This is a Japanese ghost [yo-kai].
The Ao nyobo is the ghost of a woman who lurks in abandoned imperial palaces, or empty homes of ruined families and fallen nobles.
The Ao nyobo was once a wealthy woman, but now a ruined, ogreish spirit of poverty and misfortune.
She takes the appearance of an ancient court noblewoman. Her body is draped in the elaborate many-layered kimonos of older eras, though they are now tattered and moth-ridden. She wears the white face of ancient courtiers, with high painted eyebrows and blackened teeth. Her body is aged and wrinkled from years of waiting in musty old ruins, and her beauty has long left her.
They wait in the house, constantly applying their makeup, fixing their hair, and adjusting their image in anticipation for the arrival of some guest who never shows up –perhaps a lover who has lost interest, or a husband who has abandoned his wife.
If any guest would show up to the house, she will devour them whole, then will go back to waiting vainly and patiently for another guest to come.
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Urban Legends, Vol. 1: Japanese Urban Legends
Kısa HikayeA collection of urban legends. Stories are not mine.
