The setting of “Yuki-onna” was in Ome. Koizumi Yakumo's (Lafcadio Hearn's) ghost story “Yuki-Onna” was set here. This is written in its preface. This strange story, “Yuki-Onna,” was told to me by a farmer of Chofu Village, Nishitama District, Musashi Province, as an old legend of his native place. The area around Chofu Bridge was also one of the story's settings. Apparently there used to be a ferry crossing on the Tama River below the bridge. A monument stands at the foot of Chofu Bridge. It bears the inscription “Site Associated with Yuki-onna,” along with a portrait of Koizumi Yakumo and the preface carved in English and Japanese. The characters “Site Associated with Yuki-onna” were brushed by Toki Koizumi, Koizumi Yakumo's grandson. When I thought of Yuki-onna, I imagined places with deep snow like the Tohoku region, but the setting was actually the Tama area of Tokyo. The ghost story “Yuki-onna” is a scary tale, but rereading Koizumi Yakumo's “Yuki-Onna” carefully, I felt it conveys human kindness and weakness, and above all the beauty and terror of snow. In the shopping street in front of Ome Station there's the Showa Retro Products Museum, whose 2nd floor is the Yuki-onna House, displaying materials showing the connection between Ome and Yuki-onna.

The district where the father and son who passed the Yuki-onna tale to Koizumi Yakumo lived🧜‍♀️” “2024 marks the 120th anniversary of Kwaidan👻” Of all the Yuki-onna legends found across Japan, the most famous is the Yuki-onna of “Kwaidan”🧜‍♀️. This park marks the location of the Chofu district, home of the father and son who passed the Yuki-onna legend on to Yakumo when he was writing it. It also hints at the location of the river and ferry boat that appear in the story. That's why it's considered the place associated with, and the birthplace of, Yuki-onna. Yuki-onna didn't actually exist; apparently, because temperatures in the area used to drop as low as Hokkaido's, the Yuki-onna legend was passed down as social education in crisis management⚠️. Koizumi Yakumo is introduced on the stone monument in the park, but that's all; there's nothing in particular that evokes Yuki-onna. On the other hand, the sign about Chofu Bridge explains that a wooden and steel suspension bridge, huge and rare for the Taisho era, once spanned here, so if anything the bridge is presented as the more interesting part👀. 【Parking】None 【Toilets】None #letsguide #聖地巡礼 #ばけばけ

This is the birthplace of Koizumi Yakumo's Yuki-onna I heard there used to be a ski resort nearby, so it must have snowed heavily in winter The story changes depending on the region and era, so it's interesting to look into the different versions. And please, no smart remarks like “if Yuki-onna had been someone like Wa◯ A◯ko, there wouldn't have been a story

November 30, 2018: Koizumi Yakumo, walk April 16, 2019 (11:28–11:32): walk (2 hours 27 minutes)

Koizumi Yakumo's story “Yuki-onna” is said to be based on a tale long handed down here in Ome. In the story, Minokichi meets Yuki-onna on a snowy, stormy night, and that place is said to be here at Chofu Bridge (the Chigase ferry crossing). I think that in the Edo period there really was an incident in which two woodcutters, an old man and a young man, were caught in a sudden blizzard on their way home from work in the mountains, desperately searched for the Tama River ferry hut to spend the night, and the frail old man froze to death while the young man survived, and it was embellished and passed down as a legend.