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No.01

Kamaitachi

THE SICKLE WEASEL

Kamaitachi
Pixel artArt by @yokaipixel
"Kamaitachi" from Gazu Hyakki Yagyo
For reference: old artToriyama Sekien（1776）
"Kamaitachi" from Gazu Hyakki Yagyo
Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
Japanese name
かまいたち（KAMAITACHI）
Type
Wind spirit
Found in
Inside winter whirlwinds
Where the legend lives
  • Niigata — Counted among the Seven Wonders of Echigo (old Niigata)

◆ The legend

A winter evening, a whirlwind whips past — and suddenly there's a cut on your leg. It doesn't hurt, and it barely bleeds. People in old Japan called this the work of the kamaitachi: a weasel yokai with sickle-like claws that rides the wind and slices by in an instant.

In the legends of the Shin'etsu region, kamaitachi come in threes. The first one trips you, the second one cuts, and the third one rubs medicine into the wound — which is why it doesn't hurt. Cutting you and then treating the wound: whether that's polite or just plain annoying is hard to say.