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Ubume

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ubume (産女) from Bakemono no e picture scroll (c. 1660).
—Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

Ubume (Japanese: 産女) (also ubumedori (姑獲鳥)[1] or ubumetori (産女鳥)[2]) are Japanese yōkai, ghosts of women who died in childbirth,[2] but may have borne a child alive.[3]

The creature is equivalent to the Chinese Guhuoniao (Chinese: 姑獲鳥, "wench bird") but local Japanese folklore has been blended into the legend.

Throughout folk stories and literature the identity and appearance of ubume varies. However, she is most commonly depicted as the spirit of a woman who has died during childbirth. Passersby will see her as a normal-looking woman carrying a baby. She will typically try to give the passerby her child then disappear.[4] When the person goes to look at the child in their arms, they discover it is only a bundle of leaves or large rock.[5]

Nomenclature

[edit]
An image of ubume as depicted by Toriyama Sekien.[6]

The ubume (産女, 姑獲) of Japanese lore was considered the equivalent of the Chinese guhuoniao (姑獲鳥; pinyin: gū huò niǎo, lit. "lady capturing-bird", translated as "wench bird"[7])[a], alias rumu niao (乳母鳥; 'mother's milk bird'[b]) or yèxíng yóunǚ (夜行遊女; lit. 'nighttime travelling girl')[c][d] —as well-explained in various pieces of Edo period scholarship.[1][11]

Due to the ubume being equated with[12] or conflated with the Chinese version,[13] the Chinese written name 姑獲鳥[e] has been coopted to be read as ubume[6][12] or "ubumedori".[1][15][f]

An alternate kanji representation gives it the meaning of 産鳥 (ubume,[g] "birthing bird").[16]

Supposedly also called nyūbochō (乳母鳥; "mother's milk bird"[b]),[h] due to its resemblance to a wetnurse (menoto (乳母)).[16][i]

General description

[edit]

The ubume is explained to be the ghost of a mother who died giving childbirth, i.e., a "birthing woman ghost".[18] When a pregnant woman dies without delivering her child, and is buried, but the child still comes out alive, her soul (konpaku (魂魄), i.e. hun and po) turns into this monstrous female, soaked in blood below the waist and frail-like, asking passersby to hold her baby, and if the person complies he gains some sort of a boon (e.g. extraordinary strength[19][20][13]), according to a certain source (cf. § Kii zōdan shū of 1687 below).[24][27] If the passerby refuses and flees, he may be cursed and develop a fever, even unto death.[30][12]

But typically in folk narratives, the ubume asks a passerby to hold her child for just a moment and disappears when her victim takes the swaddled baby.[19][4] The baby then becomes steadily heavier,[31] (even heavier than stone[19][33]) until it is impossible to hold. It is then revealed not to be a human child at all, but a boulder[5] or a stone image of Jizō,[34] a stone tower (stupa) or tree leaves.[13]

She has been depicted wearing blood-stained loincloth (koshimaki [ja]) by various Edo-period artists.[j][35] (cf. § In art), as according to folk tradition.[37]

She is also said to try to snatch other people's baby out of craving to have a child of her own.[38] Or she may have borne the child alive, and the ghost mother seeks out nourishment for the bereft or orphaned child.[3]

It also has the habit that of trying to breastfeed[k] the child it kidnaps, leading to its alias name nyūbochō (乳母鳥; "mother's milk bird"[b]), as aforementioned.[16]

Another piece of lore is that the ubume tends to leave droplets of blood on clothing when it intrudes into a household, and this should be taken as a sign of its presence[41] (Cf. § Local lore from Ibaraki that the bird marks the child's clothing with its poison milk).

