as my Yokai in this reflection only.
[1]This Yokai only appears during the winter, apparently, a lonely guy somewhere living where currently is winter was staring at a “beautiful looking icicle” on a ceiling. Suddenly, the Tsurara Onna magically appears out of nowhere. After winter when the snow starts melting and the temperature rises, this Yokai will eventually disappear out of sight. There are multiple different legends of this Yokai, one of the bittersweet ones that I read goes somewhat like this:
[1]One day this sad lonely dude was looking out his window on a cold snowy night. He was just chilling there minding the icicles above, hoping he would find some girl one day. All of a sudden, he hears a knock on his door, it was some woman. Beautiful like the “icicles above”, dressed in a white-blue robe carrying a wooden umbrella. Her red lips were so vibrant, and those eyes? Oh, he’ll never forget those eyes. The woman called out, “Yo, can I stay by your house tonight? Honestly, I’m tryna get somewhere but this blizzard won’t end and it’s cold.” Obviously, this lonely guy won’t kick a girl out this beautiful, it’s totally a win-win situation for him, so he let her inside and tried his best to play it confidently, making sure that she wouldn’t go on dissatisfied.
It’s been a while actually, maybe even several months, and they’re still together. This guy got so desperate that eventually, he fell in love with this girl. They even got married and lived a nice life, how lucky.
It was spring, the snow melted, the flowers were blooming and the sun was shining brighter, the sky was clear. She went out to go shopping one day, but, she didn’t return after dusk. The guy looked everywhere for her but to no avail, that girl is long gone. How tragic, she couldn’t just leave him alone like that without a reason. One grasp let him realize that she had left him. However, this man’s regret was healed when he then got married to another woman.
Winter came again, it was brutal this year, it seemed like it had never been a passing day without a snowstorm. With regret, he looks out his window wondering.
There was another knock at the door, on the same date.
It was her, the girl he met last time and fallen in love with. His expressions were all over the place.
“Where did you go? Why did you leave me? I can’t believe you would disappear like that and suddenly come back.” He cried.
The girl replied, “Y’know, whatever happens, happens. Weren’t we supposed to be together for the rest of our lives? Didn’t you say our bond was as long and as solid as the beautiful icicles above? You’re… You’re with another girl aren’t you?”
The girl abandons him, small tears across her face. He was gonna make a run for her, but, his new wife was asking what happened.
“Just… stay here, I have unfinished business.”
Moments later, a loud shatter followed by a shriek was heard at the door. The new wife ran to the door to see what had happened. There, lying in the front yard, was her husband. Dead and was pierced through the neck by a massive icicle which had fallen from the roof.
Section 2:
My opinion in western differences.
If I were to differ between Western tales of creatures (mainly pointing at the United States) more of these tales were shown as a temporary influence for young kids and were often censored to make them “family-friendly”. However, there are outside sources from what the majority populace sees, such as Creepypastas which is also a horror-tale based on the internet. Many horror tales from the West were only thriving after the late 20th century. Japanese Yokai has tales aging many many years ago, thus these tales were often entertained thoroughly in that period, while I see them in today’s times as very eerie or unnerving. Of course, the tales were passed down and were probably modified, we will never know what the past brought, and that’s what makes it a Yokai
Do you believe in youkai?
I was never influenced or thought that Yokai were real, but, I find the tales fascinating. Many of these stories are often made out of reference material, a person would immediately know what’s natural or what isn’t, what is out of the norm would be a “Yokai”. This was only the time I was ever introduced to Yokai, maybe even going back in time to see how these stories were passed down. Even if there were ghost stories that aren’t Yokai, I can’t find them physically believable. Could something occur by coincidence? Sure, but it’s still a coincidence, why would I see Yokai on a day-to-day basis? Well, there is no evidence to perceive that it’s natural.l=
References:
- [1] – Tsurara Onna | Yokai.Com. https://yokai.com/tsuraraonna/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2022.
- [First Materials] – Know Your Yokai!, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNn3gXE-zU0. Accessed 17 Oct. 2022.