18) Japan - 8. Yama-onna

As the name suggests, using the kanji for mountain (山) and woman (女), it's a female yokai that lives in the mountains. It is also called 'Yamajoro' or 'Yamahime'. As a yokai found almost all over Japan, including Tohoku, Okayama, Shikoku, and Kyushu, the legends about its appearance and habits vary. It is generally depicted as a beautiful woman with long hair and fair skin. There are theories that she wears minimal clothing, that she wears a raincoat woven from grass and leaves or clothes made of bark, and some even say she wears a Junihitoe (court noble attire). In areas like Kumamoto, Oita, and Kagoshima, there are tales of her attacking those she encounters and drinking their blood. In Iwate, there are ghost stories of her attacking men, draining all their vitality before devouring them, or kidnapping them to bear children and live with them. In Kochi, it's even said that merely meeting her can cause a deadly fever. It is speculated that the tales of Yama-onna are distorted stories about women driven mad and abandoned in the mountains, or about indigenous mountain dwellers or foreign women who lived in the mountains.