As for further details regarding the immense strength that can be obtained from the ubume, there are narratives where the newly gifted person washed his face and wrung dry the towel, it ruptured into two pieces, and even four pieces, making him realize he has been endowed with strength. The man later succeeded as a powerful sumo wrestler.[42]

Attestations

[edit]

Konjaku monogatarishū

[edit]
"Suma Urabe Suetake meeting a Ghost with a Child"
— LACMA M.84.31.54

Stories about ubume have been told in Japan since at least the 12th century,[43] in the Konjaku Monogatarishū, where a samurai (Urabe no Suetake[5][l], cf. image right) encounters a woman (ubume (産女)) at the riverbank who asks him to hold her child. She demands her child back and when the samurai refused, it turned into a bundle of leaves.[6][44][45]

Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban

[edit]

They are also mentioned in the Hyakumonogatari Hyōban [ja]:[46] "When a woman loses her life in childbirth, her spiritual attachment[m] itself becomes this ghost. In form, it is soaked in blood from the waist down and wanders about crying, 'Be born! Be born!' (obareu, obareu; をばれう)".[47][4]

Kii zōdan shū

[edit]

The Kii zōdan shū [ja] ("Collected yarns of the uncanny"[48]; pub. Jōkyō4/1687) was already drawn on above to provide the general description that if a woman who dies in labor but produces a live child after internment, her soul transmogrifies into the ubume.[24] The same work returns somewhat later to explain that when "a woman wanting a child (for a long time) gets pregnant by chance, but dies in difficult labor or delivery, her obsession or double-soul (kon and haku) transforms into the shape of a bird, flies by night, and captures other people's children".[16][27] It has been stressed that it is the obsession (obsessed soul) that transforms into this being, and that a similar description also occurs in the Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban (above).[4]

This work also provides the aforementioned lore about the breasted bird having cravings to breastfeed the child it abducts,[16] and how the bird flies by at night and leaves blood stains on children's clothing, leading to the taboo against leaving clothes hung out to dry overnight.[41]

Wakan sansai zue

[edit]
Kokakuchō/Kowakuchō (姑獲鳥)[2] or yagyō yūjo (夜行遊女),[2] "nighttime travelling girl"[n]) from the Wakan Sansai Zue by Terajima Ryōan [ja][1]

The Japanese encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue also has an entry on it (cf. § Wakan Sansai Zue below)[1][6]

The encyclopedia records that according to the local legend the ubumedori appears on the seashores of the westerly parts of Japan, and the people of Kyushu describe it as resembling a large gull in appearance and voice, appearing usually on a pitch-black night of light rain. The spot where the bird appears, there is usually "phosphor fire" (eerie flame, like a will-o'-the-wisp). It is said to shapeshift into a human woman with a baby, and whoever encounters this creature will ask a passerby to hold her child;[o] he should beware of fleeing from fright, lest the creature will cause chill-shivers and high fever, which can even be fatal. However, if a stalwart man accepts the favor and carries the child, he will come to no harm.[51][12]

Kaga sōdō jikki

[edit]

An ominous shrieking creepy bird was dubbed ubumedori in Kanazawa, (now in Ishikawa prefecture), and connected with the so-called Kaga sōdō [ja], the scandalous affairs of the Kaga Domain involving accusations of adultery and murder plots. After the death of the lady Shinnyo-in [ja] who was implicated in the affair, ominous bird-screeches were heard, and signs of some creature stirring in the mansion. An archer was sent to hunt it, and a heron-like but unfamiliar strange bird was caught. The omnious screeches were heard throughout the city, and the culprit dubbed Ubume-dori (憂婦女鳥). The bird no longer appeared after the city suffered the great fire. This item is recorded in the Kaga sōdō jikki or the "true chronicle" of the affair (of which there are variant copies with different titles).[52][53]

Local lore

[edit]

In Ibaraki Prefecture, there is a similar legend concerning a yōkai called the ubametori[54] which flies by night, and when it spots children's clothing hung dry, it imagines would think of the child as their own, and mark the clothes with its milk, which is said to be poisonous.[55][56][49]

This "ubametori" of Ibaraki bears close similarity with the kokakuchō i.e. guhuoniao the "wench bird" of China, and the folklore probably derives from Chinese scholarship, introduced by some Japanese person with learning.[57][58][59]

By other names

[edit]

Ubume in Hinoemata, Minamiaizu District and Kaneyama, Ōnuma District, Fukushima Prefecture were called "obo". It is said that when they encounter someone, they make that person hug a baby and then disappear in peace and the one hugging the baby will have their throat bitten by the baby. It is said that when one encounters an obo, one should throw a piece of cloth, such as a string with a billhook attached for men, or an okoso [zukin] (御高祖[頭巾]; type of headdress or hood), tenugui, or a yumaki (a type of waistcloth for women) at it, thus diverting the obo's attention for an opportunity to escape. It is also said that if one does end up hugging the baby, hugging the baby with its face turned the other way will prevent one from being bitten.[60][61]

