Origin: Japan

Hannya are Japanese horned female spirits and they are dangerous. The Hannya doesn’t need an iron club like her male compatriots, the Oni. The power of a woman scorned trumps iron weapons. According to folklore, women who die while consumed with rage and jealousy transform into Hannya, vengeful, powerful spirits. Women who committed suicide because they have been spurned, insulted, rejected, or scorned by lovers are believed especially likely to become Hannya.


The Hannya lingers on Earth, a malicious, destructive ghost, her anger overriding any residual human emotions or conscience. Hannya are perceived as negative, dreadful creatures; it is a terrible fate to become a Hannya, and so the implicit message is that women must avoid, suppress, and sublimate rage, anger, jealousy, and other dangerous emotions lest they, too, become rampaging evil spirits.

The Hannya mask, maybe the best known of Japanese Noh masks, has sharp fangs and horns and bears the name of the spirit it portrays. Older Hannya masks appear more serpentine than modern ones, where the emphasis is on horns. Hannya who are sometimes described as “snake demons” may originally have been snake spirits.

Manifestations: The Hannya may sprout actual horns or her hair may form horn shapes.


Animal: Snake

See also: Obake; Oiwa; Okiku; Oni; Yokai