Minokichi survived the encounter and the night, but his mentor, Mosaku, didn’t. The younger man returned home quite shaken by the whole experience but, keeping his word, told no one about what had happened or the beautiful and terrifying snow woman.
A year or so later, Minokichi was walking home and ran into a woman he’d never met before. Her name was Oyuki (which means “snow”) and, long story short, the two fell in love and soon wed. The couple were happy and had ten children, all of whom were very good-looking and had incredibly fair skin. The entire town adored Oyuki, and it was remarkable how even after having so many babies, she never seemed to age. Life was pure bliss until, one night, when Minokichi was home watching his wife sew by candlelight and became overcome with emotion. Without thinking, he said she reminded him of someone he had met many years ago. Oyuki asked who that was, and Minokichi told of the incident in the hut the night Mosaku had died. He added that, even today, he wasn’t sure if it had just been a dream.
Without warning, Oyuki threw down her sewing and flew across the room. She stood over her husband, shrieking. She said it had been she who had visited him in the hut that night. But now he had broken his promise, and she should end his life right then and there. But Oyuki paused and looked toward the room where their children slept. She made him promise to take very good care of them and told him that if any one of them ever had a complaint about him, she’d return and kill him immediately.
She began to scream, her voice growing thin until it sounded like the whistling wind. At the same time, right before his eyes, his wife’s body melted away into a bright white mist that disappeared through the smoke hole. She was never seen again.
The Ice Apparitions (kōrime) in the manga and anime YuYu Hakusho were inspired by the yuki onna, as were the Pokémon Froslass and the character Frostina from Yo-kai Watch.
Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 film Dreams also has an appearance of the yuki onna in the part titled “The Blizzard.”