Amikiri
is a Japanese yōkai depicted in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien.
Concept
The illustration of the amikiri in Toriyama Sekien 's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō depicts a scorpion-like creature, but since Sekien supplies no explanatory text, it is not certain what kind of yōkai it is. It may be an off-shoot based on another similar yōkai named kamikiri, which Sekien does not include in his series, but occurs in predecessor 's emaki painting scroll Hyakkai zukan, from which Sekien is known to have borrowed heavily.In various writings from the Shōwa period and beyond, or describes the amikiri to be a yōkai that cuts mosquito nets, sudare blinds, or nets/meshes hung out to dry.
There may be no authentic folkloric tradition about amikiri, and this yōkai may merely be Sekien's invention, perhaps based on play on words or some allegory more easily recognizable to people at the time. The yōkai researcher hypothesized that Sekien perhaps seized on the pun between "ami" and "ami" when he invented the creature.