雪女 · Yuki-onna
The Woman of the Snow
A vow is kept until it isn’t. The snow takes back what it spared.
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Synopsis · あらすじ
Yuki-onna (雪女) is a yōkai — sometimes counted a yūrei — of snow and blizzard. She appears across Japan under many regional names: a pale beauty who freezes travelers, a woman who begs for water, a moon princess, a snow vampire. Beauty and death share one face. There is no single canon.
This tape tells Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan tale, taken from a farmer of Chōfu in Musashi: old Mosaku and young Minokichi caught on the road home, the ferryman’s two-mat hut, the white woman who kills the old man with her breath and spares the boy for a vow of silence. A year later he marries O-Yuki. She never ages. He tells. She leaves the children and vanishes through the smoke-hole.
Japanese yōkai-theatrical metal as a soundtrack to that one night and the years after it.
Bands · バンド
* Names link to MusicBrainz.
Tracklist · トラックリスト
Runtime ≈ 54:12 (12 tracks )
Curator Notes · キュレーターノート
陰陽座 is the spine — 亥の子唄 opens below metal volume, 煙々羅 closes on sustain. Seven cuts, but the only three-in-a-row is the end run (lamp → reveal → vanish). The rest of the sit stays in yōkai-theatrical folk metal and what sits next to it: 人間椅子 for weight, 妖精帝國 for a different singer, 己龍 for short visual-kei statements, 和楽器バンド for the one timbre jump. Not a 雪女-title dump. Listen in order. If nothing clicks, the night isn’t yours.
Why these cuts
- 01 · 陰陽座 — 亥の子唄
Softest 陰陽座 studio cut that still belongs in the lane — folk hush, 3:05, almost a lullaby. Opens below metal volume so the next riff arrives as a gain change, not more of the same arrangement.
- 02 · 人間椅子 — 雪女
First high-gain of the sit. 人間椅子 doom-hard rock: thicker low end, slower gait than 亥の子唄. Title is bonus — the reason is the riff weight. Puts a body under the lullaby so the hour has a floor.
- 03 · 陰陽座 — 逢魔刻
Back to 陰陽座, but 6:21 theatrical — more sections, dual vocals, mid-tempo march. After the blizzard grind we need enclosure and air, not another slow 人間椅子 riff. First long-form “band theater” cut.
- 04 · 妖精帝國 — 月下香
First non-陰陽座 / non-人間椅子 color. Gothic metal, different singer, 4:58. 逢魔刻 left a theatrical room; this puts a new voice in it so “she appears” is a timbre change, not another 陰陽座 verse.
- 05 · 陰陽座 — 氷の楔
6:04, slower and more sustain than 逢魔刻. After gothic sheen the death beat needs mass, not another beauty cut. 陰陽座 at full weight — cannot follow 月下香 with more sheen or there is no drop.
- 06 · 己龍 — 情ノ華
3:33 visual kei: tighter, hookier, shorter. 氷の楔 is too long to follow with another six-minute 陰陽座 dirge. Cuts runtime and pageantry — sharper twin-guitar, vow as a short statement.
- 07 · 陰陽座 — 挽歌
Elegy, 4:13, mid-tempo, no scream climax. After 情ノ華’s hook the sit needs a come-down, not another chorus. 陰陽座 again but as lament — lower energy than 氷の楔 so dawn is a drop, not a third peak.
- 08 · 和楽器バンド — 雪影ぼうし
3:38 folk-metal pop, wagakki colors, the sit’s only major-ish lift. Seven tracks of minor theatrical metal; this is the audible “years later” — tempo and timbre jump. Adjacent folk-metal, not a J-pop exit.
- 09 · 己龍 — 雪月花
己龍 again, 3:34, more ornamental than 情ノ華. After the wagakki lift the house has to feel slightly wrong: same guitar language as the vow, different cut. A return of that band, not more 和楽器バンド.
- 10 · 陰陽座 — 十六夜の雨
4:33, held mid-tempo, no scream. After two short visual-kei/folk cuts the sit needs length and unease without jumping to the reveal. Starts the only 陰陽座 three-in-a-row — lamp, then break, then dissolve.
- 11 · 陰陽座 — 邪魅の抱擁
3:53, tighter and more aggressive vocal than 十六夜の雨. The break after the held mid. Reveal as an attack change, not a ten-minute suite. Cannot close the sit — a punch needs a dissolve after it.
- 12 · 陰陽座 — 煙々羅
5:34 mid-tempo, longer than the reveal so the sit ends on sustain, not a hit. Same 夢幻泡影 family as 睡 (the Sanzu closer) but a different cut — smoke-form instead of lullaby. Bookend to 亥の子唄: folk hush in, sustain out.