A yokai in the form of a strip of white cotton cloth about one tan long, which flutters through the evening sky and wraps itself around people's necks and faces. It comes from the folklore of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, and became famous nationwide through the manga GeGeGe no Kitaro.
Also known as
Ittan momen, Flying cloth
Era / first recorded
Folklore (recorded in the Showa era)
Origin
Japan
Stats
Rarity
2
Danger
4
Reality
1
Fame
5
Originally written in Japanese.
日本語版を読む
(the Japanese page also has rankings and comments).
What is ittan-momen?
Ittan-momen is a yokai shaped like a strip of white cotton cloth one tan (about 10 meters) long. At dusk it comes fluttering through the sky and attacks people by wrapping around their necks or covering their faces so they cannot breathe.
A legend of Kagoshima
Ittan-momen is a yokai from Kimotsuki (formerly Koyama) on the Osumi Peninsula in Kagoshima Prefecture. Locals warned children that if they played outside too late in the evening, the ittan-momen would come. It was recorded in folklore materials in the Showa era and came to be introduced alongside yokai from other regions. There are places in Kimotsuki associated with the legend.
Ittan-momen in GeGeGe no Kitaro
Ittan-momen became famous across Japan through Mizuki Shigeru’s manga GeGeGe no Kitaro, where it appears as one of Kitaro’s companions. There it is a good-natured yokai who speaks in a Kyushu dialect and flies Kitaro and his friends on its back, a popular character quite different from the frightening figure of folklore.
Please note
Trespassing on private property or restricted areas is prohibited by law. Please be considerate of local residents.
Positions on the map are a rough guide to the area where a legend or sighting is set. Most pins are placed at representative points of a municipality or prefecture (outside Japan, a city position rounded to about 10 km, or the country), not at the exact place. Municipality points: Geolonia address data (CC BY 4.0), based on the Address Base Registry (Digital Agency of Japan) / Country points: Natural Earth
Please note
The contents of this site introduce legends, eyewitness accounts and theories; they do not guarantee that anything described is true. The stats are our own rough guide. Trespassing on private property or restricted areas is prohibited by law. Please be considerate of local residents.
