Yomotsu-shikome

In the Kojiki narrative Yomotsu-shikome appears in the episode after Izanami's death: when Izanagi enters Yomi to retrieve his spouse and then flees after seeing her decayed form, the ugly woman of Yomi pursues him at Izanami's behest. The Nihon Shoki records variant readings (including the name Yomotsu-hisame) and in some tellings indicates multiple hags (sometimes enumerated as eight), reflecting divergent textual traditions about whether the figure is singular or collective.

Classical sources label the being an 'ugly woman' or 'hag' (Kojiki: Yomotsu-shikome). Descriptive detail beyond that epithet is minimal in the provided chronicles; the Nihon Shoki gives an alternate name (Yomotsu-hisame) and some variants present multiple hags rather than a single named individual.

In the Kojiki episode the hag relentlessly pursues Izanagi as he flees Yomi and is slowed when Izanagi casts items that transform into edible impediments (headdress into grape-like food, comb into bamboo shoots). The Kojiki also narrates that the pursuer is joined by a host (reportedly 1,500 strong) led by eight thunder-deities; the Nihon Shoki contains variant accounts that may omit the thunder-deities and other details. Functionally they act as underworld agents enforcing the boundary between the living and the dead.