Yamauba in Folklore, Media and on the Stage
Noriko Reider, Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages, Miami University
Time and Place
Thursday, Feb. 15, 20074:30—5:30 p.m.
Mendenhall Lab, Room 185
125 South Oval Mall
Summary of Talk:
The nature of yamauba and a transformation of yamauba’s image over time will be discussed through the examination of folktales, Noh and Kabuki texts, and film. Literally, yamauba means an old woman who lives in the mountains, an appellation indicating a creature living on the periphery of society. The medieval Japanese literature equates a yamauba to a female oni (ogre/demon), sometimes devouring humans who unwittingly cross her path. She is, however, not entirely negative or harmful. She is also credited with some nurturing aspects, though these attributes are not always at the forefront of her character. Indeed, the emphasis on attributes imparted to the yamauba character significantly change over time. A portrayal of yamauba in the medieval period is predominantly a witch-like white-haired hag, but by the end of the seventeenth century, yamauba came to be considered the mother of Kintaro, a legendary child with Herculean strength raised in Mt. Ashigara. By the eighteenth century, with a help of favorable depictions of yamauba in the puppet and Kabuki plays, she is portrayed by ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artists as an alluring, beautiful woman doting upon her son. Yamauba regularly appears in the contemporary films as well. The lecture concludes that yamauba is still a familiar figure in present Japanese society, and remains identified as a character of the disenfranchised "other."
Co-sponsored by: The Institute for Japanese Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and East Asian Studies Center.
This lecture is sponsored in part by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
This lecture is sponsored in part by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
