The Sickle Weasels
In a gust of wind, a traveller's leg is suddenly cut open, but there's no pain and almost no blood. In Japan, people blamed weasels with sickles for claws.
What was reported
In parts of Japan, especially snowy Echigo, now Niigata, people told of the kamaitachi: invisible weasels that ride the whirlwinds. They were said to strike in a gust of wind, leaving a deep, clean cut on the skin, usually on the legs, that strangely didn't hurt or bleed much.
Some versions had three weasels working together: one knocked the victim down, the second cut, and the third applied a healing medicine, which is why the wound didn't hurt.
Explanations offered
In the 1800s and early 1900s, some suggested the cuts were caused by a vacuum in the whirlwind, but that idea has been dropped. Doctors now think the wounds are splits in the skin caused by cold, dry conditions, especially on chapped skin, which can open suddenly with little pain.
- When
- Told since the Edo period
- Where
- Niigata, Japan
- Witnesses
- Villagers in the snowy north of Japan
- Status
- Probably explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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