According to the japanese folklore, yukinko are snow spirits that live in the mountainous parts of northern Japan which receive heavy snowfall in winter. They resemble human children wrapped up in thick clothes. They are said to be the children of yuki onna, and are usually seen being carried in their mother’s arms.

Travelers in the mountains during snowy, stormy nights sometimes encounter a strange woman standing in the snow, holding a bundled child in her arms. This woman is a yuki onna and the child is a yukinko. The woman begs the traveler to hold her child for a moment. If the traveler agrees and takes the child, it rapidly grows heavier and heavier, until the traveler is unable to move. The heavy snow then piles up around them and they freeze to death. On the other hand, if the traveler refuses the request, the yuki onna shoves them off of the mountain path to die in a snowy ravine. It is said that those who are able to survive the challenge of holding a yukinko would gain supernatural strength.

Yōkai that take the appearance of a mother asking a stranger to carry her child are a common theme — of which ubume is probably the most well-known. The pairing of yukinko and yuki onna can be viewed as a snowy version of this story pattern.

In Hirosaki, Mutsu Province, a samurai was passing through the mountains during a heavy snow when a strange woman approached him and asked him to hold her child for a moment. The samurai agreed to her request, but he was familiar with yuki onna legends, and he first removed his dagger and gripped it between his teeth. When he accepted the child from the woman, the dagger’s blade was pointed straight at the child’s head. After holding the child for some time, the woman took the child back from the samurai and thanked him for his kindness. Afterwards she gifted him all sorts of treasures.