Kuchisake-Onna

Yaay, I finally got to do a picture of kuchisake-onna (slit-mouth woman) from Japanese mythology.

According to the legend, she lived centuries ago and was very beautiful. Once her husband/lover/whatsoever got angry at her for God-knows-what and slit her mouth from ear to ear. Now she wanders through the streets on foggy nights, wearing a surgical mask, stopping random children and students, asking if she's beautiful. If they say yes, she takes the mask off and asks again. Whether they say Yes or No, she runs after them, clutching a blade, and if she gets them she'll either mutilate them in the same way she is or downright kill them. They say the trick is telling her something like 'you look normal'.

Nevertheless I always felt sorry for her. I have a knack of feeling sorry for all the Japanese female ghosts. Like that samurai got probably angry because of some stupidity, or was drunk. And now that poor ojou-sama has to roam places and kill people, while it's actually that man's fault.

But perhaps that's just me.