The Futakuchi-onna is a Japanese yokai with two functional mouths, often the result of a curse. The second mouth needs to be fed and may grow into tentacles. Women become Futakuchi-onna for various reasons, including mistreating stepchildren or having miserly husbands. In one famous story, a man discovers his wife’s second mouth when he spies on her and sees her hair stuffing rice into it.
A Futakuchi-onna is a legendary Japanese monster, or yokai. The name Futakuchi-onna means “woman with two mouths,” and as the name suggests, this type of monster has two functional mouths. The second mouth is at the back of its head. Futakuchi-onna appear throughout Japanese folklore, where the second mouth is usually the result of a curse or some other supernatural cause. In this type of story, the woman’s true nature is often hidden for much of the story before finally being revealed.
A Futakuchi-onna’s second mouth has to eat, often much more than a normal mouth. If not fed, he may start mumbling and threaten the woman, and he may feel pain and start screaming. This monster’s hair is sometimes said to grow into tentacles, scooping the woman’s food from her plate and feeding the second mouth.
In many stories, a woman becomes a Futakuchi-onna after starving her stepson; in such cases, the dead child’s spirit enacts the curse and may also reside in the woman’s body. In other tales, these women are the wives of misers and are cursed because of their husbands’ avarice. In one story, a woman becomes a Futakuchi-onna after her husband strikes the back of her neck with an axe. Instead of healing, the wound becomes a second mouth that needs to be fed.
One of Futakuchi-onna’s most famous stories tells of a man who chose his bride because she never ate anything. As a miser, he couldn’t bear the thought of having to feed another person, so the fact that his wife never ate was a great attraction to him. He soon noticed, however, that his rice reserves were mysteriously running out. When one day he spied on his wife to see what was going on, he discovered that she was a Futakuchi-onna. She saw a gaping mouth at the back of her head, and when she let her hair down, her hair stuffed huge amounts of rice into her second mouth.
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