The Hone-Onna is a humanoid Yokai found in Japanese folklore. The Hone-Onna is described as the living corpse of a woman who is entirely skeletal. To most people the Hone-Onna appears as a normal woman but to people with strong religious beliefs and people who are not in love can see through her illusion. It is said the Hone-Onna is a woman who died while deeply in love so she comes back to life and goes to her former lover’s house every night and slowly drains his life force until he becomes weak and dies and joins her in the afterlife. Even if the lover finds out the Hone-Onna still comes to the house every night because most of the time she does not realize that she is dead so her former lover will leave charms out to ward her off. It is said though that the more the Hone-Onna decays the more beautiful she will become. Hone-Onna means “Bone Woman”.
Art by: Matthew Meyer