Datsue-ba.

Datsue-ba (奪衣婆) is imagined as a hideous old ogress seated by the Sanzu River, the liminal water the dead must cross before deeper judgment. She is ancient, frightening, and bodily in a way many infernal figures are not. The old age of the figure matters. She is not a glamorous demon queen, but a rasping, merciless underworld crone whose task feels both petty and absolute.

After the dead cross the Sanzu River, Datsue-ba strips away their clothes and passes them to her counterpart Keneo. The garments, especially when made heavy by the difficult crossing, become evidence of the soul's moral burden. In some accounts those who arrive unclothed are flayed instead. Datsue-ba therefore interacts with the dead at a brutal threshold where bodily exposure and moral exposure become the same thing.

The figure is already foreshadowed in Heian religious literature, especially the Hokke genki, and becomes more firmly established in texts derived from the Japanese Ten Kings tradition, such as the Jizo juo kyo. Datsue-ba appears to be a distinctively Japanese elaboration of Buddhist underworld belief, giving the crossing to judgment a specific hag-like custodian whose actions make sin visible and measurable.