Shikome

Yomotsu-shikome (黄泉醜女, "ugly women of Yomi"), also known as Yomotsu-hisame (泉津日狭女), were, in Japanese mythology, eight (or myriad) hags sent by Izanami to chase Izanagi and bring him back to the underworld.

They are depicted as fierce and wild women. The story of Izanami has strong parallels to that of Orpheus and Eurydice. The Shikome themselves parallel the Thracian maidens who tore Orpheus to pieces. However, they represent divine fury and have little, if any, of the sexual and drunken revelry association that the Thracian maidens (maenads in the service of Dionysus) also possess. In the Japanese version, Izanagi escapes.

References

• Encyclopedia of Shinto: Yomotsushikome
• Encyclopedia of Shinto: Yomotsuhisame