Kamikiri (haircutting)

[3] In the Shokoku Rijidan, a collection of stories (setsuwa) compiled in the Kanpō years (1741-1743) of the Edo Period, there is written a tale about how near the beginning of Genroku, at Matsusaka, Ise Province (now Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture), and at Konya, Edo, (now Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo), strange paranormal incidents about how people's hair, both male and female, would suddenly be cut off from their motoyui (元結, a hair-tying string) as they were walking along on roads at night.

On March 10, some time after 9PM, when Gin was going to the residence's lavatory, she felt a chilly presence and then suddenly had her tied up hair cut, making it very messy.

It quotes the Chinese reference book Taiping Guangji which also writes of a similar story about a fox which cuts hair off of the head.

[9] Paintings depicting this kamikiri-mushi would be sold as amulets to ward off evil spirits, and it became a trend to wear paper charms on one's self with the poem "if the hair of a shrine parishioner of a great god shall be cut, let it be a round cloth wig" (千早振神の氏子の髪なれば切とも切れじ玉のかづらを, "chihayaburu; kami no ujiko no; kami nareba; kiritomo kireji; tama no kazura wo").

[9] It is said that there would be some fetishists who feel pleasure from cutting off women's hair with a blade, so it is thought that at least some of the kamikiri legends were actually perpetrated by humans.

[5][3] Engyo Mitamura, a researcher on Edo Period culture and customs, stated in his writings that there have been several examples of people getting caught for the crime of cutting off a person's hair.

[8] Starting with the Hyakkai Zukan the emakimono drawn in the Edo Period depict the "kamikiri" as a yōkai with a long beak and scissor-like hands.