Also, the obo (like "ubu" in "ubume" ) is originally a dialect term referring to newborns.[60] In Yanaizu, Kawanuma District in the same Fukushima Prefecture, there is a legend concerning the obo daki kannnon (おぼ抱き観音; "obo hugging Kannon") who asked a man to hold her child (obo) while she did her hair, and after he complied, he received a stack of mochi made of gold as reward.[49]

In the Nishimatsuura District, Saga Prefecture and in Miyamachi Miyaji, Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, they are called "ugume" and it is said that they appear at night and they would make people embrace a baby a night, but when dawn comes, they would generally be a rock, a stone tower, or a straw beater.[62][63] (A type of funayūrei ("ship ghost") called "ugume" is known on Goshoura Island [ja] in Kumamoto Prefecture,[64] as well as Ojika Island [ja], one of the Gotō Islands, in Nagasaki Prefecture[64]).

On Iki Island (Nagasaki Prefecture), they are called "unme" or "uume" and they occur when a young person dies or when a woman dies from difficult childbirth, and they would sway back and forth before disappearing, having the appearance of a creepy blue light.[65]

In Iwaki Province, now Fukushima Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture, it is said that the ryūtō [ja] ("dragon lantern"; an atmospheric ghost light said to be lit by a dragon spirit) would appear at beaches and try to come up to land, but it is said that this is because an ubume is carrying a ryūtō to the shore.[66] In Kitaazumi District, Nagano Prefecture, ubume are called yagomedori, and they are said to stop at clothes drying at night, and it is said that putting on those clothes would result in dying before one's husband.[67]

Social and cultural influence

[edit]

The yokai ubume was conceived through various means of social and religious influence. During the late Medieval period of Japan, the attitudes surrounding motherhood started to change. Rather than the infant being considered a replication of the mother and an extension of her body, the fetus started to be seen as separate from the mother. This distancing of mother and fetus caused an emphasis on the paternal ownership of the child, reducing the mother to nothing more than a vessel for male reproduction. For a mother to die in childbirth or late pregnancy soon came to be considered a sin, the blame for the death of the unborn child being placed on the mother who in a sense was responsible for the infant's death.[68]

The idea that a pregnant woman who dies and get buried transforms into an ubume has existed since ancient times; which is why it has been said that when a pregnant woman dies prepartum, one ought to cut the fetus out the abdomen and put it on the mother in a hug as they are buried. In some regions, if the fetus cannot be cut out, a doll would be put beside her.[citation needed]

The ubume's blood-soaked appearance is thought to be because in feudal society, the continuation of the family was considered important, so pregnant women who died were believed to fall into a hell with a pond of blood.[12]

Folkloristics

[edit]

Many scholars have associated the ubume with the legend of the hitobashira ('human pillar'),[69] where a sacrificial mother and child "are buried under one of the supporting pillars of a new bridge".[18]

Minkata Kumagus (1915) draws comparison to the ubumedori of Kyushu accompanied by phosphorescent light, as described in the Wakan sansai zue, and the folkloric strange phenomenon of aosagi-no-hi ("heron's fire").[45] He remarks that Hayashi Ranzan (1583-1657) in Baison zaihitsu (梅村載筆) has recorded an anecdote of a man who spied on the alleged ubume that issued babylike cries in the night, but it turned out to be nothing more than a "blue heron" (aosagi).[45]

The Shōshin'in Temple (正信院)[70] in Shizuoka Prefecture, according to scholars, is where local women come to pray to conceive a child or to have a successful pregnancy.[43][71] According to Stone and Walter (2008), the origins of the temple's legend, set in the mid-16th century, concern:

a modern statue of Ubume, displayed once a year in July. At this festival, candy that has been offered to the image is distributed, and women pray for safe delivery and for abundant milk. The statue, which is clothed in white robes, has only a head, torso, and arms; it has no lower half.[72]

In narratives exhibiting the strength-gaining motif (cf. the man who becomes sumo wrestler, above), folklorist Noboru Miyata [ja] explains that the dead mother who becomes an ubume holds a powerful grudge, wishing to restore a strong child back into the world, and while she does have the extraordinary supernatural energy for trying to "deliver" a dead child back into the world, it only succeeds in a twisted way, and manifests itself instead as the endowment of great strength on a cooperator.[73][74]

