Kunekune

Kunekune originated as a short horror story posted on Japanese Internet message boards (notably 2channel) in 2001 and spread through first-person eyewitness-style retellings and online discussion. Rather than deriving from premodern Shintō or Buddhist cosmologies, the being was created and propagated within online communities and later referenced in lists of Japanese urban legends and in popular-media adaptations.

Consistently described as a slender, white humanoid shape resembling paper or fine fabric (often rendered as a "paper mannequin" or piece of cloth). Its materiality is likened to paper or fabric, and its defining visual trait is continuous, wind-defying wriggling or twisting of limbs and body, giving the impression of perpetual motion even on still days.

Primary behavior is constant writhing or twisting motion; it is said to linger in wide rice fields and open agricultural expanses during hot summer midday hours. Sources do not document consistent canonical supernatural powers, aggression, possession, or ritualized effects; many treatments emphasize sightings and atmosphere. Alternative, non-supernatural explanations proposed in sources include misidentification of scarecrows or textiles, wick drains, thick fog over paddies, or hallucinations from heat stroke and dehydration.