Yuki-onna, the Snow Woman

The myth

Yuki-onna, the "snow woman", is the spirit of blizzards in Japan's mountains. Pale, black-haired and dressed in white, she appears in storms and can kill travelers with her icy breath. In the version told by Lafcadio Hearn in Kwaidan, she kills the old woodcutter Mosaku in a hut but spares young Minokichi, on condition that he never tell what he saw. Years later he marries the lovely O-Yuki and has children. One night he tells his wife the story; she reveals she is the snow woman and, for the children's sake, spares him again, vanishing like mist.

Why it has this power

A Rare level-6 Water Spirit with 2250 ATK and 2000 DEF: one of the strongest spirits without fusion. The element is Water because snow is frozen water; Moon is the white night of the blizzard, and Fox, the woman who hides her nature. Under the Obon Lantern Festival she reaches 2750.

Did you know

Hearn says in the preface to Kwaidan that he heard the story from a farmer of Chōfu, in old Musashi province near Tokyo.

Connections

• In Kaguya, Guardian of the Torii's deck

Where to get it

• Campaign drop: Kaguya, Guardian of the Torii (Archipelago of the Kami) — grade S: 19% · grade A: 19% · grade B: 19% · grade C: 19% · grade D: 16%
• Campaign drop: Kaelmyr, Devourer of Pantheons (The Void Between Mythologies) — grade C: 17%
• Daily Offering: 0.11% per pack (Rare 2.8% per card)
• Traveler's Pack: 0.69% per pack · 3.6% in the themed pack (Rare 7% per card)
• Bronze Reliquary: 0.78% per pack · 4% in the themed pack (Rare 8% per card)
• Silver Reliquary: 1.3% per pack · 6.7% in the themed pack (Rare 15% per card)
• Golden Reliquary: 2% per pack · 10% in the themed pack (Rare 25% per card)
• Daily Showcase: Shows up on about 1.5% of days · 400 gems
• Craft with card dust: 600 dust
• Crossing of Myths: Can be offered as a reward during a crossing (the card stays in the crossing deck).

Sources

1. Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (Project Gutenberg) — Lafcadio Hearn
2. Myths & Legends of Japan (Project Gutenberg) — F. Hadland Davis