Kerakera onna

Kerakera-Onna is a Japanese mythological being.

Myth
Kerakera-Onna (Japanese: 倩兮女; cackling woman) es un yokai del folclore japonés. Este espíritu aparece en los barrios rojos (prostíbulos) de Japón emitiendo una risa parecida a un cacareo, de ahí su nombre.

She is described as a gigantic middle-aged woman dressed in a colorful kimono, typical of brothels, and poorly made up. She lurks in alleys and roads not traveled, dancing, laughing and making fun of the profession that led them to death. She rarely appears outside the red light district where they died.

When a man passes through a lonely street or an alley haunted by a Kerakera-onna, she releases a horrible and shrill laugh that only he can hear. Anyone with a weak heart could die of a heart attack due to fright, but those who can resist and run away realize that they cannot get rid of that laugh, which resonates like an echo in their heads. These men end up going crazy by hearing that incessant laugh.

During the Edo period, the average life span of a prostitute was only 23 years, since the conditions of such a life were too difficult for most girls to endure. They worked many hours, paid little and sexual abuse was common, both by clients and by pimps. Very few of these women reached middle age, but when they did, like most things that reached a certain longevity in Japan, they gathered great energy. When a prostitute died after serving in such a painful world for so long, her ghost could not easily move on to the next life, so they became a Kerakera-onna.