Futakuchi-onna
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Futakuchi-onna (二口女?) are a type of yōkai. The name consists of three kanji meaning "two" 二 (futa), "mouth" 口 (kuchi) and "woman" 女 (onna). Futakuchi-onna are characterized as having two mouths, the regular one and another on the back of the head beneath the hair, where the woman's skull splits apart, forming lips, teeth, a tongue, creating an entirely-functional second mouth.
In Japanese mythology and folklore, the futakuchi-onna belongs to the same class of stories as the rokurokubi, kuchisake-onna and the yama-uba, women afflicted with a curse or supernatural disease that transforms them into yōkai. The supernatural nature of the women in these stories is usually concealed until the last minute, when the true self is revealed.
As if that weren't bad enough, the mouth begins the mumble spiteful and threatening things to itself, and demand food. If it is not fed, it will screech obscenely and cause the woman tremendous pain. Eventually the woman's hair begins to move like a pair of serpents, allowing the mouth to help itself to the woman's meals.
A futakuchi-onna is often considered to be a woman who lets her stepchild die of starvation while keeping her own offspring well fed; presumably the spirit of the neglected child lodges itself in its stepmother's body to take revenge. In one story the extra mouth is formed when one of these stingy women is accidentally hit in the head by her husband's axe while he is chopping wood, and the wound never heals.
Other times the futakuchi-onna is a woman who never eats, sought as a wife by a miser. While no food passes through her normal lips, the mouth in the back of her head consumes twice what the other one would.
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[edit] The wife who never ate
This is the most famous and prototypical story of a futakuchi-onna.
In a small village there lived a stingy miser who, because he could not bear the expense of paying for food for a wife, lived entirely by himself.
One day he met a woman who did not eat anything, whom he immediately took for his wife. Because she never ate a thing, and was still a hard worker, the old miser was extraordinarily thrilled with her, but on the other hand he began to wonder why his stores of rice were steadily decreasing.
One day the man only pretended to leave for work, but stayed behind to spy on his new wife. To his horror, he saw his wife’s hair part on the back of her head, her skull split wide revealing a gapping mouth. She unbound her hair, which reached out like tentacles to grasp the rice and shovel it into the hungry mouth.
[edit] In popular culture
- The 2005 movie The Great Yokai War briefly features a futakuchi-onna.
- The PC MMORPG Ragnarok Online features monsters that appear to be based upon futakuchi-onna known as Miyabi Dolls, which appear in the Amatsu dungeon. Based on the items they drop, they seem to be geisha.
[edit] See also
- Yūrei
- Goryō
- Onryō
- Yokai
- Yaoguai
- Obake
- Shigeru Mizuki
- List of legendary creatures in Japanese mythology
[edit] External references
[edit] Further reading
- Yokai Mura: Futakuchi-onna The Futakuchi-onna is also a part of the fictional online world of Youkaimura.
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