Kamaitachi

They appear riding on dust devils and cut people using their sickle-like front claws, delivering sharp, painless wounds.

The name was originally thought to be a corruption of the word kamae tachi ("stance sword"), but like the kyūki in the "Yin" part of Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, they were thus[how?]

[citation needed] In the "Mimibukuro" by Negishi Shizumori as well, children in the estate called Kagaya in Edo were enveloped by a whirlwind.

[1] As a beast with fur like that of a hedgehog and a cry like that of a dog which flies through the air with wings, they are said to attack people with limbs like that of a sickle or razor.

In the Yoshio District area of the Nara Prefecture, it is said that when one gets bit by a kamaitachi invisible to the human eye, one would tumble over; even though no blood comes out, there is a big opening in the flesh.

[2] In the Iya region, Tokushima Prefecture, it is said that sickles and hoes used for digging the grave for a funeral, if left out for seven days, turn into a nogama, and when one encounters a nogama, it is said that one should chant, "beneath the feet on the bottom-left of Buddha, is the stump of a kurotake [a species of bamboo], and quickly became clean, but let it grow back (hotoke no hidari no shita no omiashi no shita no, kurotake no kirikabu nari, itau wa nakare, hayaku routa ga, haekisaru).

[8] In the town of Katakai, Santō District, Niigata Prefecture, in a place called "Kamakiri-zaka" (鎌切坂 or 蟷螂坂), after a giant mantis that once lived there was crushed to death by heavy snow, it is said that when one falls over on the hill, because of the mantis' curse, one would receive a wound as if one was cut by a sickle, result in one suffering from black blood flowing out.

[12] In the Hokuriku region, according to the collection of fantastic stories, the Hokuetsu Kidan, a kamaitachi is a wound resulting from touching the blade of a dreadful god.

[3] In the Kokon Hyaku Monogatari Hyōban from the Edo period, it states: "people of the capital and those of true samurai families are not affected by this evil (都がたの人または名字なる侍にはこの災ひなく候).

In the village of Rokutō, Abu District, Yamaguchi Prefecture, it is said that people who died due to cliffs or shipwrecks would become yama-misaki eight days after death.

[15] In Amami Ōshima, it is said that near the time of Obon, at cemetery roads and other such places, a lukewarm wind would graze by and give one a chill, and when one returns home and tries taking off one's clothing, there would be some kind of speckle on some part of the body.

It is said that when struck by it, one falls ill.[17] In Toyosama, Tosa District (now Kōchi city), muchi are said to kill horses and cattle that take along people who travel on roads at night.