The Jorōgumo is thought to be one of many different kinds of yōkai, a term that can be applied to a
very wide variety of monsters,
ghouls, goblins, demons, and spirits that are found in the folklore and
mythology of Japan. According to Japanese legend, the Jorōgumo is a golden
orb-weaver that has survived long enough to reach four hundred years of age. At
this point, the spider gains supernatural powers, human intelligence, grows to huge proportions, and becomes hungry
enough to view humans as food. Attaining great age and gaining magical powers
as a result is a common theme in yōkai
lore, and the Jorōgumo is only one example. According to legend, the
spider-woman is believed to nest in dense forests, dark caves, or abandoned houses
in busy towns (Meyer 42). These places give her the seclusion she needs, while
still giving her access to her preferred prey. The name jorōgumo itself can have a couple of different meanings, which depends
on how the kanji is written. It was
originally written as “女郎蜘蛛”, which means
“whore spider”. However, those characters were modified and added to fairly
recently to read as “絡新婦”, which changes
the meaning to “entangling bride”. This was done to take away the sexual connotations and make it sound more appropriate.
But in spite of those sexual connotations, the original name gives a very accurate
description of the creature’s modus
operandi.
Pinning
down exactly what the Jorōgumo looks like is a difficult task, since she is
both a shapeshifter and a deceiver.
While in her natural form, she has a fairly large body, a large legspan, and
her body is covered in bright, beautiful colors. However, the Whore Spider
prefers to spend most of her time in the form of a gorgeous young woman (Meyer
42). But she can still manifest some spiderlike traits in her human form, such
as fangs (or fanged mandibles), clawed fingers, and multiple long legs
extending from her back. She may also exhibit such traits when she attacks her
prey or when provoked into defending herself. It might not be out of the
question for the Jorōgumo to transform herself into a gigantic, monstrous
variation of her natural form if she becomes angry enough.
The
Jorōgumo is said to be both cunning and intelligent, a patient predator that is
as skilled in the ways of deception as she is in seduction. She leads a
solitary and reclusive life, staying well away from others of her kind both
before and after her transformation
into a yōkai (Meyer 42). In her
natural form, she feeds on insects and small birds. But in human form, however,
the Whore Spider seeks out young men as her prey. When she has spotted a man
that she wants, she invites him back to her place with promises of good food,
drinks, and a night of passionate lovemaking. Once the man has arrived at her
home, she quickly immobilizes him with her webbing and then incapacitates him
with her venomous bite. The Jorōgumo’s venom is deadly, but it kills very slowly, presumably by liquefying
her victim’s insides. This allows the monster to savor her victim’s agony as he
grows weaker and weaker over a period of days, before finally dying in
excruciating pain (Meyer 42). Afterwards, the Jorōgumo begins to feed on the
corpse, sucking out the now-liquefied organs and the tissues through her hollow
fangs, much like her lesser kin would do.
In some
stories (which seem to date back to the Edo Period), the Jorōgumo is portrayed
in much the same way as the description above states. She uses her beauty and
her other feminine attributes (i.e. her cleavage and her luscious legs) to
entice the man that she desires into an abandoned, secluded shack. Once he has
entered the shack, she begins to play the biwa
(a type of Japanese lute). The Jorōgumo is very skilled in the use of this
instrument, although nobody knows for sure exactly where those skills came from. This
either lulls the man to sleep or causes him to completely lower his guard. The
Jorōgumo then seizes the opportunity to bind the man from head to toe in her webbing, while toying with the notion of saving him for
later. She may also appear to a young man as a young woman with a baby in her
arms (which most often turns out to be the spider-woman’s eggsack), claiming
that the baby is his child (“Jorōgumo”,
Wikipedia). The monster must’ve learned this trick from human women, since it never fails to shock any man and throws
him completely off his guard. This
leaves her victim completely vulnerable to attack, and she then commences with her attack.
