is a Japanese depicted in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyà  by Toriyama Sekien.
The illustration of the in Toriyama Sekien (1712âÂÂ1788)'s Gazu Hyakki Yagyà  (published 1776) depicts a scorpion-like creature (or a cross between a serpent, bird or a lobster with pincer claws similar to that of a crab or a scorpion), but since Sekien supplies no explanatory text, it is not certain what kind of yà Âkai it is. It may be an off-shoot based on another similar yà Âkai named ("hair-cutter"), which Sekien does not include in his series, but occurs in predecessor (1707âÂÂ1772)'s emaki painting scroll Hyakkai zukan (1737), from which Sekien is known to have borrowed heavily.
In various writings from the Shà Âwa period and beyond, or describes the to be a yà Âkai that cuts mosquito nets, sudare blinds, or nets/meshes hung out to dry.
There may be no authentic folkloric tradition about , and this yà Âkai may merely be Sekien's invention, perhaps based on play on words or some allegory more easily recognizable to people at the time. The yà Âkai researcher hypothesized that Sekien perhaps seized on the pun (double entendre) between "ami" (meaning nets) and "ami" (meaning mysid shrimp) when he invented the creature.
In 's ("Ghost story journey to the Tà Âhoku region", 1974), there is a story taking place in the Shà Ânai region, Yamagata Prefecture about a fishing village whose fishing nets were repeatedly cut into pieces, which got blamed on the amikiri. One person preemptively brought back his nets early and hid at home to avoid the trouble, but his mosquito nets all got cut to tatters (no doubt by the amikiri) and the residents got bitten all over the body by mosquitos. The yà Âkai researcher was unable to corroborate such a story from any other source in Yamagata Prefecture, and concluded it must have been Yamada's invention.