A snow bride who dissolves in the bath
Tsurara-onna
The girl who came in from the snow that night smiled with color enough in her cheeks to seem entirely human. Only the bath, she said, she wished to take alone, to the very end.
Overview
Tsurara-onna is a yokai who visits a household on a deep-snow night and vanishes into an icicle after bathing. The tale type is told from the Tohoku region into Niigata Prefecture, and is also linked to the yuki-onna (snow woman) tradition. In the Akita variant, she is a sorrowful guest who disappears without ever revealing her true nature.
Encounter
On a blizzard night, a fair, young woman knocks at the door of an isolated house asking to be let in for the night. As the snow keeps falling for days, she grows close to the household. When at last offered a bath, she goes in reluctantly — and vanishes, leaving only her hair ornament floating in the tub.
Lore
Tsurara-onna is a tale type told across the Tohoku region and Niigata Prefecture, with several known variants, including one where a bachelor wishes for a wife from the icicles on his eaves, and others recorded in Yamagata Prefecture and old Echigo Province. In the Akita variant, a lodging girl vanishes after bathing, and a single icicle is later found hanging from the ceiling. The yuki-onna is cited as a related figure, and the tale is sometimes placed within that tradition.
Traits
She is fair-skinned with long black hair and cold, translucent skin. She can pass among people and grow close to them, but avoids steam and heat, and cannot remain long in a bathroom. If her true form is seen, she vanishes on the spot, turning into an icicle or a wisp of vapor.
