食わず女房，鬼 · Nishiiwai District, Iwate · 1939
The mouthless bride who became an oni
What the record says
A stingy man took a bride who had no mouth, but she was a monster with a mouth on the top of her head. He watched for his chance and fled; she took the form of an oni and came after him. He escaped by running into a stand of iris and mugwort, which saved him.
Our summary in English of the record as catalogued; the original card is in Japanese.
In our articles
Futakuchi-onna
二口女（ふたくちおんな）
The 1841 Ehon Hyaku Monogatari made Futakuchi-onna a stepmother punished with a mouth at the back of her head. Folktales of the wife who eats nothing, recorded in the twentieth century, give the same hidden mouth to brides who turn out to be snakes, spiders, and oni.