Greetings yokai lovers! Before today’s post I just wanted to give a quick update on the post – the mail, that is.

Postcards for October went out successfully with the same two exceptions: Australia and Saudi Arabia. Those two countries are still not receiving mail from Japan.

Prints can’t be mailed yet, however small parcels are finally moving. Which means that it probably won’t be too much longer before larger parcels, i.e. prints can be sent again. So my fingers are crossed that will be soon! Thanks again for your patience with Japan Post!

Kutsuchi no mushi クツチの虫

Translation: epilepsy worm

This creepy looking fellow is called kutsuchi no mushi, and it lives in your lungs. It has a bird-like beak on its head and sinister white eyes. Its belly is white and segmented like a snakes, and it has a blueish band running down its back. Its tail is bifurcated.

This mushi causes its host to suddenly lose consciousness, dropping to the floor as if dead. They vomit white foam from their mouths and they cannot be roused. These fits last for two to four hours, after which they regain consciousness. Long ago, this sickness was called kutsuchi.* Today we know it as epilepsy (tenkan in today’s Japanese).

Interestingly, Harikikigaki lists no treatment for this infectious yokai. Presumably no known herbal remedies had any effect on epilepsy.

*Originally kutsuchi meant snoring, but at some point it came to be used as a slang for madness or insanity. The fits these patients suffered were thought to be some form of madness, so the disease came to be called kutsuchi.