Tonight’s yokai is one that pops up from time to time in yokai tales, but is far less common than kitsune or tanuki, or even mujina. This is a mami, a beast whose name today means badger, but has been identified with different mammals in different parts of Japan for centuries. They seem to straddle the line between badger and raccoon dog, but there has never been a hard and clear definition for what animal this word refers to. From Negishi’s entry, It sounds like even in the Edo period there was some confusion as to what kind of animal the mami was. The final line of this story is precious! I hope you enjoy it!

The Strange Beast Called a Mami

There was a man named Matsuno Hachirobei who served as a messenger for some time before retiring due to illness. His estate was in Banchō. In the spring of the 6th year of Tenmei (1786), the year of the horse, there was a wild rumor that a strange beast had appeared at his estate.

A certain man named Yoshida who worked for Hachirobei later came to work for me, and I inquired about the truth of the matter. Yoshida had stopped working for Matsuno by then, but when he asked an old colleague of his, the details of the story matched perfectly.

One night, something leaped out at a guard who was patrolling the grounds. The guard tried to drive it away with his staff, but the thing latched on to the staff. Startled, he fled to the home of another employee, Nakamura Sakubei, and hid there.

Sakubei immediately went out to investigate. It was much bigger than a dog, its eyes gleamed like the sun or moon, and its skin was gray. When he struck it with his staff, it felt like hitting a toad’s back. Gradually, other people came out and chased the strange beast away. The beast entered a great thicket on the edge of the property and, since it was a dark night, it vanished from sight.

After that it never came back, but what on earth could it have been? Yoshida recounted that someone said it was something called a mami, but could such a thing be possible?