• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Store
  • Lore
    • Supernatural Encyclopedia
  • Movies
    • Best Horror Movies
    • Great Horror Movie Quotes
    • Horror Movies Based on True Events
    • Cosmic Horror Movies
  • Horror Books
    • Best Horror Books
    • Best Horror Comics
    • Cosmic Horror Books
  • Scary Stories
    • Short Horror Stories
    • Best Horror Podcasts
  • About Us
    • Article Submissions
    • Promote Your Horror
    • Collaborate
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Haunting Photos
Puzzle Box Horror Logo

Puzzle Box Horror

Mystery - Horror - Culture

" A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ub Un

Ubume

March 23, 2020 by Mary Farnstrom Leave a Comment

Ubume cradling her dead child
Artwork by Toriyama Sekien

Date of Discovery

Found as far back as the Heian-period Tales of Times Now Past, the first known date of her being described was during the Edo period, in 1687. Through the illustrations in the picture scrolls of the Hyakkai-zukan and the Bakemono zukushi within Toriyama Sekien’s catalog, Ubume’s image as a yokai became permanent.

Name

The Ubume is also known as the Birthing Woman. She has many different names across the many regions of Japan–in the Shiga Prefecture, she is known as the Ubume-tori and on Sado Island in the Niigata Prefecture, she is known as the Ubu–other names include Obo, Unme, Ugume, and Ubame tori.

In modern times, the standard kanji characters used to name her literally define how she died, 産女, which translates to “birthing woman.”

Since death during childbirth was such a common experience before modern medicine, it’s possible that the Ubume is related to a similar yokai, known as the kosodate-yurei, which translates to “child-rearing ghost.”

Physical Description

Advertisements

The Ubume can appear in many different forms, many of the most popular renditions are when she appears as a woman carrying a baby, a pregnant woman, or a blood-soaked walking corpse carrying an underdeveloped fetus. At times her apparition can be described as a bloody pregnant woman who cries out into the night in desperate need for help; all of these variations are because of the different burial traditions in the different regions from which the story originates, as well as the circumstances under which the woman and her child died. Within the traditions of burying a woman who died while trying to birth a stillborn fetus, she would either be buried with the baby within her womb, or they would cut the child out of her and cradle the fetus in her arms for burial.

Suuhi Ubume, cradling her dead child
Artwork by Sawaki Sūshi

Origin

The origin of the Ubume is the result of a woman who dies just before, during, or shortly after childbirth, where the spirit experiences crippling anxiety about the safety of her child after passing. Due to this unresolved issue, her ghost manifests as the Ubume and her spirit will typically appear later on during dark and rainy nights.

The Ubume embodies the serious health concerns about pregnancy and safely delivering a child. She represents the self-sacrificing spirit of motherhood. Several Buddhist temples in Japan, are actually associated with the Ubume, motherhood, as well as the act of childbirth itself.

Mythology and Lore

According to The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore by Michael Dylan Foster, the Ubume is found in various different forms throughout the country of Japan and resides in a collection of ghost stories, religious texts, and other documents. The details of her stories vary from place to place, but she is commonly thought of as the apparition of a woman who died during childbirth.

In one version of the tale, she will appear at crossroads or upon a bridge as twilight falls upon the region, with her lower body completely soaked in blood, she appears to be crying and cradling an infant in her arms. If a male passes her by, she asks him to hold the baby, and then promptly leaves. In this version, the baby continuously grows heavier in the man’s arms until he cannot move or risk dropping the child–in alternatives of this particular tale, the baby actually turns into a stone.

Although it’s never clear what happens to the baby or the woman, there are always different outcomes to each narrative depending upon the region from which the tale originates. One in particular ends with the man being rewarded for his effort with the gift of physical strength, which he is able to pass on to his descendants in the years to come.

In many other parts of Japan, there is a legend of a mysterious woman who comes night after night to buy candy from a corner store. One night, after the shopkeeper has grown suspicious of her, he follows her and finds that she disappears into a graveyard. As soon as she disappears, he hears a baby crying and stumbles upon a grave that has been dug up, where a woman who had died during childbirth had recently been buried. The strangest thing happens when he finds this grave, he finds her baby, healthy and alive laying by the side of the freshly decomposing corpse of its mother. The shopkeeper takes the child in, and in many legends, the baby grows up to become a prominent Buddhist monk.

Within the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: A Field Guide to Japanese Yokai, the author Matthew Meyer discusses how these tragic spirits wander the areas near where they passed away, where the baby survives, and her attempts to care for the child that she left behind. In some cases, she even attempts to purchase food, clothes, or candy for her surviving child, but in place of money, she tries to purchase it with handfuls of dead leaves. This particular Ubume is also known to try to lead someone to where her baby is hidden so it can be cared for by the living.

Modern Pop-Culture References

The Ubume became a well-known fictional character within popular Japanese culture, by means of Kabuki dramas, where she was the basis for the ghost of Oiwa-san, a vengeful spirit who returns from the dead to haunt her cruel and cheating husband within the play Tokaido-Yotsuya Kaidan from 1825. Surprisingly, this doesn’t sound all too unfamiliar with ghost stories such as the one of La Llorona.



Is there anything we missed about the Ubume? Let us know in the comments section below!

Related Entries

  • Hanako-san

Related

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: birthing woman, japan, obo, ubame tori, ubu, ubume, ubume-tori, ugume, unme

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Horror Newsletter

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Atlas of Lore Issue 1 Now Available

Advertisements
Atlas of Lore Oregon Cover Small

Sponsored

Encyclopedia of Supernatural Horror

    Cryptids Ghosts and Hauntings Demons

More to See

Lycanthropy wood carving from 1500's

What is Lycanthropy and Where Did It Come From?

February 6, 2021 By Carly Kazempoor

blank

Remembering the iconic Friday the 13th series

February 5, 2021 By Carly Kazempoor

World War Z Movie Poster

The Best Movies About the End of the World

February 5, 2021 By Carly Kazempoor

Point Pinos Haunted Loighthouse

California’s Haunted Lighthouses

January 29, 2021 By Carly Kazempoor

Footer

Links

Terms and Conditions
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy
DMCA
Great Horror Quotes

Search

Recent

  • Puzzle Box Horror’s Best of Sci-Fi Horror Books
  • Infernal
  • Slasher App Supporting Horror Creators
  • Book Review: The Burning Girls Explores the Horror and Hope of Religious Faith
  • The History of Sci-Fi Horror from Books to Film

Encyclopedia of Supernatural Horror Recent Entries

  • Qalupalik
  • Adlet Northern Monster
  • Jenny – Ghost Ship and its Frozen Crew
  • History of the Werewolf from 1500 to Modern-Day
  • Krampus
  • Bayview Cemetery, Bellingham WA

Copyright Puzzle Box Horror © 2021 · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non Necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

Save & Accept