Kamaitachi
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Kamaitachi (窮奇, sometimes also 鎌鼬) is a Japanese yōkai, most common in the Kōshinetsu region.
There are several conceptions of how it looked or operated, but the most common is one of a trio of weasels with sharp claws, riding on a gust of wind and cutting peoples' skin on the legs. According to this interpretation, the first weasel knocked the unsuspecting victim down, the second cut the victim's flesh and the third applied medication to the wounds, so that at the time the victim realised what was happening they were left only with painful wounds that weren't bleeding. Sometimes the three are described as brothers, sometimes as triplets. This account can be traced back to Toriyama Sekien, who was presumably also the first to imagine the apparition to have the form of a weasel. The weasel was a typical Toriyama pun - one of the folk names for the apparition was kamaetachi (構え太刀), meaning "attacking" which he changed slightly to mean "sickle weasel".
The idea of lightning fast weasels wielding razor-sharp claws appealed to manga and anime artists and the kamaitachi often appear in those media.
[edit] Kamaitachi in popular culture
- In the long running anime series GeGeGe No Kitaro, Kamaitachi is portrayed as a humanoid Yōkai with stretched out lips and green skin; able to fly it high speeds and cut through anything he smashes into. He appeared in the 1985 anime version of GeGeGe No Kitaro in the first episode, "The Yōkai Castle" as an antagonist to Kitaro. He is seen working alongside Futakuchi-onna and Tantanbou. He also appears in the 2007 anime version, fighting against Kitaro and a tribe of Tengu. He can be seen forming his arms into sharp blades that he uses to attack with.
- Temari in the manga/anime Naruto uses kamaitachi-inspired techniques including the summoning of a kamaitachi named Kamatari.
- In the manga series Gakuen Alice one of the sub-characters Hayate Matsudaira goes by the alias Kamaitachi. Like Temari he has the ability of wind and uses kamaichi-like techniques.
- In the anime series Kanokon, the character Omi Kiriyama was a Kamaitachi.
- In the anime One Piece, the character Tashigi, a swordswoman, used a technique called Kamaitachi.
- Fuuko in the anime Flame of Recca uses air cutter attack on one of her enemies named kamaitachi.
- In the anime series Bleach, Ikkanzaka Jiroubou is also known as "Kamaitachi Jiroubou" for his kamaitachi attack method.
- In the Digimon series, Kyukimon is a Digimon patterned after the legend of the kamaitachi. The characters 窮奇, used to write kamaitachi, can alternatively be read as kyūki.
- In the Japanese version of Pokémon, there is an attack named Kamaitachi. It was translated into English as Razor Wind. Also in Pokémon, two of them (Sneasel and Weavile) are based on the Kamaitachi, being weasels with sharp claws that resemble blades.
- There is a series of Sound Novels by Chunsoft entitled Kamaitachi no Yoru (Night of the Kamaitachi).
- In the PlayStation game Final Fantasy Tactics, Kamaitachi is one of the elemental abilities of the Geomancer Class.
- In the anime Ushio and Tora, the two-part story "Insanity of the Wind" told over episodes 9 and 10 involves one of the three Kamaitachi triplets going on a killing spree, forcing the other two to ask Ushio for help.
- In the anime Mokke, episode 10 concerns a young girl befriending a kamaitachi.
- In the anime Ghost Hunt, episode 24 includes kazuyasu of the Yoshimi family to be possessed by a spirit that uses a kamaitachi as a weapon
- In the Super Nintendo game Ninja Warriors, Kamaitachi is one of the three playable characters, a cyborg ninja that attacks with blades on its arms.
- Kamaitachi appear as enemy monsters in the PlayStation 2 game Ōkami, though in the English version, they are called poltergeists.
- Kamaitachi appear as minor enemies in the Nintendo DS game Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier.
- In the Nintendo DS game Megaman ZX, one of the eight main bosses, Hurricaune, is a weasel that fights with electric blades.
- In the MMORPG Ragnarok Online, the Ninja class has a skill named Kamaitachi. It is described as the wrath of the wind.
- In the anime and manga series Ghost Hunt, during the cursed house case some of the zombie/dead spirits used Kamaitachi
- In the Monster Rancher video game series by Tecmo, Ripper, a swift, weasel-like monster species capable of manipulating ice and wind is based on the kamaitachi legend.
- Kamaitachi is the name of the program used to subvert the Apple Computer-supplied bootloader / kernel system in the Apple iPhone to get it run alternative kernels such as linux.
- Kamaitachi is the name of a Mikura, a yōkai turned blood-drinking machine, in the anime/CG 6-part OVA Karas voiced by Dave Mallow. It is depicted as a humanoid robot with various razor blades.
- In the Game Boy Advance game Golden Sun, there is an item called a "Weasel Claw" that can be used up in battle to unleash a wind-element attack on the enemy.
- In the Basilisk manga and anime, Chikuma Koshiro has a technique called Senpuu Kamaitachi, a local wind vortex strong enough to partially blow a person's head off.
- The 2009 Japanese doujin PC game Rockmen R: Dr. Wily's Counterattack contains a Robot Master named "Weasel Man" who can fly around and attack with his claws and a powerful attack called "Sonic Boomerang".
[edit] References
- "Kamaitachi". The Obakemono Project. http://www.obakemono.com/obake/kamaitachi/.
- "Kamaitachi". Encyclopedia Mythica. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/k/kamaitachi.html. Retrieved March 6 2006.
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