YAMABUKI OTOME

Yamabuki Otome (山吹 乙女, Yamabuki Otome) is a beautiful flower ayakashi and Rihan's first wife. It is said that her support motivated Rihan to bring the Nura Clan to its Golden Age. She is soft-hearted and friendly and, like Rihan, loves humankind. She is very kind to children, choosing to teach at a temple school, and can be just as naive as her students (as evidenced by her not realizing that Kawanishi was in love with her and being unaware that Karasu Tengu was following her around disguised as a dog).

About 300 Years Ago

While alive, she was the daughter of a samurai household. Though she was schooled in all manner of music, literature and culture, she died young and became a yūrei (spirit). After death, she lost track of the name she had possessed while alive and dwelt in her family's old household, which had become a yōkai mansion. There, Rihan met and fell in love with her and, as she didn't know her own name, he gave her the name "Yamabuki Otome" (yamabuki maiden) because her beauty was like that of the yamabuki flowers which bloomed behind the mansion. During the Edo period, after marrying Rihan, she worked as a teacher for human children at a terakoya (temple school) in the Greater Tokyo area. As a result of Hagoromo Gitsune's curse on Nurarihyon, Yamabuki and Rihan were unable to have children throughout their 50-year long marriage. With the Nura Clan's board members whispering about her seeming inability to conceive, Yamabuki disappeared, leaving behind a note for Rihan which contained a famous Japanese poem lamenting her inability to bear any children for him. She is presumed to have died at some point afterward.