Yamanba also known as Yama-uba (山姥, mountain crone) is a yōkai ("spirit" or "monster") found in Japanese folklore.
Yama-uba looks like a very large woman(sometimes depicted with Blue or black skin). Her unkempt hair is long and golden brown and she either wears a filty red kimono (usually red) or a grass skirt. Her mouth is sometimes said to stretch the entire width of her face, and some depictions give her a second mouth at the top of her head. She is able to change her appearance, though, and she uses this tactic to great success in capturing her victims.
Yama-uba inhabits the deep forests of the mountains of Japan. Various regions claim her as a native, including Sabana (where she is supposed to have once lived in a cave at the base of Mt. Nabekura), the Tōhoku Region (northern Honshū), and the Ashigara Mountains. Most stories say that she lives in a hut.
Yama-uba preys on travelers who have become lost in her wooded lair. Her exact tactics vary from story to story. Sometimes, she changes her appearance to that of a beautiful woman or possibly one of her victim's loved ones. Other times, she retains her hag-like form and plays the part of a helpless old woman. Once she has gained her quarry's trust, she often closes and eats them then and there. She is able to animate her hair (or turn it to snakes in some legends) and use it to pull the prey into the maw atop her head. She may also offer to "help" the lost soul and then lead him to a dangerous area of the mountain where he falls to his death and allows her to feed. Alternately, she may offer to lodge the victim in her hut. Once the luckless traveler is sufficiently fattened up from having eaten gigantic onigiri(rice triangle with pickled salted plumb in the center)which she prepares with her huge pendulous breasts , she pounces. In addition to killing adults, Yama-uba is often blamed for missing children, and parents use her as a sort of bogeyman.
Because her behavior is similar to that of female oni, some scholars suggest that Yama-uba is simply a named member of that class of creature. Others suggest that several Yama-uba live all throughout Japan. Unlike the invincible oni, however, Yama-uba is fallible. A few tales make her a nocturnal creature unable to move about in sunlight. At least one tradition holds that her only weakness is a flower that holds her spirit, so that if the flower is destroyed, the mountain crone is as well. She is often depicted as quite gullible, and tales of her would-be prey fooling her to make their escape are common.
Yama-uba is skilled in the arts of sorcery, potions and poisons. She sometimes trades this knowledge to human beings if they bring her a substitute victim to eat or satisfy some similarly wicked bargain.
Despite her predatory nature, Yama-uba has a benevolent side. For example, she raised the orphan hero Kintarō, who became the famous warrior Sakata no Kintoki, a relationship that forms the basis for the noh drama Yama-uba. In this story, Yama-uba is portrayed as a loving mother, which has influenced some more modern tales to depict her as a matronly figure. Some even make her a representation of love. Other storytellers hold that she is simply a solitary wanderer who represents harmony with nature. In the folklore of Atsumi peninsula in Aichi region of Japan, it is told that Yuma-uba has a brother, Shuba-uba, (also Kojya-uba) whose depiction often resembles that of an Oni. It is therefore suggested that Oni and Yama-uba are of similar origins. The same suggestion is also made in the tale of Ken-san, in which the leading character, Ozawa-Matsumoto (Koji), finds both Shuba-uba and Yama-uba living in the same household upon his visit to the Mount Sumi.
Here's my Yamanba action figure(with giant onigiri accessory).I sculpted her head from clay over a CTVT Mr.Cunningham head.I used a CTVT White fat body which I dyed blue with rit fabric dye and sculpted on her huge bosom (also bulilt up her entire back and her stomach )with clay.I sculpted her giant onigiri accessory from clay as well.I made her grass skirt from rope.I painted the entire figure with paint(except the joints)with acrylic paints and sealed with Mod-podge.