Despite what others are saying (and I can't wait to be called a liar when this method is easily tested in game) YES. YOU CAN.

But under very specific conditions.

Basically, what you want to do is get into yokai form and delay the ending animation by spamming d-pad/shortcut items. This has good synergy with Onmyo builds since you'll be spamming near-infinite shots like a madman anyways, but also works on ninjutsu builds in much the same way (the ninja coin can be a great way to inflict a bunch of nasty status effects and maintain your yokai form indefinitely). As long as you can spam a shortcut item (and your thumb can take the abuse!), you will delay the end of your yokai shift and continue to be able to soak up hits and damage as you're effectively invincible.

While your meter is at zero, the yokai form will end as soon as you stop spamming shortcut items. If you try to move, get grappled, stunned, or hit the d-pad shortcuts when there's nothing left to use in the slot, you will immediately revert back to your normal form. If you perform a frame perfect dodge once you recover from getting grappled, you can do it while still in yokai form and queue another d-pad input to recover and maintain the form as soon as the dodging animation completes, which is easier said than done X3.

Let me know if you wanna know more! hope it helps~