Yamauba: the desirable other

(…) the hieroglyphic, like the woman, harbours a mystery, an inaccessible though desirable otherness.  

I would like to appropriate this quote to a certain image, namely a Japanese woodblock print, or ukiyo-e (which literally means “floating world”) in Japanese. The print you see here depicts a yamauba, a creature common in Japanese folklore, whose name can mean something like “old mountain woman”. Despite her name, the yamauba appears in this print, called “Yamauba and Kintaro, shaving hair” (yamauba to kintaro kamisori) which was made during the Edo period (1603 – 1868 AD), as a young and rather attractive woman, who is cutting the hair of her son Kintaro (who is a demon like his mother, hence his red skin). While the image appears to represent at first an innocent familial scene, when you look closer, you will notice that the breasts of the yamauba are quite visible. Not only that, her long, black, unkempt hair stands out as well. Through the unconcealed breasts and hair, the yamauba is portrayed as a sensual and desirable figure and exactly because of her idealization, she contains a certain “otherness”. Thus, the beautiful and sensualized yamauba in this print is the subject of the gaze by (presumably) men and by peeking at the breasts of the yamauba, the image has a tendency to invite voyeurism.