What is kamaitachi?
Kamaitachi (“sickle weasel”) is a yokai said to appear on a whirlwind and slash people’s arms and legs with sharp sickles. It is described as a weasel-like creature whose front paws are shaped like sickles. Strangely, the wounds are deep but painless and barely bleed. Legends of it are found throughout Japan, especially in snowy regions.
Kamaitachi in threes
In the Hida region of Gifu Prefecture and elsewhere, kamaitachi are said to appear in groups of three. The first knocks a person down, the second cuts them with its sickle, and the third applies medicine to the wound, which is why there is no pain or bleeding. The Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien drew it as a beast racing through a whirlwind.
What is kamaitachi really?
The “vacuum theory,” that a vacuum formed inside a whirlwind slices the skin, was once widely told, but it has since been rejected. Today the cause is thought to be skin weakened by cold and dryness splitting open when a person falls or bumps into something.
