Japan: Kosodate Yurei

A while back I shared a traditional California ghost story entitled, Milk Bottles. The reader can find it here.

Kosodate
Yurei

The Japanese have shared this story for centuries. Even though the story of the Kosodate yurei is a very old ghost story several modern versions of it are still shared with children in Japan today.

Japanese ghosts are known as Yurei. These ghosts are both feared and honored. Most Yurei stories were originally shared during the Edo period (1603-1868).

Kosodate yurei means “child-raising” ghost. 

In the American version of this story the ghost of a frontier mother comes in search of “milk bottles” to keep her baby alive that was mistakenly buried with her.

In most modern Japanese versions of this story unlike the American one this mother brings her child with her.

Sweet Sake

Today Tsukiji is a popular fish market in Tokyo. At one time this area was also used for several temples and cemeteries.

Amazake--Sweet Sake

A dealer in this original market became curious when a woman approached his stall every night clutching her baby to her and purchased amazake--this is sweet sake given to children.

One night as he watched this woman give the sake to her baby he decided to follow her.

He watched her as she went into the main hall of one temple and then she simply vanished. Gathering his wits he then hears a baby’s cry and follows the sound to a nearby cemetery.

There he traces the crying to a freshly dug grave. He then unearths this grave. He finds in the coffin the mother’s corpse, in her arms she is still holding the baby tightly.

Similarities and Differences

This Japanese legend and the American one that evolved from it have several similarities but there are also several major differences.

Like mentioned above the Japanese version has the mother bring her baby with her--in the American one she leaves the child behind.

In the Japanese version the Kosodate is in search of sharing the “pleasures” of life with her child--in this version sweet sake--in other Japanese versions little toys, candy etc.

In contrast, the American version has the mother searching for nourishment for her child--in order to keep her baby alive.

Another difference is in the Japanese version the mother appears to want to keep her baby with her *--whereas in the American version she wants someone to find and then rescue her baby.

* This makes this version scarier in my eyes.

The Story of Monchikae Onna

The Japanese legend of the Kosodate yurei originated from a Chinese story that can be traced back to the late 1100s.

The story of Monchikae Onna is about a woman who buys rice-cakes.

In this tragic legend a woman who is pregnant dies and then is buried. Soon afterwards a rice-cake dealer begins to see a strange woman carrying a baby come to his stall.

Rice cakes

She feeds the rice-cakes she buys to her baby.

The dealer wonders about this odd woman who buys his cakes regularly so one night he carefully ties a red string to the woman without her notice.

When she leaves he follows this string. It leads him to a grave hidden among some bushes.

He alerts the still grieving relatives of the woman and they dig up her grave. They find she had given birth posthumously in her coffin.

They take the child to raise as their own and then they cremate the mother’s body.

Again, in this version the yurei appears to want to keep the baby but because of the rice-cake seller’s intervention the child is saved.

Ghost Story: Milk Bottles

This is a ghost story that I told many of my adult students over the years. It is a traditional American folktale.* 

The story of Milk Bottles always takes place in a small western town; the time frame it is placed within is either frontier or depression era. 

An older man owned the town’s general store. Times were tough so his customers were few and far between. 

One day he became curious when a young woman entered his store holding two empty milk bottles. He knew everyone in the town and the surrounding area. He had never seen this woman.

She approached his counter and placed the two empty milk bottles down silently. He reached back and took two full ones off the shelf and placed them next to the empty ones. She picked them up and left his store, with barely a nod of acknowledgment.

The next day she entered his store once more. Again she placed two empty milk bottles upon his counter, with two pennies. Times being tough, he didn’t point out to her that this was not enough money, instead, he placed two full bottles on the counter. 

As he watched her leave the store his curiosity peaked.

That afternoon he inquired of various townsfolk if they knew who she was. To his surprise, no one else had seen or heard of her. 

His neighbor that evening speculated that maybe she was the daughter of one of the travelers camped by the river north of the town. 

She cautioned that most of the townspeople had stayed away from the camp because it had been plagued by illness and several of its members had not survived. But she had heard the surviving members of the group had moved on recently.

The following morning the same young woman entered his store holding empty milk bottles. He replaced them with filled ones and tried to engage the woman in conversation. But she silently nodded and left the store. 

This time the man followed her. He watched as she walked down the main street, and then left town heading north toward the river.

He followed her along the river and into the town’s makeshift graveyard. Surprised, he spotted her disappear near a large wooden cross. 

He approached the grave to see where she might have gone. As he stood near the fresh mound he heard a baby’s cry. Concerned he realized the wail was coming from below where he was standing. Without hesitation, he started digging. 

He opened the wooden lid of a coffin and discovered the young woman dead and holding a baby who was obviously still alive. The two milk bottles were placed near her side.

For years afterward the town told the story of how the young ghost mother whose baby had been wrongfully buried, had kept her child alive until help arrived.

* Even though my version of this tale is from a traditional African American folktale, told in America from the mid to late 1800s on. 
The original version of this tale was first passed from one generation to the next in Northern Europe. It is a prime example of how folklore moves from country to country. 

Versions of the basic story of "a dead mother who returns" have been told in Germany, France, Scandinavia, and Lithuania--just to name a few. 

As with all folktales, this story is often recreated to fit the culture it is told within. Even in America, it changes from region to region.

This story originated in China in the 1100s, and then was shared in Japan--where it is still told today.

Read my newer post about the Kosodate yurei here.