Futakuchi-onna
The futakuchi-onna hides a second mouth on the back of her head, hair acting as grasping tendrils. She devours rice in secret, born from stinginess or curses around food.
Story beats
- 1) A woman eats very little—but stores vanish; suspicion grows.
- 2) Her hair parts, revealing the hidden mouth, sharp-toothed and ravenous.
- 3) The second mouth complains of hunger, manipulating hair as limbs.
- 4) Only by feeding it—or breaking the curse of miserliness—can peace return.
Context & symbolism
Futakuchi-onna tales warn against hoarding food and neglecting dependents. The hidden mouth voices ignored needs, turning suppressed desire into monstrous appetite.
Hair-as-hands makes the concealed hunger active and invasive, a horror of domestic imbalance.
Motifs
- Secret mouths
- Living hair
- Curses of greed or neglect
- Night feeding
Use it in play
- Investigate disappearing rations; find the hidden mouth’s lair.
- Appease the second mouth with offerings to gain its whispers.
- Cut cursed hair—if the mouth allows—to free the host.
- Turn the mouth into an ally that can speak truths while the host stays silent.
Comparative threads
- Body horror yōkai: Rokurokubi, kuchisake-onna.
- Cursed hunger: Wendigo, famine spirits.
Hooks and campaign seeds
- A famine brings many second mouths; curb hunger before chaos spreads.
- A futakuchi-onna joins the party as informant; keep her fed.
- The mouth speaks prophecies only when hair is braided in a rune pattern.