Dear Diary, 

Sometimes Japanese yokai like Yamauba, or the mountain witch, just seem misunderstood. Yamauba is probably a sweet old woman deep down who just wants to take care of the children and live alone in the woods. What's so wrong with that? I mean, sure she might occasionally eat someone or lure lost travelers to their deaths, but after living alone for so long, maybe she just needs a friend. 

The origins of Yamauba are a tale as old as time: exile. These spirits were once women who were either exiled from society for committing crimes, or fleeing that society for “wicked deeds.” I would love to know what some of those deeds were, but I’d have to ask the mountain witch. Anyway, after living off the grid for so long, these women became corrupted and turned into Yamauba spirits that continue to haunt the mountains. She appears as a small, old woman with long white hair and a dirty kimono. She can shapeshift too, into a more aesthetically pleasing woman shape, but once she has tricked you into her territory, she's back to her true mean, witch self. And we honestly love that for her, cannibalism and all. 

But here’s the thing, another origin story of the Yamauba has a different perspective. In times of hardship or famine, families in Japan would have to make a terrible choice to remove one, or sometimes more, people from the family so everyone else could have food and resources. So, you guessed it, they walked the poor old woman out to the middle of nowhere and left her alone to die. Little did they know she would gradually transform into a Yamauba to terrorize and eat tons of people. Not good, but they do have a softer side, Yamauba loves children and maybe she's not the ideal mom figure, but when a small child is in need she will choose to help despite children being notoriously delicious in these types of stories. 

So, the moral of the story is mostly to stay out of the woods, but also don't judge a book by its bloody, murderous cover. 

Xoxo, 

Maria