Tsurara-onna, or the “Icicle Woman,” is a Japanese folktale about an icicle that transforms into a beautiful woman. In the most common version of the story, a lonely man admires the beauty of the icicles hanging from his roof and wishes for a wife as beautiful as they are. Soon afterward, a beautiful woman appears and becomes his wife. However, she is mysteriously reluctant to bathe. When the man or his hosts eventually persuade her to enter a hot bath, she disappears, and only pieces of melted ice remain, revealing that she was actually an icicle in human form.

Variations of the tale are found throughout northern Japan, particularly in the Tōhoku region, where the spirit is sometimes called shigama-nyōbō or tsurara-nyōbō. Other versions tell of the woman vanishing when spring arrives, only to return the following winter.

In some darker endings, she becomes enraged when the man remarries after her disappearance and kills him by transforming into a deadly icicle. Similar legends from Niigata and Yamagata Prefectures feature icicle women who melt when exposed to heat or use icicles as instruments of revenge.

Because of its winter setting and supernatural female protagonist, Tsurara-onna is often confused with the yuki-onna (snow woman), though the two are distinct figures in Japanese folklore.

All published appearances of Tsurara-onna from before January 1, )-(95)}} are public domain in the US.

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurara-onna Wikipedia]
*[https://myths-in-media.fandom.com/wiki/Tsurara_onna Myths in Media Wiki]
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