noun
slit-mouthed woman; malevolent folklore figure with a mouth sliced from ear to ear
A well-known figure from Japanese urban legends and folklore, often depicted as a woman who asks if she is beautiful before revealing her disfigured mouth.
口裂け女は、夜道で「私、きれい？」と尋ねてくるという。
The slit-mouthed woman is said to approach people on dark streets and ask, 'Am I beautiful?'
The term is a compound of 口 (mouth), 裂け (split/tear), and 女 (woman), literally 'split-mouthed woman'. The exact origin of the legend is uncertain, but it became widely known in Japan during the late 1970s.