Yuki Onna (雪女, snow woman) is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese literature, manga, and animation.
She may also go by such names as yuki-musume snow girl[1], yuki-onago "snow wench", yukijorō "snow harlot"[1], yuki anesa "snow sis'", yuki-omba "snow granny or snow nanny"[2], yukinba "snow hag"（Ehime）[2], yukifuri-baba(?) "snowfall hag"[1](Nagano)[2].
In many stories, Yuki-onna appears to travelers trapped in snowstorms,
and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other
legends say she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure.
Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long
black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin
makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono,[3] but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow.[4]
Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals.
She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales
say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened.
Some legends say the Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is the spirit of someone who perished in the snow.[5]
She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in killing
unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly
portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more
human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty.[6]
In Ranma ½,
she is responsible for a snow blizzard and is accompanied by a Snow
Monster Guardian.
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