This eerie and dangerous spider ghost takes the form of an attractive woman by day, but her arachnid nature is revealed by night.
It is said that once a young peasant sat down to rest near a waterfall where the Jorō-gumo happened to live. She tried to catch him by winding her silken thread around his leg. But he was a smart fellow, and noticing the thread, unwound it and reattached it to an old stump. The spider woman was perplexed by this, and the man got away.1
Jorō-gumo the monster shares her name with a real species, Nephila clavata, a large orb- web spider with beautiful markings in black, gold, and red.2
1. Mizuki 2001, pp. 99-100.
2. source 1.