Yama-uba (aka Yamanba)

Yamauba (山姥 or 山うば^?), Yamamba or Yamanba are variations ^[1] on the name of a yōkai ^[2] found in Japanese folklore.

Description in Classical Japanese Folklore

Depending on the text and translator, the Yamauba appears as a monstrous Crone, “her unkempt hair long and golden white ... her kimono filthy and tattered,” ^[3] with cannibalistic tendencies. ^[4] In one tale a mother traveling to her village is forced to give birth in a mountain hut assisted by an apparent kindly old woman, only to discover, when it is too late, that the stranger is actually Yamauba with plans to eat her newborn child. ^[5] In other story the yōkai raises the orphan hero Kintarō, who goes on to became the famous warrior Sakata no Kintoki. ^[6]
Yamauba is said to have a mouth at the top of her head under her hair. ^[7] In one story it is related that her only weakness is a certain flower containing her soul. ^[8]

Yamauba in Noh Drama

In one Noh drama, translated as, Yamauba, Dame of the Mountain, Komparu Zenchiku states the following:

Yamauba is the fairy of the mountains, which have been under her care since the world began. She decks them with snow in winter, with blossoms in spring ... She has grown very old. Wild white hair hangs down her shoulders; her face is very thin. There was a courtesan of the Capital who made a dance representing the wanderings of Yamauba. It had such success that people called this courtesan Yamauba though her real name was Hyakuma. ^[11]

The play takes place one evening as Hyakuma is traveling to visit the Zenko Temple in Shinano, when she accepts the hospitality of a woman who turns out to be none other than the real Yamauba, herself.^[12]

Kintarō (金太郎^?, often translated as "Golden Boy") is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a mountain hag on Mount Ashigara.