Taka onna – 高女 – [Yokai]

Description

TakaOnna – [Yokai/Yurei] – 高女 – “The Tall (or ‘High’) Woman.”

•About this yokai: The ghost of an ugly peeping tom that can extend her height to peek in through windows.. Frequently appears in “yūkaku” (Red light/Pleasure Districts.) & peeks inside at people enjoying themselves the second floor of brothels. A pleasure which she never knew in life… At least… that’s the popular description that most Bestiary Authors gave her in the 1900’s (And it’s stuck to most bestiaries & descriptions today.)

• History: This yokai made its earliest appearance in Gazu Hyakki Yagyo by Toriyama Sekien, 1776.] – the entry only contains a picture and her name, no legend or written commentary is included –but She does have blackened teeth (Ohaguro) so if she was at a brothel, we know she’s was, at the very least, “High-Class” – Get it? It’s a pun.

The rest of her ‘legend’ was invented by various bestiary authors in the 1960s-2000s, in Tōhoku Kaidan no Tabi (Travels for Mysterious Tales of Tōhoku) by the novelist Norio Yamada, the 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! this legend was quoted by shigeru mizuki in his yokai encycolpedias, and the rest is history!

• Similar yokai:  kera kera onna, Ohaguro bettari. – An especially recent modern interpretation or urban legend about a ghost similar to this yokai is “Hachishaku-sama”.

Sticker Art by @Samkalensky (yo thats me!) – Part of my Night Parade of 100 Demons – Yokai & Japanese folklore sticker collection, weather-resistant 8″ Glossy sticker. (by default this is my tallest sticker available so far haha, she also makes a great bookmark.) – Check my shop & follow @samkalensky for many more!