She's an example of Japanese folkloric spirits and monsters called yokai, and she's interesting (apart from being an appealingly deranged story) because she was an example of a piece of folklore being invented in contemporary times. She seems to have appeared first of all in elementary schools in the Nagasaki Prefecture in the 1970s, and caused a genuine panic that spread through Japan.
In some versions she is mutilated by a jealous and violent husband, but this is the first version I heard.
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