Alternatively,
the Jorōgumo may take the appealing form of a beautiful woman in order to ask a
samurai to marry her (“Jorōgumo”, Wikipedia). It would not be unreasonable for
the Jorōgumo to have sex with her prey before she kills him, just for the sheer
enjoyment of the act. Seduction is just one of many weapons in her arsenal, after all. And the amazing thing is
that the Whore Spider can maintain her charade for years, even right in the middle of a modern-day city or a town
(although a town might be more comfortable for her). And unbeknownst to the
people who walk by her house and interact with her on a daily basis, the bones
of her victims just continue to pile up inside and around her house (Meyer 42).
And the thing is, nobody actually suspects
her of such atrocities. Only the skulls of her victims bear any kind of testimony
to the horrors that she has committed, and death has forever silenced them.
The Jorōgumo
has a variety of supernatural powers at her command, which are the result of a
mere spider’s transformation into a yōkai.
As stated earlier, the Whore Spider is a shapeshifter that can take the form of
an exceedingly beautiful woman, a seemingly ordinary spider, a half woman, half
spider creature, and a huge spider-monster. She is possessed of unnatural
strength, speed, and agility, all of which are necessary while she’s hunting and
for self-defense. Furthermore, she retains her spider abilities in her human
form. She is able to adhere to and climb sheer surfaces (i.e. walls and
ceilings), which enables her to hide on shadowy ceilings and in trees. She has
the ability to spin webs that are incredibly strong and very sticky, which are
nigh-impossible to break, cut, or escape from (although fire may weaken the
sticky threads enough to break free from them). The Jorōgumo’s bite is deadly,
carrying a potent venom that incapacitates her prey and kills them very slowly over a period of days. She
is completely immune to all kinds of
poisons. In addition, she can project magical illusions and is able to control
her lesser kin and make them do anything
that she desires. This includes using Japanese fire-breathing spiders to burn down the houses of anyone who has
grown suspicious of her and her activities (Meyer 42).
Many
stories have been written and told of the Jorōgumo, and very few of them end well. One of the most
famous of these tales is that of the Jorōgumo of Jōren Falls, which takes place
in Izu, Shizuoka. One day, according to the legend, a man was relaxing at the
foot of the waterfall. Suddenly, his feet were seized by a great number of
sticky white threads! Thinking quickly, the man severed the threads and tied
them to a nearby tree stump. The stump was suddenly yanked out of the ground and was pulled into the water. Then the
man heard a voice, which said “How clever, how clever” (which is found in a
variant of the story from Kashikobuchi, Sendai). More than a little frightened,
the man quickly ran back home.
After
hearing about the incident at Jōren Falls, the villagers became frightened and
decided that it might be best if everyone just stayed away from the waterfall from that point on. One day, a
woodcutter from a neighboring village came to the woods around the waterfall to
ply his trade, completely unaware of the legend. The man began to cut down a
tree within the vicinity of the water, but then the axe slipped out of his
grip! It flew through the air, and finally landed in the deep pool at the base
of the waterfall. Panicking, the man dove in after his axe! He searched and
searched for as long as he could hold his breath, but he couldn’t find it
anywhere. The man dragged himself out of the pool, wondering what to do. What
good was a woodcutter without his axe?
As the
woodcutter started to turn away from the pool, a gorgeous woman appeared with
the axe in her hands. The woman approached the woodcutter and handed the axe to
him. In return, the mysterious woman told the man that he could never tell anyone about her (another common theme
in yōkai lore). Thankful, the
woodcutter promised that he would never
tell another soul about having seen her that day. With that, the beautiful
stranger disappeared.
