My series of Japanese female monsters continues at Part-time Monster this week, with the origins of Futakuchi Onna, or the Two-Mouthed Woman. If you have any sort of food anxieties or fears, you may be able to relate to this yokai doomed to have a perpetually-hungry mouth on the back of her skull. Have a read, and tell me what you think!
Have you ever wanted to lose a little weight?
There is a saying among travelers that Japan is the best place to diet; everyone loses weight here. I have to disagree. As a foreigner who has lived here for several years, and watched her scale inch up progressively, I can’t help but think that anyone who loses weight in Japan simply doesn’t like the food.
Of course recently, I’ve had to consider a far more sinister reason: they’ve been possessed by an insidious yokai, which targets females with a supernatural disease.
The Futakuchi Onna, or Two-Mouthed Woman, could be the sister of Kuchisake Onna, whom I talked about last month for Monster Monday. Both possess grotesque mouths and are cursed for doing traditionally female-sins. The one huge difference, however, is that while Kuchisake Onna might be out to kill you, Futakuchi Onna is a monster that you yourself can become.
But what…
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I love that image you have. It is both gruesome and awesome.
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Thank you Patricia! The artists have done some amazing work.
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That’s pretty gross. All of it.
I wish I had something more enlightening to say, but I have to go eat, now.
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Haha, yes. Japanese monsters definitely have a penchant for the grotesque. They’re very rarely actually ‘scary,’ like their European and American counterparts.
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If I lived in a country with that many crazy Kit Kat flavors to try, I’d probably grow a second mouth too.
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Haha, yes. I think there could be an entire blog dedicated to just Japanese KitKats, or snacks in general. 😛
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This was so engrossing, Alex. A wonderful description of the mythologies with gorgeous pictures too.
I was really hoping to read that the mouth would be representative of the hunger for the female mind and the constant and determined efforts of women to overcome their oppression. Alas, it was not so.
Still, one could make a new story to live in concert with the old, right?
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Wow dis one is amazing..
Folk tales everywhere round the world are soo insightful inspriing yet entertaining..amazing..i owe u big tym for introducing to sch an amzing dimention of literary work i neva had surfed..
N btw i went through your other posts too n dey r all amazing
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Great article as always 🙂
Is it just my impression, or the Japanese culture has a way to create particularly creepy ‘monsters’? And especially out of women, I should add…
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