Funny you should say that, the minish are based on them c:
They're originally a lil mythological earth spirit people from the ainu people of Northern japan (in and around hokkaido).
The minish and the harvest sprites from harvest moon /story of seasons are inspired by them and shaman king had one as a semi regular character. Its super neat.
I see. And I knew about that one shaman king character but idk I've not been reading japanese mithology (I only know some yokais and monsters) and there are still stuff unknown for me lol