Subversion of Yamamba: Mirroring Women

Abstract

This paper argues that the evolving literary image of the Japanese yamamba (mountain witch) serves as a revealing mirror for the status, expectations, and struggles experienced by women across different stages of Japanese history. By examining representative narratives from the Edo period through modern reinterpretations by writers such as Ōba Minako, the study highlights how transformations in the yamamba topos-from a menacing and otherworldly demon to a self-sacrificing maternal figure and, eventually, to a seemingly ordinary yet psychologically complex woman-reflect broader social changes regarding femininity, labor roles, moral conduct, and personal agency. These shifting portrayals illuminate how women's identities were continuously shaped by cultural norms that emphasized obedience, domestic responsibility, and emotional endurance, even as new historical contexts introduced opportunities for self-expression and subtle forms of resistance. Through tracing the symbolic evolution of the yamamba, the paper demonstrates that her literary presence has functioned not merely as a supernatural motif but as a cultural device for negotiating questions of gender, autonomy, and societal expectation. The analysis ultimately reveals that although the outward form of the yamamba has changed across eras, the underlying tensions surrounding women's autonomy, self-definition, and negotiation of restrictive social frameworks persist, making the figure an enduring lens through which to understand the complexities of female experience in Japanese literature.