In art

[edit]

Tokugawa-era artists produced many images of ubume, usually represented as "naked from the waist up, wearing a red skirt and carrying a small baby",[43] or rather, wearing a blood-soaked koshimaki [ja] loincloth.[75]

Sawaki Sūshi Hyakkai zukan (Genbun] 2/1737) is a picture scroll featuring "Ubume" as one of its yōkai; the postscript to the scroll professes that it was copied from the original painted by Kanō Motonobu　(1476–1559).[76] Another illustration of ubume comes from Toriyama Sekien's late-18th-century encyclopedia of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls, Gazu hyakki yagyō (An'ei5/1776).[6][72][22] Sekien too admits he consulted Kanō Motonobu's Hyakki yagyōTemplate:Efn2[77].

Joly offers as example the "Nissaka-shuku" by Kuniyoshi in Tōkaidō gojūsantsui [ja],[78] however, the inscription does not explicitly mention ubume. A woman is killed by a bandit, but she being devout in prayer, the Kwannon goddess assumes the guise of a monk and keeps the baby alive by feeding it ame (probably mizuame, or malt syrup), and the woman is able to appear before her husband to tell the story and entrust the baby at a yonaki ishi [ja] (somewhere near the Nissaka station).

[edit]

Natsuhiko Kyogoku's best-selling detective novel, The Summer of the Ubume, uses the ubume legend as its central motif, creating something of an ubume 'craze'.[79] at the time of its publication and was made into a major motion picture in 2005.[79]

See also

[edit]
  • Harpy – Half-bird half-woman monsters associated with storm winds
  • Kenas-unarpe – Ainu mountain hag or monstrous bird
  • Konaki-jiji – A childlike yōkai that, like the ubume's bundled 'infant', grows heavier when carried and ultimately takes the form of a boulder.
  • Momo Challenge hoax – Originating from a sculpture of a ubume
  • Myling – An example of a similar motif in Scandinavian folklore.
  • Pontianak – Mythological creature
  • Sankai – Yōkai that emerge from pregnant women
  • Strigoi – Etymologically related to strix
  • Strix (mythology) – Roman mythical owl that drizzles milk on an infant's lip, or blood-sucks and devours it.

Explanatory notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ Chinese pronunciation transliterated tōfūniao (タウフウニャウ) (or rather correctly kūfūniao (クウフウニャウ)) in Wakan Sansai Zue. Cf. the Chinese borrowed term kūnyan (姑娘/クーニャン) for a 'Chinese girl' has been in use in Japan.
  2. 1 2 3 Here 'mother's milk bird' is Umshuld's rendering from the Chinese. Note that 乳母 signifies "wetnurse" both in Chinese and Japanese, and the sense of 'wetnurse bird' is clear in the explanation of nyūbochō (from Kii zōdan shū) below.
  3. ↑ The Bencao Gangmu, under the entry 49.28 for "Gu huo niao" lists Ru mu niao (乳母鳥) and Ye xing you nu as synonyms, attested in the Xuanzhong ji [zh], edited by Guo Pu AD 276–324, Jin dynasty (266–420).[7][8]
  4. ↑ It is stated in the BCGM that "they [the wench birds] are transformations of women who died giving birth"[9] which is also stated with slightly different phrasing (Chinese: 或言産死者所化) in the Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang from the Tang dynasty.[10]
  5. ↑ This can also be pronounced Chinese-style (read as on'yomi) as kōwakuchō (コウワクテウ)[2].
  6. ↑ This sort of application, where it is not possible to read it as such phonetically, is called ateji. If it can be read phonetically Japanese-style, it is simply kunyomi.
  7. ↑ Although 産 is typically pronounced umu, it can also be ubu as in the compound ubu goe ("baby's cry at birth").
  8. ↑ The straight reading of the source is nyūhochō (乳母鳥/にうほてう) but in older literature, dakuten is routinely omitted, thus transcribed "ほ ho" instead of "ぼ bo"; therefore the corrected reading of nyūbochō (乳母鳥/にうぼてう) ahs been given, as per a more modern reference.[2]
  9. ↑ menoto (乳母/めのと) is obsolete, and the modern reading of 乳母 in Japanese is uba, synonymous with ubame (乳母女).[17] However, Edo-period source here, the Kii zōdan shū, reads the bird as nyūbochō not ubame-dori.
  10. ↑ Sawaki Sūshi Hyakkai zukan, Toriyama Sekien Gazu hyakki yagyō, etc.
  11. ↑ As per Chinese sources explaining the bird has "breasts/teats"
  12. ↑ Given as "Taira-no-Suetake" during the time when Minamoto no Raikō was lord governor of Mino Province, in the Japanese text.
  13. ↑ Given as shūjaku, now normally 執着 is read shūchaku. Cf. "obsessed" in the quote from Kii Zōdan Shū below.
  14. ↑ "nighttime travelling girl" as rendered by Unschuld from the Chinese (BCGM).[7] The character "遊" denotes "travel" but usually means "play" in Japanese, and "遊女" is easily taken to mean "prostitue".
  15. ↑ Minakata assumingly renders this as "carry the infant on his back",[45] i.e., onbu [ja], but this is not clarified in the original text which only says she "begs to bear/carry (請負)" it. Commentary on the ubume usually describes her as trying to make strangers daku (抱く; 'hold') the child.[49][50]

