is a

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

depicted in the ''

Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki is the second book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous ''Gazu Hyakki Yagyō'' tetralogy, published c. 1779. A version of the tetralogy translated and annotated in English was published in 2016. These books are supernatural bestiaries, co ...

'' (1779) by

Toriyama Sekien 200px, A Mikoshi-nyūdō, specifically a Miage-nyūdō, as portrayed by Toriyama">Miage-nyūdō.html" ;"title="Mikoshi-nyūdō, specifically a Miage-nyūdō">Mikoshi-nyūdō, specifically a Miage-nyūdō, as portrayed by Toriyama , real name Sano ...

. As its name implies, it depicts this yōkai as a woman in the form of bones. In Sekien's explanatory text in the ''Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki'' states that there is a story called in which an aged female skeleton would carry a

chōchin The traditional lighting equipment of Japan includes the , the , the , and the . The is a lamp consisting of paper stretched over a frame of bamboo, wood or metal. The paper protected the flame from the wind. Burning oil in a stone, metal, ...

(lantern) decorated with botan flowers on it and visit the house of a man she loved back when she was still alive, and then cavort with that man. In other words, this refers to , within the collection of writings called by

Asai Ryōi was a Japanese writer in the early Edo period. A Shin Buddhist priest who was at one time head of a Kyoto temple, he is held to be one of the finest writers of Kanazōshi. Kanazōshi was a form of popular literature that was written with littl ...

. (The collection was composed as a sort of

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...

-free version of the Chinese work ''

Jiandeng Xinhua ''Jiandeng Xinhua'' (, lit. ''New Stories Told While Trimming the Wick'' or ''New Stories After Snuffing the Lamp''; 1378) is an early Ming dynasty collection of Chinese stories by Qu You (). The book consist of 21 stories in 4 volumes. It was s ...

'' written in 1378 by

Qu You Qu You (, 1341–1427), courtesy name Zongji (宗吉) and self-nicknamed Cunzhai (存齋, "Reading Studio of Existence"), was a Chinese novelist who lived in the Ming dynasty, and whose works inspired a new genre fantasy works with political ...

.) In the ''Botan Dōrō'', a man named Ogiwara Shinnojō meets a beautiful woman named Yako and they become entangled almost every night, but one night an old person from next door catches a glimpse of it and sees the strange scene of Shinnojō embracing with a skeleton. According to '' Tōhoku Kaidan no Tabi'' by

Norio Yamada Norio (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese rower *Norio Hayakawa (born 1944), American activist *, Japanese speed skater *, Ja ...

, there is an odd tale in the

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

about a yōkai under the title of "hone-onna". It says that in the

Ansei was a after ''Kaei'' and before ''Man'en''. This period spanned the years from November 1854 through March 1860. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * November 27, 1854 (): The new era name of ''Ansei'' (meaning "tranquil government") ...

period, a woman who was said to be ugly by those around her became a good-looking skeleton after death, and walked around town as a skeleton to let everyone see. It is said that she likes fish bones and would collapse upon encountering a high priest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hone-Onna Undead Yōkai Monsters Female legendary creatures Mythological monsters

See also

References