is a historical Japanese derogatory term for renegade local clans, and also the name for a race of spider-like in Japanese folklore. Alternative names for the mythological Tsuchigumo include and . In the Kojiki and in Nihon Shoki, the name was phonetically spelled with the four kanji (for the four morae tsu-chi-gu-mo), and these words were frequently used in the of Mutsu, Echigo, Hitachi, Settsu, Bungo and Hizen as well as others. The name is believed to be derived from . means "earth" and means "hiding". The word is thought to have referred to a local clan of powerful people who did not obey the imperial court and lived in caves. As a local clan, the were described as short in stature but long in limbs, with the temperament of a wolf and the heart of an owl, and living an uncivilized life. Historian Sōkichi Tsuda (ja) points out that unlike Kumaso and Emishi, is not treated as a group in the , but as an individual name. The historian Yoshiyuki Takioto (ja) also deduces that the were local chieftains with shamanism as their power background from the fact that the in the of Kyushu appear as sorcerers related to agriculture who appease angry . The giant spider-like figure of the as a -like first appeared in medieval literary works. The most representative work among these tales is The Tale of the Heike, compiled in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) in the first half of the 13th century, in which it appears under the name . As the passed through the ages, it became a more bizarre-looking . In the 14th-century , the is depicted as a giant 60 meters long, and when it was exterminated, 1990 heads of the dead came out of its belly. Minamoto no Yorimitsu and Watanabe no Tsuna, who participated in the extermination of the in these stories, are legendary heroes in Japan; they also appear in the legend of the powerful . The as a also appeared as the subject of Noh, Jōruri and Kabuki plays. In history Tsuchigumo of the Katsuragi Of the clans referred to as tsuchigumo, those of the Mount Yamato Katsuragi are particularly well known. was said to be the remains where Emperor Jimmu captured tsuchigumo and buried their head, body and feet separately to prevent their grudges from harming the living. In historic Yamato Province, the unique physical characteristics of