A synthesis based on Chinese natural-history accounts transmitted in the Edo period, organized against Japanese essays and illustrated compendia. Said to be the size of a small monkey or a marten or tanuki, with a short tail, red eyes, and a dark coat mottled with spots. It appears with the wind to startle people and livestock or leave sudden grazing wounds, without the heavy harm stressed for demons. Its existence wavered in Japan: Wakan Sansai Zue argued it was unborn, Mimi-nashi Hoichi’s Miminashi? (Mimibukuro) recorded rare encounters, and Kō Wahonzō compared the creature 狤𤟎 to the kamaitachi. Thus, though the name is foreign, early modern scholars’ efforts at comparison and identification converged on the idea of a wind-borne beastly apparition, an unseen thing that inflicts slashing grazes. Details of ecology and form vary by text, likely arising from layered readings of local animals—marten, tanuki, monkey, otter—and wind-related mishaps.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Yokai Type - Traditional Yokai
Category - 動物変化
Rarity - Uncommon
Personality - shy and avoids people, mischievous when riding the wind
Compatibility - prefers quiet mountain hamlets and wetlands, dislikes human clamor
Abilities - sprinting to whip up sudden gusts, concealing itself so approach is unnoticed, leaving slashing grazes with sharp claws
Weaknesses - dislikes strong lamplight and loud voices, reluctant to show itself in open spaces
Habitat - mountain forests, riverside thickets, brush near human dwellings
🔮Yokai Compatibility Test
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