The sunekosuri (meaning "rub against lower legs") is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as su ...

. Stories are told of it in

Okayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture borders Tottori Prefecture to the nor ...

and is said to get in the way of people's paths as they walk.

Mythology

According to the 1935 book ''Current Dictionary of Yōkai Nationwide'' (現行全国妖怪辞典) natural historian Satou Seimei they appear on nights when rain falls and rub against the crotches (space between the legs) of people who walk on roads at night. The victims have a little difficulty walking, but no other harm. According to Rin Adashino, this book is the oldest record of the sunekosuri. According to folklore from

Ibara is a city located in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on March 30, 1953. , the city has an estimated population of 41,460 and a population density of 170 people per km². The total area is . Mergers On March 1, 2005, the tow ...

in Nankaichi town within this city, sunekosuri would appear beside a shrine called Iryō-dō, and it would move through the space between the legs of pedestrians and would take the shape of a dog. In Yoshii, Shitsuki District, Okayama Prefecture, there are stories of a similar spirit called sunekkorogashi (meaning "make lower legs fall over"). A legend states that it would slip into darkness at night and pull on people's legs, making them fall over. Children were made to fall over and hurt their noses.

In Media

They have been given various appearances in fictional works. In Mizuki Shigeru's manga ''

GeGeGe no Kitarō , originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as ''yōkai'', a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters ...

'', it takes on the appearance of a cat rolled into a ball. People who claimed to have actually witnessed one often claim that "it was like a cat". Yōkai researcher Yamaguchi Binatarō claimed that this was because of Mizuki Shigeru's influence. Some

netsuke A is a miniature sculpture, originating in 17th century Japan. Initially a simply-carved button fastener on the cords of an box, later developed into ornately sculpted objects of craftsmanship. History Traditionally, Japanese clothing – ...

resemble Mizuki's design, creating the possibility that they referred to Mizuki's design. In the movie ''

The Great Yokai War is a 2005 Japanese fantasy film directed by Takashi Miike, produced by Kadokawa Pictures and distributed by Shochiku. The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Chiaki Kuriyama, and Mai Takahashi. The film focuses largely on creatu ...

'' sunekosuri appeared as yellow and white lumps of hair with cute eyes.『妖怪大戦争』全日本妖怪推進委員会・編『写真で見る日本妖怪大図鑑』角川書店 2005年 In the 2018 anime adaptation of ''

'', the sunekokusuri takes the appearance of a small, chubby,

tabby cat A tabby is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a distinctive 'M'-shaped marking on its forehead; stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, and around its legs and tail; and (differing by tabby type), characteristic striped, ...

, having forgotten his true form. It appears as a

bakeneko The (, "changed cat") is a type of Japanese , or supernatural entity; more specifically, it is a , or supernatural cat. It is often confused with the , another cat-like . The distinction between them is often ambiguous, but the largest difference ...

creature feeding on human lifeforce, forced to leave his dwelling. While the village was thriving he could easily feed from many people and never harm anyone, but with the massive

population decline A population decline (also sometimes called underpopulation, depopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size. Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth's total human population ...

in rural Japan he ended up unwillingly stealing too much lifeforce from the remaining, elderly citizens. In the 2020 video game

Nioh 2 is an action role-playing video game developed by Team Ninja for the PlayStation 4. It was published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and Sony Interactive Entertainment worldwide on March 13, 2020. It is both a prequel and sequel to ''Nioh'' (2017). Versio ...

, the sunekosuri- localized as "Scampuss"- appears as a helpful yokai that looks like a chubby cat and aids the player.

Mythology

In Media

References

See also