Kamikiri (haircutting)

Kamikiri (髪切り, hair-cutter) or Kurokamikiri (黒髪切, black hair-cutter) is a Japanese yōkai said to secretly cut people's hair on the head. They were rumored from time to time in the urban areas of the Edo Period, and can sporadically be seen in the records from the 17th to the 19th centuries.[1][2]

Concept

It is thought that they would appear out of nowhere and cut people's hair on their heads without them noticing.[3]

The Shokoku rijindan, a collection of stories (setsuwa) compiled in the Kanpō era (1741-1743) records strange paranormal incidents from early Genroku era (1688-1704) which allegedly happened at Matsusaka, Ise Province (now Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture), and at Konya, Edo, (now Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo): 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. Those people would not notice this at all, and the cut-off hair would fall down on the road still tied up.[4][5][2] Ōta Nanpo's essay Hannichi kanwa (半日閑話) also records similar happenings alleged to have taken place at Shitaya (now Taitō, Tokyo) and in Kohinata (now Bunkyō, Tokyo), where females servants employed at shops and residences were the victims.[6][2][a]

In Utagawa Yoshifuji's painting Kamikiri no kidan (髪切りの奇談; "Queer tale of hair-cutting", 1868, cf. fig. right), the accompanying text explains that at a certain mansion in Banchō, Edo, a maidservant was going to the outhouse at night when "something completely black"[b] drew near and seemed to strike her hair. When she recovered from her fainting spell, her bundle of hair (motodori[c]) had been cut and lay 2, 3-gen's distance or 3.6–5.4 metres (12–18 ft) away. The all-black being was cat-like and velvety.[d][8]

A similar incident had occurred in the lunar 4th month (May) of 1867 or 1868[e] at the infantry station in Ogawamachi, Edo where a soldier going to the latrines encountered an "all-black thing" striking his head, and when he regained consciousness, found his bound clump of hair 2, 3-gen away.[9][8]

In Meiji 7 (1874), in Hongō, Tokyo, on the 3rd street at the Suzuki residence, a female servant named "Gin" was a victim of this kamikiri phenomenon, and this was also reported in the newspaper (Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun) at that time. 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. Gin was so startled, she rushed to a nearby home and fainted. The people of that house looked after Gin and listened to what happened, and when they looked around that lavatory, they found the cut-off hair on the floor. Eventually, Gin fell into an illness, and was accepted back by her parents. It became rumored that "in that bathroom, a kamikiri appeared," and it is said that nobody ever tried to go in there ever since.[10][5]

In the writings of Mizuki Shigeru, it is explained that it would appear when a human tries to marry an animal or ghost, and it would cut off that person's hair.[11]

True identity

Although many documents state that its true identity is unknown, there are legends that can be roughly divided between ones that suppose it was the work of a fox (kitsune), and ones that suppose it is the work of an insect, the kamikiri-mushi (hair-cutting insect).[12]

Fox kamikiri

Madenokōji Tokifusa's diary Kennaishi during the Muromachi period considers it the work of a fox. 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.[6][1]

In the Edo Period writing Mimibukuro, volume 4 Onna no Kami wo Kuu Kitsune no Koto (About How a Fox Ate a Woman's Hair), there is a story about how a fox was captured at the place where someone fell victim to a kamikiri phenomenon, and when the fox's belly was cut open, a large amount of hair was found packed inside.[1][12] In Asakawa Zen'an's Zen'an zuihitsu (善庵随筆; pub. Kaei3/1850), there is written the explanation that a Taoist priest was manipulating a mystical fox to cut hair.[6][5][13]

Insect kamikiri

The folk encyclopedia Kiyū Shōran (Kan'ei 14/1637) explains kamikiri to be the work of an insect called the "kamikiri-mushi" ("hair-cutter bug").[1] This kamikiri-mushi is thought to refer not to the actual kamikirimushi, but rather an imaginary insect[14] with razor teeth and scissor hands that lurked under the roof.[15] Paintings depicting this kamikiri-mushi would be sold as amulets to ward off evil spirits, and it became trendy to wear paper charms on one's person which had a poem written on it that read "If it be a fierce god the parishioner [worships], may his hair be an uncuttable jadeite wig".[f][16]

Human kamikiri

There are also examples where people's head hair were cut by humans with special powers or by entities found to be human after being caught (or having their true identities revealed).

