Futakuchi-onna, from Japan: what it is and what people believe

Futakuchi-onna is a yōkai of Japanese folklore, a woman whose skull parts at the back to form a second, fully working mouth hidden by her hair. Her tales turn on hunger and meanness: the extra mouth belongs to a wife denied food, or to a starved child's spirit out for revenge.

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The rear mouth forms where her skull parts, hidden by hair, with teeth and a tongue
Many tales blame a miser husband who lets his wife eat almost nothing
Unfed, the mouth is said to screech and bring the woman great pain
Her hair moves like snakes so the mouth can serve itself from her meals
One telling: a starved stepchild's spirit lodges in the woman's body for revenge

What it is

Futakuchi-onna is a female yōkai, one of the strange beings of Japanese storytelling. Her sign is a pair of mouths. One sits on her face as any mouth does; the other opens where the skull parts at the back, hidden by her hair, and it is a true mouth, with teeth, a tongue and lips of its own. Japanese legend groups her with the rokurokubi, the kuchisake-onna and the yama-uba, women changed into yōkai by a curse or by a supernatural sickness. These tales share a habit: the woman's other nature stays out of sight almost to the end, and is then revealed all at once.

Where it comes from

The tales offer several answers to how the second mouth arrives. In the commonest, the woman is a miser's wife who is allowed almost no food, and a mouth grows in answer to that hunger. Another telling has a stingy wife struck by her husband's axe as he splits wood; the wound never closes, and from it the mouth forms. In still others, a mother feeds her own children while a stepchild starves, and the dead child's spirit is said to lodge in the stepmother's body, or in that of a daughter who lived, to take revenge.

How it is done

The hidden mouth is said to speak first. It mutters spiteful threats and calls for food, and if it goes unfed it screeches and inflicts great pain on the woman. In time her hair stirs and moves like a pair of snakes, so it can feed itself. Nothing ever passes her front lips, yet the rear mouth is said to eat twice what a normal one would. In the best-known tale, a miser takes a beautiful wife who eats nothing, but his rice keeps disappearing; spying on her, he watches her hair part, her skull open into a hungry mouth, and strands of hair reach out to cram rice in. He runs.

Futakuchi-onna, drawn and placed

Emblem With the feather shape. Drawn from this page, not a photograph.

Living
Revived
Fading
Historical
Legendary
Performed

Standing: Legendary Known from myth, story and legend rather than from recorded practice. This says whether people still do it, not whether it works.

A feather: used in cleansing and blessing in some traditions, worn as a sign of office, and carried as a charm.

Lineage: yōkai lore, tales of transformed women

Where it sits The tradition it belongs to, and when it is done.

At a glance: who, where and when

Peoples

Japanese

Belief worlds

Folk and village custom

What people believe

The tales run on a logic of repayment: a body answers what is done to it. A wife kept hungry by a mean husband is given, in many tellings, a mouth that demands the meals she never sees. A child allowed to starve is not gone; its spirit enters a living body and settles the score. The change itself may arrive as a curse or a supernatural illness, and the women in this family of tales hide what they have become until the story's final reveal.

Compare and confuse

She belongs to a set of tales that also holds the rokurokubi, the kuchisake-onna and the yama-uba, each about a woman whose affliction turns her yōkai while she passes for human. Reference lists often point to craniopagus parasiticus and diprosopus, two rare conditions offered as a scientific reading of her image, and to Edward Mordrake, the wider term obake, the name Shigeru Mizuki and the character Tomie Kawakami.

Questions people ask about Futakuchi-onna

What is a futakuchi-onna?

She is a yōkai of Japanese story, a woman with two mouths. One sits on her face as usual; the other opens through the rear of her skull, hidden by her hair, and is a true mouth with teeth, a tongue and lips.

Where does the figure come from?

From Japan. In the mythology and folk tales of that country she is placed with the rokurokubi, the kuchisake-onna and the yama-uba, women whose curse or supernatural sickness turns them into yōkai. Such stories usually keep the woman's secret until the last moment, when her true self appears.

How does a woman come to have the second mouth?

The stories differ. Most often she is a miser's wife who eats almost nothing, and the mouth appears in answer. Elsewhere her husband's axe strikes her head as he splits wood, and the wound never closes. In others a starved stepchild's spirit enters her body for revenge.

What does the second mouth do?

The tales say it mutters spiteful demands for food, and when refused it screeches and brings the woman great pain. Her hair then moves like snakes so the mouth can serve itself; though nothing passes her front lips, it is said to eat twice as much as a normal mouth would.

Is there a scientific reading of her?

Two rare conditions, craniopagus parasiticus and diprosopus, are cited as a scientific explanation for her image, and the name Edward Mordrake often appears beside hers in such lists.

Good reading and sources

Where this page comes from

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Futakuchi-onna", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryJaadu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

It may contain mistakes. Names and customs differ from one community to the next, and some knowledge is closed to outsiders and left out here. This page describes belief and practice. It does not say that any of it works, it is not a how-to, and it is not medical advice. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-17.

Futakuchi-onna