Mythology Monday: Jorōgumo, The Spider Woman

Hello, and happy Monday! Hope you’re having a really great beginning of the week. Mondays are really tough days. If you’re struggling, I get it. Hang in there, we’re already almost 1/5 of the way done with the week.

I can’t say I’m here to make your day any better unfortunately, especially if you happen to be afraid of spiders. But if you aren’t the squeamish type, then this Mythology Monday post is a pretty fascinating one. If you don’t like spiders, be warned, Jorōgumo is a nightmare for anyone averse to creepy crawlers.

Jorōgumo, whose name means roughly “entangling bride” in Japanese, is a Yōkai, a spirit from the Japanese pantheon. The stories of the Jorōgumo originated during the Edo period (1603-1867). According to the myth, Jorōgumo are shapeshifters, transforming from a spider into a terrifying half woman half spider creature that devours and entraps unsuspecting men.
(Let me just interject at this point and say that I find this rather unfair. A man gets bitten by a spider and becomes the crime fighting hero Spider-Man. A woman spider mutant however has to be a man eating monster…where is Spider-Woman, the hero?) Anyway…

The Jorōgumo come from the Joro spider, a species of golden orb weaver spiders. According to the legend, when the Joro spider reaches 400 years old, they begin their transformation. When they reach this age, they gain their shape shifting powers and then bide their time, hiding in remote areas such as caves and abandoned homes and weaving their webs to entrap the men unlucky enough to cross paths with them. The Jorōgumo are associated (though not exclusively) with waterfalls. The most well-known stories of the Jorōgumo tell of a woodcutter who encountered a beautiful woman at the Jōren Falls of Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, who turns out to be the mistress of the Jorōgumo, and slowly saps his strength with her powerful poison every time he visits her. There are also other variations involving a sleeping woodcutter who finds his legs tied with a powerful web. He moves the web to a tree stump, only to see the stump pulled viciously into the water in a diabolical trap. He then warns the village of the danger at the falls.

Everything I read about Jorōgumo cast these women/spiders as cruel, with ravenous appetites and no compassion. I enjoyed thinking about how the Jorōgumo could be more complex and less one dimensional. There is a version of the Jorōgumo that is more sympathetic and benevolent, I couldn’t find as much information available. I would be interested in stories about Jorōgumo that explored what it would be like to turn from a spider into a feared and maligned spirit. It must have been confusing to say the least.

Anyway, what do you think about this spirit from Japan’s Edo period? I love learning about stories and legends from cultures around the world. Let me know more about what you think in the comments!

Talk soon,

-Winter