Profit-making accusations

According to Kaibara Ekken's Chōya zassai (朝野雑載), a fad for hair-cutting started in the Fukuoka area in Enpō 5/1677, and a samurai named Ōoto Rokuzaemon (大音六左衛門) felt his topknot tugged, but didn't realize until his hair had been cut until arriving home. He subsequently had recurrent dreams of yamabushi ascetics cutting his hair.[17]

That kami-kiri or strange hair-cutting became on-going in Edo was already described with examples in the § Concept section. According to Sugita Genpaku's Nochimi gusa, the hair-cutting fad also arose in the year Meiwa 8 (1771) and consequently a yamabushi (practitioner of izuna magic) named Daizenin (大善院) dwelling in the daikon fields of Yushima in Edo performed prayers to ward off the hair-cutting and also sold protective paper charms (fuda) for tidy profit, leading to rumors accusing this yamabushi of using magic to cause the hair loss in the first place. He and other similar practitioners were arrested by the machi-bugyō magistrate, but eventually released as unfounded.[g][19][20]

Besides the shugenja ascetics (i.e. yamabushi) in Edo, there were also wig shopkeepers in Osaka who were punished in Osaka on accusation they were trafficking in the hair obtained from "kamikiri". Again, this might have been a case of scapegoating in order to quell the unrest.[16]

Fetishism

In psychiatry, Zopfabschneider ("hair cutter") is a term for hair fetishists who feel pleasure from cutting off women's hair with a blade, so at least some of the kamikiri legends were conceivably perpetrated by humans. One reason to support this interpretation is that anecdotes tend to name women as victims whose head hairs were targeted.[5][2] 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.[13]

Superstition

In April 1931 (Shōwa 6), a 22 year-old youth named Taue (田植) was arrested for cut off a girl's hair, opportuning on the throng of people out for the ennichi at the Konpira shrine at Shiba, Tokyo. He testified "if I cut the hair of a hundred girls and offer them at a shrine, my feeble body will certainly become healthy," thus providing a superstition as the reason for committing kamikiri.[5]

Other

It is also supposed that rather than being cut by someone or something, that it is simply an illness that results in hair falling off.[14]

In pictures

The kamikiri is illustrated in such picture scrolls (emakimono) as the Bakemono no e and Sawaki Sūshi's Hyakkai zukan ("Illustrated scroll of a hundred mysteries", 1737) from the Edo Period whhich depict the "kamikiri" as a birdlike yōkai with a long beak and scissor- or pincer-like hands.[12][1] Although there is no explanatory text accompanying the paintings in these picture scrolls, some of the paintings also show locks of hair next to the creatures suggesting they were cut off.[1]

Kamikiri no Kidan (1868), a nishiki-e by Utagawa Yoshifuji, also depicts a "kamikiri," but in contrast to the depictions in the aforementioned emakimono, it is depicted as completely black, based on a story of having actually encountered it[8] (cf. image above).

Tobioni

These Bakemonozukushi Emaki (化け物尽し絵巻) (from the Edo Period, now in private possession and entrusted to a museum of the Fukuoka Prefecture), considered to be a yōkai emakimono that was made for putting captions on previously existing yōkai pictures seen in picture scrolls, introduces the "kamikiri" under the name of tobioni (鳶鬼; "kite ogre")[h] In the accompanying caption, they are said to be found around the seaside of Izumo Province, and they are considered to eat the meat of small fish, birds, and mice.[21]

