In Japanese folklore, the is a fictional being typically described as having a slender, white, paper (or fabric-like) humanoid shape, which is usually said to appear in fields on hot summer days.
The story originated on the Internet as a Japanese urban legend, being first mentioned on websites in 2001. Its name, Kunekune, is derived from its alleged behavior of wiggling its limbs. The Kunekune may be explained by people being confused by the appearance of scarecrows or wick drains.
Description The Kunekune is said to resemble a slender, white humanoid shape, like a paper mannequin or a piece of fine fabric. It is said that the being can be found at lunchtime during hot summer days. The Kunekune lingers in widely extended rice fields or acres, in rare cases it might be found over the open sea. Its limbs are said to wiggle permanently, as if there was a straight gust of wind, even if it was a windless day. This behaviour gave the being the Japanese name "Kunekune", meaning "to twist", "to wiggle" or "to meander".Richard Freeman: The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia: The A-Z of Japanese Monsters. CFZ Press, Myrtle Cottage, Bideford 2010, , p. 200.Yamaguchi Satoshi Taro: 本当にいる日本の「現代妖怪」図鑑. Ryukura Verlag, Tokyo 2007, , p. 19-23.Ito Ryuhei: 「ネット怪談「くねくね. In: 世間話研究, 18. Ausgabe. Smalltalk Study Group, Kyoto 2008, p. 55-57.
Background Kunekune first appeared in a short horror story posted on 2channel in 2001. The story was well-received on 2channel, inspiring other users to share their own similar stories. Kunekune stories are all written in the first-person singular in an attempt to make them look like eyewitness reports. A similar phenomenon can be observed with the case of both the Slender Man and Hanako-san.
The appearance of the Kunekune may be the result of confusion with traditional scarecrows, which are found in fields of rice and barley, , or snake worship, like . It could also possibly be a mis-identification of wick drains. Another possible explanation might be thick clouds of fog, which tend to appear over rice fields during lunchtime. A third possibility might be hallucinations, created by heat stroke and dehydration during hot summer days.
References
External links Kunekune at scaryforkids (English) Background information about the Kunekune at blog.livedoor.jp (Japanese) Collected stories about the Kunekune at totalmatomedia.com (Japanese)