Citations

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Terajima Ryōan [in Japanese] (n.d.) [1712]. "44-kan. Sankin-rui Ubumedori" 四十四巻 山禽類 姑獲鳥（うぶめどり） [Book 44. Mountain bird category. (ubumedori)]. Wakan Sansai zue 和漢三才図会 (in Japanese). Vol. 29 of 81. fol. 13a–13b. (Ubumedori in edition of Chūkindō, 1885. 44: 243–244), 1906 . p. 503-->
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shida, Gishū [in Japanese]; Saeki, Tsunemaro, eds. (1974) [1909]. "Ubumetori" うぶめとり【産女鳥】. Nihon ruigo daijiten 日本類語大辞典 (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Revised by Haga Yaichi. Kodansha. p. 195.
  3. 1 2 Bush, Laurence C. (2001). "Ubume". Asian horror encyclopedia: Asian horror culture in literature, manga and folklore. San Jose: Writers Club Press. p. 188. ISBN 9780595201815.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Stone & Walter (2008), p. 191.
  5. 1 2 3 Joly (1908), p. 16.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Toriyama, Sekien (2017), "Ubume" 姑獲鳥, Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien, translated by Hiroko Yoda; Matt Alt, Courier Dover Publications, p. 37, ISBN 9780486818757
  7. 1 2 3 4 Li Shizhen (2021b). "49-28 Gu huo niao FE shi yi" 姑獲鳥拾遺. Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume IX: Fowls, Domestic and Wild Animals, Human Substances. Translated by Paul U. Unschuld. Univ of California Press. pp. 340–341. ISBN 9780520976993.
  8. ↑ Guo Pu. Xuán zhōng jì 玄中記 [Record of the Mysterious Center] (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
  9. ↑ Chinese: 云是産婦死後化作[7]
  10. ↑ Duan Chengshi. "卷十六" . Lingbiao luyi 酉陽雜俎 [Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang] (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
  11. ↑ Mozume (1922), p. 647 citing Hirazumi Sen'an [ja] (1714) Bunrui koji yōgo 分類故事要語, Book 8, 25
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Kyogoku, Natsuhiko; Tada, Katsumi [in Japanese], eds. (2000). Yōkai zukan 妖怪図巻 (in Japanese). Kokusho Kankōkai. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-4-336-04187-6.
  13. 1 2 3 8P (2017-11-23). "A3-3 Ubume" A3-3 産女（姑獲鳥）. Onna eiyūten—Na wo nokoshita onna tachi— 女英雄展—名を残した女たち— [Female hero exhibit—women who left their names—]. Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
  14. ↑ Yasui (2020), pp. 100–101.
  15. ↑ It was Hayashi Razan (1631) who was first to do so [14]
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 From Kii zōdan shū (『奇異雑談集』). Book 4, (4) "Ubume yurai no koto 産女の由来の事", fol. 7b–8a: "唐に姑獲（こくわく）といふは、日本の產女なり、姑獲は鳥なり..[quote from Bencao Gangmu].. 是は、人の子を、とつて、我子として、乳を、のませてやしなふ事、人の乳母（めのと）に似たるゆへに、乳母鳥[（にうほてう）]と、いふなり是ハ、婦人、子なふ（無く）して、子をほしがるもの、たま〳 〵くはいにん（懐妊）す、と、いへども、産することを、えず、難産に死するときんバ（時は）、その執心魂魄、変化して、鳥となりて、夜とびまはりて人の小子を、とる.." (in Japanese)[39]
