Yuki-Onna, the Snow Woman Yokai

As part of Puerto Rico Fashion Week, Armando Pereira brought together six of his favorite artists, myself included, to bring the “Yokai Gallery” to life. The exhibition offered a unique experience that fused art and fashion through a collaboration among local artists.

Other artists in the collaboration: @miguelfeba, @nelsonselek, @albertofernz, @medinariarts, and @sweet_ambition10.

Our assignment was to choose a yōkai from Japanese folklore and make our own depiction on a canvas kimono. I chose Yuki Onna, the Snow Woman.

As the story goes, a young woodcutter, Minokichi, and his older companion sought shelter during a fierce snowstorm. That night, a woman in white entered the hut and killed the older man with her icy breath, but spared Minokichi on one condition: if he ever spoke of her, she would return and kill him. The following winter, he met a pale young woman named Oyuki traveling alone to Edo. They journeyed together, fell in love, married, and eventually had ten children. Years later, Minokichi told her about the mysterious woman who had spared his life during a snowstorm. Oyuki revealed that she was the woman in white he spoke of and, though his broken promise condemned him to death, she spared him for the sake of their children. Other versions do end in his death, and this is one of them.