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“Takaonna” (高女) from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien

Takaonna (高女, “tall woman”) was a Japanese yōkai that appeared in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien.

Concept

The Gazu (illustrated reference) above depicts a woman with an elongated lower body next to what appears to be a brothel. However, the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō has no explanatory text, so it is unclear what kind of yōkai this depiction was intended to be.[1] Some believe that this yōkai was an original invention designed to parody the Yoshiwara Yūkaku of the Edo period.[2]

The book Yōkaigadan Zenshū Nihonhen Jō (妖怪画談全集 日本編 上, “Complete Analysis of Yōkai Paintings, Volume Japan, First Part”) by the folklorist Morihiko Fujisawa explains that in a story from the Wakayama Prefecture called Takanyōbō (高女房, “Tall Woman”), a Takaonna would frighten people on the second floors of girō (brothels).[1]

The book Tōhoku Kaidan no Tabi (Travels for Mysterious Tales of Tōhoku) by the novelist Norio Yamada, the kaidan (mysterious tale) titled “Takaonna” depicts the Takaonna as a homely woman who could never be with a man when she was alive. Transformed into a yōkai from her own desire, she wanders the earth, elongating her body to peek into the second floor of brothels to look at what she could never have.[3]

These two depictions of the Takaonna became generally accepted in post-war literature,[4] but yōkai researcher Kenji Murakami notes that Fujisawa’s explanation is nothing more than one interpretation of Sekien’s painting and that Yamada’s kaidan is a completely different tale that shares the name of Takaonna.[1]

Incident

In 2016, August 2, staff at the Hidakakōshioya Ryokuchi Park in Gobō, Wakayama Prefecture discovered that a stone statue of a Takaonna had been severed at its base.[5] This Takaonna statue was based on Mizuki Shigeru‘s design and has been displayed alongside 9 other yōkai statues since 2009. On the 10th of the same month, the torso of the Takaonna statue was discovered at the bottom of the harbor (at a depth of 4.5 meters) and was raised back up; its right hand was broken.[6] On September 16 at around 5:00 AM, the Gobō police station pressed charges against a male high school student for inflicting property damage after kicking the Takaonna statue (which has an estimated worth of 120 thousand yen).[7] This incident boosted the popularity of the Takaonna legend.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c 村上健司編著 (2000). 妖怪事典. 毎日新聞社. p. 208. ISBN 978-4-620-31428-0.
  2. ^ 多田克己 (2006). 百鬼解読. 講談社文庫. 講談社. p. 20. ISBN 978-4-06-275484-2.
  3. ^ 山田野理夫 (1974). 東北怪談の旅. 自由国民社. p. 172. NCID BA42139725.
  4. ^ 多田克己 (1990). 幻想世界の住人たち. Truth In Fantasy. Vol. IV. 新紀元社. p. 268. ISBN 978-4-915146-44-2.
  5. ^ “妖怪「高女」の石像、公園から盗難 水木さんデザイン：朝日新聞デジタル”. Archived from the original on 2016-10-30. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  6. ^ “盗難の妖怪「高女」石像、海底で発見 水木さんデザイン：朝日新聞デジタル”. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  7. ^ “水木しげるさんデザインの妖怪「高女」像損壊の疑い、高校生を書類送検 和歌山県警”. Archived from the original on 2017-03-02. Retrieved 2017-07-07.