Initially,
the woodcutter kept his promise. Soon after the encounter, however, the man
began to feel anxious about what he had seen that day. However, he still kept
it to himself, out of fear of what might happen if he didn’t. One day, the
woodcutter had become drunk on saké, loosening his tongue and weakening his inhibitions. He couldn’t take it
anymore, and the woodcutter finally broke down and told everyone that he was with all about his encounter with the gorgeous
stranger. Afterwards, the man felt greatly
relieved. A sense of lethargy overtook his mind and his body, and the
woodcutter fell into a deep sleep. He would never
reawaken (“Jorōgumo”, Wikipedia; LeBlond 2013).
In another version of the story, the woodcutter actually falls in love
with the mysterious beauty, and he began visiting the Jōren Falls every day so
that he could spend time with her. But as time went by, the woodcutter grew
weaker and weaker from each visit (the two were undoubtedly making love). A
monk from a nearby temple took notice of this, suspecting that the Jorōgumo had
ensnared the man, envenomating the woodcutter with her bite while they made
love. To be sure, the monk and the woodcutter went down to the falls together
to investigate. Once there, the monk pulled out a scroll inscribed with
Buddhist scriptures, and he began to read.
As the monk read his sūtra,
strands of webbing appeared from the pool and attempted to ensnare the
woodcutter! But the monk shouted his sūtras, and the silken threads
disappeared. The woodcutter now knew that the woman was a Jorōgumo (there’s
more than one of these creatures), but he still loved her. The woodcutter
turned to a Tengu (a powerful birdlike demon) for help. Although the Tengu was
the master of the mountain’s yōkai, the bird-demon forbade their love.
The woodcutter, however, couldn’t bear the thought of throwing away his
feelings for the Jorōgumo. While running back to the waterfall, he was caught
in the creature’s webbing and was pulled into the pool to be with his beloved
forever. The woodcutter was never seen again after that (“Jorōgumo”, Wikipedia;
LeBlond 2013).
Another story about the Jorōgumo can be found
in Richard Freeman’s exhaustive work, The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia
(CFZ Press, 2010). Once, a traveling samurai decided to spend the night at an
old shrine. He spread his bedding out on the floor, put his swords aside, and
laid himself down to sleep. Later that night, the samurai awoke with a start to
find a gorgeous woman with a baby in her arms. The mysterious beauty held out
the baby towards the warrior, and she insisted that he was the child’s
father. The samurai wasn’t even remotely convinced of the lady’s claims,
having never met or even seen her before. He suspected that she was some
sort of supernatural being that was trying to deceive him, and decided to wait
for an opportunity to strike. The woman began moving closer, still holding out
her baby. Suddenly, in the flash of a moment, the samurai drew his katana
and cut the woman! The woman gave out a shriek, and quickly scaled the wall and
hid herself amongst the shadows on the ceiling. Now wide awake, the samurai decided
to sit down and wait for dawn. Several hours later, as the sun began to shine,
the samurai looked up at the ceiling and saw the corpse of a gigantic spider, lying
dead in its own web. The monster was surrounded by the desiccated corpses of
its previous victims. On the floor lay a small stone idol, which had been
disguised as a baby by the spider-woman’s power of illusion. If the samurai had
struck the idol, it would’ve shattered his sword. Needless to say, the samurai
left the shrine in a hurry (Freeman 140).
As dangerous as she is, the Jorōgumo has a
couple of weaknesses. No matter what form she takes, a mirror (or any other reflective
surface) will reveal her true form: a monstrous spider. Once her true
nature is known, the Jorōgumo will most likely attack in order to keep her true
identity a secret. It’s probably best to make a hasty retreat at this point,
unless one is armed and thus prepared for this sort of situation. She may also
be vulnerable to Buddhist scriptures and sūtras, as seen in the previous
story. Such scriptures may have power over her and could thus be used to send
her away. It’s probably best to get a Buddhist priest for such purposes. But
other than these two vulnerabilities, one must use common sense and rely on
instinct when confronting the Jorōgumo in her human form.