  17. ↑ Nihon kokugo daijiten, selective edition 精選版 日本国語大辞典 s.v. "Ubame うば‐め【姥女・乳母女】" via kotobank.
  18. 1 2 Stone & Walter (2008), p. 204.
  19. 1 2 3 Yanagita, Kunio (1935). "Ubume no kai" 産女の恠. In Fujimura, Tsukuru [in Japanese] (ed.). Nihon bungaku daijiten 日本文学大辞典. Vol. 1. Shinchosha. p. 265. ndljp:1127343. (Also reissued in Works 定本柳田國男集 Vol. 26"Dictionary entry manuscripts 辭書解説原稿", p. 285)
  20. ↑ Miyata, Noboru [in Japanese] (December 2006). "産女" Onna no minzokugaku 女の民俗学. 宮田登、 日本を語る Nihon wo kataru 11. Yoshikawa Kobunkan. p. 165. ISBN 978-4642071437.
  21. ↑ Minakata, Kumagusu (1971). "はらみてうまず" "Minakata kanwa (24) Shinda onna ga ko wo unda hanashi" 南方閑話 (24) 死んだ女が子を産んだ話. Minakata Kumagusu zenshū: Minkakata kanwa. Minakata zuihitsu. Zoku Minakata zuihitsu 南方熊楠全集: 南方閑話. 南方随筆. 続南方随筆. Vol. 2. Heibonsha. p. 24. ndljp:12407606. (html ver.)
  22. 1 2 Yasui (2003a), p. 497.
  23. 1 2 Yabuno, Tadashi (2023-07-08). "Kii zōdan shū kan-dai-4 (4) Ubume no yurai no koto" 奇異雜談集巻第四　㊃產女の由來の事. 鬼火 Le feu follet. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
  24. 1 2 From Kii zōdan shū (『奇異雑談集』). Book 4, (4) "Ubume yurai no koto 産女の由来の事", fol. 7a–7b: "世俗にいわく、懐妊不産（はらみてうまず）して死せる者、そのまま野捨てにすれば胎内の子死せずして野にて生まるれば、母の魂魄、形に化して、子を抱き養うて夜行く。その赤子の泣くをうぶめ啼くというなり。その形腰より下は血に浸って力弱きなり。人もしこれに遭えば負うてたまわれと言うを、厭わずして負えば人を福祐になすと言い伝えたり、云々"[21][22][23]
  25. ↑ Fujisawa (1925), p. 56.
  26. ↑ Fujisawa (1955), p. 121.
  27. 1 2 Morihiko Fujisawa, even though he uses quotation marks, is actually paraphrasing the earlier portion of the chapter from this work (Kii zōdan shū): "産婦の分娩せずして胎児になほ生命あらば、母の妄執は為に残つて、変化のものとなり、子を抱きて夜行く。その赤子の泣くを、うぶめ啼くといふ ",[25][26] but Fujisawa interjects the term mōshū (妄執; 'delusional obsession'), which matches the term shūshin (執心; ' obsession in the mind') in the passage quoted below.
  28. 1 2 Mozume (1922), p. 646.
  29. 1 2 Minakata (1971) Minakata kanwa (112) Kisha, shōni wo gaisuru koto 鬼車、小児を害すること (html版)
  30. ↑ Wakan sansai zue (in Sinetic kanbun)[1][28], written out into Japanese by Munakata (close paraphrase).[29]
  31. ↑ Foster, Michael Dylan (2008). Pandemonium and parade: Japanese monsters and the culture of yōkai. University of California Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 9780520942677.
  32. ↑ Abiko, Yoshishige (1955). "Ubume" 産女. Dewa konjaku monogatari 出羽今昔物語. Vol. 1. Shishukai. p. 215. ndljp:9577125.
  33. ↑ Or, in a Yamagata Prefecture variant, "as if being made to carry a 100-kan stone".[32]
  34. ↑ Takahashi, Masahide [in Japanese] (1962). Koten to minzokugaku 古典と民俗學 (in Japanese). Hanawa Shobō. p. 132.
  35. ↑ Yasui (2020), pp. 94, 97.
