Have you ever had one of those dreams where everyone you know — your friends, your family, your coworkers — and even strangers are mocking you, laughing and laughing, and all you can feel is shame? Or maybe you are afraid of scary clowns, messing with your minds as their cackles and giggles echo in your mind? Well then today’s yokai is for you.

Kerakera-onna

Imagine you are walking down a street, late at night. Perhaps going home after a long day of work, tired, anxious to get out of the cold air and into your warm home for some dinner. You turn down an alley, the fastest way home even if a little creepy. Suddenly, you think you see something out of the corner of your eye. You turn… but nothing is there. Then you turn back, laughing at your silliness, when suddenly your laughter is echoed back at you. A giggle at first, then quickly growing into a high pitched, resonating cackle that fills the whole sky and your whole head, ringing in your ears. You panic, looking all around you, until you see the source: looming huge in the air ahead of you is the giant ghost of a middle-aged woman, thick and heavy makeup slathered on her face, pointing and laughing right at you.

You turn and run, panicked, but she is too big to get away from. Everywhere you go, she is there, laughing and laughing at you. You run into an open area with lots of people, and they don’t see her or hear her at all! But you do! She is always right there, behind you, cackling like a witch onto the back of your neck!

First introduced by yokai painter Toriyama Sekien, this yokai was one of the most popular ones on the Edo period. She is not deadly, or even physically dangerous, but she has a deeper, psychological effect that may end up doing more damage than your regular slash-em-up yokai. Her name comes from the sound of cackling, “kerakera,” in Japanese. She is the ghost of a prostitute — according to Sekien, one who has been *ahem* well-employed by many men. She appears as a middle aged, very large woman, wearing garish makeup. And even though all she does is laugh at you, it is supposedly enough to make the weak-hearted faint where they stand.

Kerakera-onna

Remember, you can buy high-quality fine art prints of this series from osarusan.etsy.com, or by sending me an email using the contact form on this site!