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A report that scientists have begun tests on a 300-year-old “mermaid mummy” to identify its origins, has stimulated an interest in the existence of mermaids in Japanese folklore.
In Japanese folklore, there is a human fish creature with the mouth of a monkey that lives in the sea called a ningyo (the word in Japanese is composed of the characters for “person” and “fish”). An old Japanese belief was that eating the flesh of a ningyo could grant immortality.
It is believed that one such creature appeared to Prince Shōtoku (574–622) at Lake Biwa, north-east of Kyoto. A semi-legendary figure, Prince Shōtoku was revered for his many political and cultural innovations, most notably for encouraging the spread of Buddhism in Japan. The creature was once a fisherman who had trespassed to fish in protected waters, as punishment he had been transformed into a ningyo and with his dying breaths called upon the prince to absolve him of his crimes.
The “dried mermaid” currently undergoing tests was allegedly caught in the Pacific Ocean, off the Japanese island of Shikoku, between 1736 and 1741, and is now kept in a temple in the city of Asakuchi. Examination of the mermaid has led researchers to believe it is a relic from the Edo period (1603-1868). It was common for Yōkai (spirits and entities) and “living” scary creatures to be displayed for audiences as entertainment in travelling shows, similar to the “freak shows” in the US.
Mermaids in Japan today are no longer tiny clawed creatures with the torso of a monkey and the tail of fish. It would seem that the mermaid, as known in the west, infiltrated Japan at the start of the early 20th century. This coincided with an influx of American culture from army bases at the start of the first world war, as well as the publication of the first Japanese translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.
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