A Kakashi (案山子 (かかし)) is a Japanese scarecrow; a humanoid decoy or mannequin that is placed in open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.
A modern and uniquely Japanese form of scarecrow are yellow plastic balloons with one black "eye". These balloons are representations of the kami spirit Amatsumara; the one-eyed kami of ironworking who comes to the fields to protect them before the harvest.
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- Some villages have scarecrow festivals and competitions.
- In the Edo period, this word was pronounced "kagashi", meaning something that smells heinously, because the farmers used to hang up rotten fish or hides from animals before using humanoid stand-ins. Some villages still use this practise.
- In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan (compiled in the year 712), a scarecrow known as Kuebiko appears as a deity who cannot walk, yet knows everything about the world.
- In Monster Musume I ♥ Monster Girls Volume 1 it is claimed that Papi is a bit afraid of Manako, because Manako's large single eye reminds the Harpy of a kagashi. While the semi-canon of the anthology spinoff series makes it unconfirmed whether Papi is afraid of Manako in the manga series as well (they don't interact often but seem to get along well together), in Chapter 43 it can be seen that Papi, due to their bird-like characteristics, actually instinctively panics about kagashis when Suu scared the Harpy for fun with an imitation of a single, circular eye.