KAMAITACHI 鎌鼬
Pronunciation: KAH-mah-EE-tah-chee
Translation: The Sickle Weasel
Etymology: The two characters literally mean “sickle” and “weasel,” and they refer not only to the type of cut the beast gives people but also to the fact that it looks like a weasel with sickles on its paws.
Also known as: Iizuna (飯綱) in eastern Aichi Prefecture
Overview
The kamaitachi is another elusive and dangerous—but ultimately nondeadly—yōkai. It’s a beast that moves so fast, you can’t even see it; some rumors say it might just be invisible. Despite that, its likeness was captured by Toriyama Sekien in the eponymously titled woodblock print “Kamaitachi” found in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (画図百鬼夜行), or Illustrated Demon Horde’s Night Parade (1776).
Here, he carved an image of a weasel-looking creature, its front paw blades brandished, in the center of a whirlwind. It’s unclear whether the animal kicked up that tempest all by itself or is just riding in on it. While descriptions and artistic renditions of this yōkai are mostly similar, its method of attack can vary wildly depending on regional differences. For example, the kamaitachi might ride in suddenly on a gust of wind, or it might choose to sneak up on you, without any change to the weather. As it creeps up on you, the kamaitachi might decide to knock you off your feet—or, you might think nothing happened at all, until you notice the injury on your body.
It’s the laceration that all kamaitachi attacks have in common. At some point, you’ll discover a cut or cuts on your skin, usually on the lower part of your body—calves, shins, and thighs—that you have no memory of getting. Typically, it doesn’t hurt, and there is little to no bleeding. Some think the reason why there is no blood is because the little fur devils swoop in and suck it all away, leaving a clean wound. Mysteriously, the cut or cuts can be on exposed skin or covered skin.
These kamaitachi stories mostly hail from the Yamanashi, Nagano, and Niigata regions—places that all have harsh winters. The extreme cold seems to have something to do with the cuts. But strikes from the beast have been reported from all over the country.
Background and Popular Stories
There is a Chinese mythical creature called a kyūki (窮奇), which is considered one of four “bad luck beasts,” or shikyō (四凶); this creature may have been an origin for the kamaitachi. The kyūki is said to either have the body of an ox, the hide of a hedgehog, a bark like a dog, and an appetite for people or to be a winged tiger with long-bladed claws that also eats people, although this one consumes them from the head down. This creature is also classified as a wind god that wields the power to manipulate the wind and possesses knives for claws. You can see the similarities it has with the kamaitachi, which came later. It’s interesting, though, that the completely different kanji characters for kyūki can still be read as “kamaitachi.”
Another theory posits that the kamaitachi isn’t a single yōkai but a trio of evil gods called akugami (悪神). The first one knocks you down, the second one slashes you with a blade, and the third one applies magical ointment to the wound so it doesn’t bleed or hurt.
An interesting theory about the origin of the name kamaitachi is that it’s a pun or a play on the characters kamae and tachi (構え and 太刀). Kamae means to “get ready for a fight” or “get into your fighting stance,” and tachi means “sword.” A tachi is different than a katana (a traditional Japanese sword with a distinctive single-edged blade and a long grip for holding with both hands) and was in fact invented first. It has a more pronounced curvature and was worn with the blade facing down, whereas a katana faces up. The wounds that the kamaitachi inflicts look very similar to slashes you’d get if struck by a tachi’s blade.
Another hypothesis is that the name comes from kaze no ma (風の間), meaning “the space between the wind,” which alludes to the incredible speed at which a kamaitachi attacks.
Most of the stories of encounters with kamaitachi are (ahem) cut-and-dry. There is one, however, that is quite out of the ordinary. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time, in Ōme City, Tokyo, there was a woman whose lover left her for another. She was devastated. In her grief, she cut off all her long hair. Without delay, the chopped-off locks turned themselves into a kamaitachi, flew to the other woman’s home, and exacted revenge by slicing off her head in a single stroke.
This head lopper offer aside, kamaitachi are usually nonlethal. You will discover, though, that with quite a few of the more playful mythical beasties in Japan, there are often one or two tales with a much more sinister slant. It is sometimes in the original tale and sometimes evolves in the retelling.
In Modern Stories
The kamaitachi sneakily appears in the manga and anime Naruto, where the character Temari, a wind user, has a special technique that summons a kamaitachi. In the anime version of One Piece, there is magical fruit called the Kama Kama no Mi (meaning “Sickle-Sickle Fruit”), which, once eaten, will give the person long, sharp sickle-like nails for fighting or slicing through hard objects like rocks. Of course, there are some Pokémon that are based off this speedy yōkai, such as Sneasel, Sneasler, Weavile, and the one simply named Kamaitachi. Finally, a wind attack dubbed “Kamaitachi” is one of the Geomancer skills in the Final Fantasy game.