  36. ↑ Fujisawa, Morihiko [in Japanese] (1955), "うぶめ" "Yukionna" 雪女, Nihon minzoku densetsu zenshū 日本民族伝説全集, vol. 6, Kawade Shobō, p. 122, ndljp:9577090, 世俗のいい伝えに、"産死の婦女の執心、うぶめの怪を成す。その状、腰より下血に染みて物凄い"..うぶめに紅の色は附随し、うぶめの怪が雪女の怪と変じて、紅の雪を附随せしむる伝説が醞醸されます
  37. ↑ Fujisawa (1925), p. 58 and (1955), p. 122[36]
  38. ↑ Mozume (1922), p. 645 citing Kojima Masanaga 児嶋正長 (Hōei 7/1710) Tenchiwaku monchin 天地或問珍, Book 6, 18
  39. 1 2 Asakura, Haruhiko [in Japanese]; Ōkubo, Junko, eds. (1998). Kana zōshi shūsei 假名草子集成 (in Japanese). Tokyodo Shuppan. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/12455939.
  40. ↑ Mozume (1922), p. 647.
  41. 1 2 From Kii zōdan shū (『奇異雑談集』). Book 4, (4) "Ubume yurai no koto 産女の由来の事", fol. 8a–8b: "姑獲鳥、夜、隱飛し、人の家に行きて、子をたづぬるに、小児の衣（きぬ）、夜、外に置くときは、その衣にふるゝゆえに、姑獲の血、その衣に点ずるなり。これをみて、姑獲のきたるしるしと、するなり...日本にも、小児の衣を、夜、外にほすことを、いむは、此儀なり".[39][23] Also quoted secondhand via Matsuya hikki 松屋筆記 Book 1, 22.[40]
  42. ↑ Miyata (1990), p. 24.
  43. 1 2 3 Glassman (2001), p. 160.
  44. ↑ Mozume (1922), pp. 646–647.
  45. 1 2 3 4 5 Minakata, Kumagusu (18 September 1915). "Phosphorescent Birds". Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries. 11th series. 12: 213–215.
  46. ↑ Foster, Michael Dylan (2024) [2015]. The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. University of California Press. pp. 253–356. ISBN 9780520389564.
  47. ↑ Mozume (1922), pp. 647–648.
  48. ↑ Stone & Walter (2008), p. 194.
  49. 1 2 3 4 Aramata, Hiroshi; Ōya, Yasunori (2021). "Ubume, ubume[reijin], kokakuchō" うぶめ、産女[霊神]、姑獲鳥. Aramata Hiroshi no Nihon zenkoku yōkai mappu アラマタヒロシの日本全国妖怪マップ (in Japanese). Shuwa System. p. 48. ISBN 9784798065076.
  50. ↑ Yasui (2003a), p. 496.
  51. ↑ Wakan sansai zue (in kanbun text),[1][28] expanded into ordinary Japanese by Minakata,[29] and also translated by him into English.[45]
  52. ↑ "Shinnyoin aki yashiki yōkai no koto" 真如院明屋敷妖怪の事. Hokusetsu bidan Kanazawa jikki 北雪美談金沢実記. Seibundo. 1887. pp. 117–119. ndljp:882002.
  53. ↑ Ezaki, Shunpei [in Japanese] (1973). "憂婦女鳥" Shiro: sono densetsu to hiwa. zoku 城：その伝説と秘話 続. Nichibō Shuppansha. p. 159. ndljp:12206690.
  54. ↑ Whiles some sources only give ubametori phonetically in kana as "ウバメトリ", Aramata assigns the kanji "姑獲鳥 (ウバメトリ)"[49]
  55. ↑ Minzokugaku Kenkyujo (Folkloristic Research Institute) (1955). Yanagita, Kunio (ed.). Sōgō nihon minzoku goi 綜合日本民俗語彙. Vol. 1. Heibonsha. pp. 136–137.
  56. ↑ Akagi, Takehiko, ed. (1991). "ウバメトリ" Ibarki hōgen minzokugo jiten 茨城方言民俗語辞典 (in Japanese). Tokyodo Shuppan. p. 103. ISBN 9784490102963.
  57. ↑ Kyogoku, Natsuhiko; Tada, Katsumi [in Japanese], eds. (2008). Yōkaigahon. Kyōka hyakumonogatari 妖怪画本 狂歌百物語 (in Japanese). Kokusho Kankōkai. pp. 275–276. ISBN 978-4-3360-5055-7.