A kamikiri (traditional depiction) appears as a hair stylist in the manga Hozuki's Coolheadedness (Hōzuki no reitetsu) vol. 14.[22]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Kyōgoku, Natsuhiko; Tada, Katsumi [in Japanese] (2000-06-01). "Amikiri" 網剪. Yōkai zukan 妖怪図巻. Kokusho kankōkai. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-4-33-604187-6.
  2. ^ a b c d Murakami, Kenji [in Japanese] (2000). Yōkai jiten 妖怪事典 (in Japanese). Mainichi Shimbunsha. pp. 116–117. ISBN 978-4-620-31428-0.
  3. ^ Murakami, Kenji [in Japanese]; Kodansha Comic Create, eds. (2008). "Edo to yū toshi no yōkai tachi" 江戸という都市の妖怪たち. DISCOVER yōkai: Nihon yōkai hyakka DISCOVER妖怪 日本妖怪大百科. KODANSHA Official File Magazine 10 (in Japanese). Kodansha. p. 15. ISBN 978-4-06-370040-4.
  4. ^ Mozume (1916), pp. 600–601.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Takada, Giichirō [in Japanese] (1936). Hentai iwa 変態医話 (in Japanese). Chiyoda Shoin. pp. 132–137}.
  6. ^ a b c Mozume (1916), p. 601.
  7. ^ Mozume (1916).
  8. ^ a b c Yumoto, Kōichi [in Japanese] (2023). "Kamikiri no kidan" 髪切りの奇談. Konjaku yōkai taikan 今昔妖怪大鑑 [Yokai Museum: The Art of Japanese Supernatural Beings from YUMOTO Koichi Collection]. PIE International. pp. 142–143. ISBN 978-4-756-24337-9. (in Japanese and English)
  9. ^ Kōchi, Zensetsu (March 1904). "Iji sōwa" 医事叢話. Chūgai iji shinpō 中外医事新報 (576). Nihon Ishi Gakkai: 419.
  10. ^ 水木しげる (2004). 妖鬼化. Vol. 1. Softgarage. p. 37. ISBN 978-4-86133-004-9.
  11. ^ Mizuki Shigeru Nihon Yōkai Taikai (日本妖怪大全) Kōdansha 1991, page 105 and 164 ISBN 4-06-313210-2 "Kurokamikiri" is its name in Mizuki Shigeru's writings.
  12. ^ a b c Foster (2015), p. 211; Foster (2024), pp. 260–261
  13. ^ a b Fujimaki, Kazuho (2008). Edo kaiki hyōhonbako 江戸怪奇標本箱. Kashiwa Shobō. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-4-7601-3264-5.
  14. ^ a b Kyōgoku, Natsuhiko; Tada, Katsumi [in Japanese] (2008). "Kappa" 河童. Yōkai gahon・kyōka hyakumonogatari 妖怪画本・狂歌百物語. Kokusho kankōkai. p. 278. ISBN 978-4-33-605055-7.
  15. ^ Nihon hakugaku club (2008). Oedo no toshidensetsu お江戸の「都市伝説」. PHP bunko. PHP Kenkyusho. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-4-569-66995-3.
  16. ^ a b Kagawa, Masanobu (2011). "Kafuku wa bakko suru yōkai no mama ni: Edo no toshi densetsu" 禍福は跋扈する妖怪のままに 江戸の都市伝説. In Gunji, Satoshi (ed.). Kwai 怪. カドカワムック. Vol. 0034. Kadokawa Shoten. pp. 175–176. ISBN 978-4-04-130012-1.
  17. ^ Tanaka (1935), p. 153.
  18. ^ Tanaka (1935), p. 155.
  19. ^ Mozume (1916), p. 600.
  20. ^ Tanaka (1935), pp. 154–155.
  21. ^ Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of History; Kyoto International Manga Museum, eds. (2009). Zusetsu yōkai 図説 妖怪画の系譜. ふくろうの本. Kawade Shobō Shinsha. p. 52. ISBN 978-4-309-76125-1.
  22. ^ Eguchi, Natsumi [in Japanese] (2014-05-23). "116. Keu kegen" 第116話毛羽毛現. Hozuki's Coolheadedness 鬼灯の冷徹. Vol. 14. panel 4. Kodansha. p. 95. ISBN 978-4063883336. (cf. also back cover illustration holding blow dryer @ amazon)

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Takada excludes these (Shokoku rijindan and Hannichi kanwa) from instances of "perverts" acting on their hair-cutting fetishes because no description of the perpetrator was given despite these not occurring at night-time.[5] For the same reason, these are not accounts of yōkai creatures witnessed, but they are instances of kai (strange happenings) compiled under [7]'s entry for "kamikiri no kai" in Kōbunko vol. 5.
  2. ^ 「真黒（まっくろ）なるもの」.
  3. ^ 髻 (see ja wiktionary definition): "place where the hair is gathered and bundled above the head".
  4. ^ Full quote: "諺に野暮と化物なしといへども夫（そ）もまた奇怪珍説なきにしもあらず頃は四月廿日の事なりしが所は番町辺（へん）のさる御屋敷に年ころ奉公せし女中或（ある）夜半の頃 寝所（ねところ）よりおきて厠（かわや）に行しに何者共しらず真黒（まっくろ）なるもの突然と来りて頭（かしら）に当ると覚ゆるが否（いな）俄（にわか）に倒れて人事を知らず此物音に驚きて人々集まり介抱せしかば漸（やや）正気に成たり然るに髻（もとどり）は落て 二 三間はなれたる処にあり其真黒なる物は猫の如くにして恰（あたか）も天鵞絨（びろうど）のごとくなりしとぞ是は正しき書に出たるを爰（ここ）にあらはすもの也".
  5. ^ Lunar calendric 20th day of the 4th month Keiō 3 or 4, which falls on either 23 May 1867 or 12 May 1868
  6. ^ 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".
  7. ^ There was also the shinto practitioner Suzuki Enzan (鈴木圓山) from Ōtsuka and a fortune-teller Nakarai Garyūzan[?] (半井臥龍軒) from Fukagawa accused of using kitsune familiar and genjutsu illusory magic, respectively, to cut people's hair in the first place.[18]
  8. ^ For unknown reasons, all the yōkai in this emaki had their names changed.

References

See also

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