Welcome to October at Goddess a Day! I’m taking part in a Haunted Blog Tour later this month, courtesy of Mrs. B. at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom, and I decided to spiff things up a little for the month. October is probably my favorite month of the year, and orange is my favorite color, so I abandoned my usually blues and stars for oranges and bats. Hope you like it, and watch for lots of spooky/scary/evil Goddesses this month!

The Yomotsu-shikome are Japanese demons of the underworld (Yomi). When the God Izanagi ran away from his wife, the Goddess Izanami, in the underworld, she sent the Yomotsu-shikome to chase him. Izanagi managed to escape them, first by throwing down his headdress which turned into grapes that the Yomotsu-shikome stopped to eat. When they returned to their pursuit, Izanagi threw down a comb which turned into bamboo shoots, and the Yomotsu-shikome again stopped to eat. They were catching up to Izanagi a third time when he urinated against a tree and created a river that stopped them from following. The Yomotsu-shikome, whose name means “ugly women of Yomi,” are also known as Yomotsu-hisame, meaning “hags of Yomi.”