Ashimagari - 足まがり - [yokai]

Ashimagari  - [yokai] - "足まがり" - "Leg turner"

• About this yokai: An invisible, mysterious fluffy yokai that clings to the legs of those walking out at twilight. It is unseen, but something soft & fluffy tangles & clings around your legs until you can't move anymore,  impeding you until you trip. Those who reach down to touch it, describe the sensation of touching cotton or perhaps an animal's tail, But Touching it causes it to float away, "ascending to the heavens!!" - usually believed to be the work of a tanuki or a prank by some other yokai.

• History: Folklore and stories about Ashi-magari, earliest recorded date seems to be 1918. (though they do likely date back orally a bit longer.) they are most commonly found in Kagawa Prefecture & Similar stories are found spotted across the island of Shikoku. - In the local dialect, (to my understanding) "Magari" can to mean "Cling" or "get in the way." as the name implies; simply, it's a yokai that likes to trip you up! - Mysterious Yokai who "Cling to the Legs" can be found in folklore across Japan: yokai such as the "Sunekosuri" (Okayama), "Obo" (a weasel, (itachi) from Gunma & Niigata) & a few others. - Ashi-magari is usually blamed as a tanuki or kitsune prank, but as for its true identity, it is unclear whatever it may be as its usually unseen/invisible! [I've seen a few people choose to illustrate cats or even Amorpheous blobs/clouds, though the tanuki with a cloud for a tail is the most common.]

'Tanuki Pranks' of this sort are usually called "打綿狸" or "Uchiwata-tanuki" (Strike-Cotton Tanuki.) - [as recorded in 1927's Awano Tanuki no hanashi [阿波の狸の話]] this tanuki behavior is described nearly identically. - In the area, most types of yokai phenomenon were ultimately blamed on tanuki, so; there are a lot of parallel behaviours to other yokai, it can be difficult to say which came first, the yokai in question, or the tanuki prank, (Perhaps the opposite could be said too.)

• Here are a couple of 'Cotton-Tanuki' stories:

in Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, between the vicinity of two tailor shops, a ball of cotton can be  found on the road, but if you try to pick it up, runs and then flies away into the sky!! [1] - its also said that a large ball of cotton can be seen rolling down the road, if you try to pick it up or kick it away, it grows until it gets so large that it becomes too big to kick, making it impossible to walk, it engulfs you. [2] - (See Yokai: Tsuchikorobi)

There is also an audio phenomena found around old bridges, where something that sounds like wet cotton is being pressed. - If you look for it, you wont find it. - Naturally, these sorts of strange phenomena were also blamed on tanukis pranks. (See Yokai: Azuki Arai, Tanuki Bayashi)
• see also: Tanuki pranks.