Killing the Jorōgumo isn’t particularly
difficult. As seen in the tale of the samurai and the spider-woman, it is made fairly clear
that the Whore Spider can be harmed by cold, sharpened steel. One may assume
that bullets may also work against this creature as well. But the best way
to permanently rid oneself of one of these monsters (or any other supernatural
beast, for that matter) is through the use of decapitation, and then burning
the corpse to ashes afterwards. These two methods are pretty much foolproof,
and should always be a part of any monster hunter’s back-up plan.
One doesn’t hear too much about the Jorōgumo
anymore these days, unless one reads books about yōkai, plays video
games, or watches anime (this blogger does all three!). It could be that, like
most monsters, people simply don’t believe in her anymore. But people
haven’t completely forgotten about the Whore Spider. Anyone who does a
little digging (or reads the Wikipedia page) will find a great deal of
information about the monster’s portrayal in popular culture. The Jorōgumo has
appeared in literature, movies, television, video games, and roleplaying games
in one form or another. The Whore Spider has made appearances in a number of
short stories, such as “The Spider” (1919) by Hanns Heinz Ewers, Illona
Andrews’ “Magic Dreams” (2012), and Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s Shisei (“The
Tattooer”, 1910). Surprisingly, she has made only a few appearances in
movies and television, namely in the fantastic movie Hellboy: Sword of
Storms (2006), Grimm (S1/Ep11, “Tarantella”), the awesome anime Rosario
+ Vampire (S2/Ep01, “New Term and a Vampire”), the anime/manga xxxHolic,
and the anime series Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation (2013)
(which Wikipedia gave as Hyperdimension Neptunia: Monstrous Rising, so
really not sure what’s accurate and what isn’t here). However, the Whore
Spider’s strongest impact has been made in the video game and roleplaying game
industries. The Jorōgumo (or something based off of her) can be found in the
Clover Studio/Capcom action-adventure game Ōkami (2006), the character
Juri Han in Super Street Fighter IV (2010), the computer game Diablo
III (2012) in the form of Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust, and in the Pathfinder
RPG’s Bestiary 3 (2012), which is a great read.
But despite her portrayal in television,
literature, and video games, one must remember that the Jorōgumo was once
considered to be very real to the people of Japan, and one must respect
their beliefs and traditions. But does the Jorōgumo really exist? One must
remember that the deep forests and the dark caves of Japan have remained
largely unexplored, and that dozens of people go missing each
year. While many of these disappearances can be explained away as accidents or
suicides (especially in the regions around Mount Fuji and the Aokigahara Forest),
there are still a number of disappearances that remain unexplained.
Could some of those people have fallen victim to the wiles of the Jorōgumo? One
is inclined to think so, and only a fool would deny the possibility. And who
knows? Maybe the Jorōgumo is waiting for a man to fall for her right now. And
little does he know that, once he accepts her invitation into her home, he will
never be seen again by his family or his friends. Such is the fate of
those men who fall for the seductive charms of the Whore Spider.
Acknowledgements
I couldn’t have done this without the help of
my good friends Matthew Meyer and Richard Freeman, who allowed me to use their books in my research. Without their help, this
would have been a very short entry. Thank you so much, you two! I'm so lucky to have great friends like you, and I hope that this does you proud!
Sources
Freeman, Richard. The Great Yokai
Encyclopaedia: The A-Z of Japanese Monsters. Bideford, North Devon: CFZ
Press, 2010.
Meyer, Matthew. The Night Parade of One
Hundred Demons: A Field Guide to Japanese Yokai. N.P. Self-Published,
2012.
LeBlond, Gerard. “Before Spider-Man; There Was
Jorogumo, and She Didn’t Play Nice.” The Daily Orbit. April 30, 2013.
Accessed on January 7, 2016. <http://thedailyorbit.com/before-spider-man-there-was-jorogumo-and-she-didnt-play-nice/>
“Jorōgumo”. Wikipedia, the Free
Encyclopedia. Last updated November 25, 2015. Accessed on January 7, 2016.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jor%C5%8Dgumo>
