Fuzzy Winter Folklore

The familiar scenes we have grown used to always seeing.
Yet there are times when these everyday places become doorways to other, extraordinary worlds.
#66, Otherworlds Hiding in the Everyday.

Without further ado, we settle into our three-part winter tail of

The Sickle Weasel
鎌鼬
kamaitachi

The Sickle Weasel: A Question of Existence (1)

The seasons have changed to that of the cold northern winds.
And with this changing of seasons comes a phantasm particular to the winter - the Sickle Weasel.
Without knowing it, without any pain or bleeding, you develop open slashes on your feet and hands and other places on your body. This phenomena has come to be known as the work of a youkai known as the Sickle Weasel. Like the weasel, the Sickle Weasel moves swiftly, and becoming a small whirlwind, slashes at humans. It is indeed the “the wind that cuts to the bone”. It is also said that they operate in groups of three.
However for many of us living in these modern times, we likely don't consider this phenomena to be the work of a youkai. Surely somewhere you have heard this”scientific explanation” : “The Sickle Weasel Phenomena is a natural phenomena wherein a vacuum formed in the atmosphere by occurrences like whirlwinds causes human skin to be slashed open.”

Here, I would like to call into question this “scientific” explanation.

The Sickle Weasel: A Question of Existence (2)

Before the “scientific” explanation came out, the Sickle Weasel was considered to be a punishment meeted out by the mountain gods or Tengu (another type of youkai) upon humans for breaking some taboo. It is said that the origin of the Sickle Weasel's name (Kama Itachi) comes from the sword used by the Tengu – the Kamae Tachi.

The theory of the vacuum being the real identity of the Sickle Weasel came out at the beginning of the Shouwa Era with its publication in a scholarly journal of meteorology. From there it spread into the general populace. However, doubts soon arose. In an essay entitled “The Evolution of Monsters”, the literary scholar Terada Torihiko offered this argument: “In the natural world, it is not likely for a vacuum to so easily and suddenly appear. And even if one were to form, it is difficult to think that human skin could so easily rupture like a balloon or something.” Indeed, when you stop to think calmly about it, there is a rationale to Terada's argument.

The vacuum theory that was considered so “scientific” fell immediately under suspicion.
Now then, what could be the real identity of the Sickle Weasel?

The Sickle Weasel: A Question of Existence (3)

What is the real identity of the Sickle Weasel? The answer was put forward from an unexpected direction. In a scholarly magazine in 1970, meteorologist Takahashi Yoshihiko made the announcement, “Wipe the Sickle Weasel from the Meteorology Books”, offering the conclusion that the Sickle Weasel was a physiological phenomena.

According to said article, the Sickle Weasel was a phenomena wherein dry, tight skin split open upon receiving a sudden impact. Since it was just the skin splitting open, there was slight pain and very little bleeding. That being said, most cases of encountering the Sickle Weasel have been at such times like “when I fell” or “when I ran into someone”.

Currently, however, the idea of a vacuum cutting open a human body has been taken up in novels and comics, becoming part of the common “scientific knowledge”. Perhaps it is the massive, unabashed circulation of the unscientific as the scientific that instead can be called a otherworldly phenomenon.

#84-86, The Sickle Weasel: A Question of Existence


*"youkai" are traditional beings of supernatural mysterious power. They are not all good nor all bad. Some are human shaped, many are not. There is no good English language equivalent. As such, the word is often left as it is without translation.

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