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No.018

Ittan-momen

THE FLYING CLOTH

Ittan-momen
Pixel artOriginal art by Pixel Yokai
Japanese name
一反木綿（ITTANMOMEN）
Type
Sky spirit
Found in
The dusk sky and village roads
Where the legend lives
  • Kagoshima — Known as a yokai of the former town of Koyama (now Kimotsuki) in the Osumi region

◆ The legend

A yokai told of in the Osumi region of Kagoshima Prefecture, around what is now the town of Kimotsuki. At dusk, a strip of white cotton cloth a full ittan long is said to come drifting and fluttering across the sky. It looks like nothing more than a piece of cloth, but get careless and draw near, and it may slip around your neck or wrap itself over your face.

Local children, the story goes, were warned that if they kept playing outside after sundown, the ittan-momen would come for them. In the old tales, it has no face and no hands. Just a white cloth rippling in the wind, closing in on you. Perhaps that very shapelessness is what makes it so unsettling.

◆ Stories about this yokai

Why Does the Ittan-momen Fly at Dusk? Twilight and the White Cloth That Sends Children HomeThe ittan-momen, a flying white cloth from the Osumi region of Kagoshima, appears at dusk. A gentle look at why twilight, why white cloth, and how the tale helped send children home before dark.