  58. ↑ Murakami, Kenji [in Japanese], ed. (2005). "Ubume" 産女（うぶめ）. Nihon yōkai daijiten 日本妖怪大事典. Kwai books (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-4-04-883926-6.
  59. ↑ Foster (2024b).
  60. 1 2 Murakami (2005) s.v. "obo オボ", pp. 74–75 (in Japanese)
  61. ↑ Chuo University Minzoku Kenkyūkai (February 1990). "Fukushima-ken Ōnuma-gun chōsa hōkokusho" 福島県大沼郡金山町 調査報告書. Jōmin 常民 (in Japanese) (26): 162. (Informants: Yūki Kakuta/Sumida/Tsunoda/[?] et al. 角田勇喜，角田正子，角田ヤス) via File 1070507, Kaii-Yōkai Denshō Database @International Research Center for Japanese Studies
  62. ↑ Chiba, Mikio [in Japanese], ed. (1991). Yōkai obake zatsugaku jiten 妖怪お化け雑学事典 (in Japanese). Kodansha. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-4-06-205172-9.
  63. ↑ "Aso Digital Hakubutsukan minkan denshō" 阿蘇デジタル博物館民間伝承. Aso Virtual Experience Land www.e-aso.com あそバーチャル体験ランド]. Aso Telework Center. Archived from the original on 2006-07-12. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  64. 1 2 Sakurada, Katsunori (1980). Gyoson minzokushi 漁村民俗誌 (in Japanese). Meicho shuppan. pp. 139, 142, 143.
  65. ↑ Murakami (2005) s.v. "ūme ウーメ", p. 42 (in Japanese)
  66. ↑ Jinbunsha editorial Dept. (2005). Shokoku kaidan kidan shūsei. Higashi-Nihon hen 諸国怪談奇談集成 江戸諸国百物語 東日本編. Jinbunsha. pp. 20頁. ISBN 978-4-7959-1955-6.
  67. ↑ Shimura, Kunihiro (supervising ed.) [in Japanese], ed. (2008). Zusetsu: Chizu to arasuji de yomu Nihon no yōkai densetsu 図説 地図とあらすじで読む 日本の妖怪伝説 (in Japanese). Seishun shuppan sha. p. 77. ISBN 978-4-413-00965-2.
  68. ↑ Stone & Walter (2008), p. 176.
  69. ↑ Glassman (2001), p. 171.
  70. ↑ Glassman (2001), p. 270.
  71. ↑ Stone & Walter (2008), pp. 191–192.
  72. 1 2 Stone & Walter (2008), p. 192.
  73. ↑ Miyata (1990), p. 30–32.
  74. ↑ Miyata, Noboru [in Japanese] (January 2007). "産女" Kodomo, rōjin to sei 子ども・老人と性. 宮田登、 日本を語る 12. Yoshikawa Kobunkan. p. 188. ISBN 9784642071444.
  75. ↑ Komatsu, Kazuhiko [in Japanese], ed. (2003). Nihon yōkaigaku taizen 日本妖学大全 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9784096262085.
  76. ↑ Yasui (2020), p. 95.
  77. ↑ Yasui (2020), pp. 95, 99.
  78. ↑ Joly (1908), p. 24.
  79. 1 2 Foster (2008), p. 230.

References

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Further reading

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  • Iwasaka, Michiko and Barre Toelken. Ghosts And The Japanese: Cultural Experience in Japanese Death Legends. (1994)
  • Kyogoku, Natsuhiko. The Summer of the Ubume. San Francisco: Viz Media. (2009)
  • Wakita, Haruko. Women in medieval Japan: motherhood, household management and sexuality. Monash Asia Institute. (2006)
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