Japanese scientists are investigating a mysterious 12-inch creature that was reportedly caught in the Pacific Ocean off the Japanese island of Shikoku between 1736 and 1741.
The astonishing mummified creature is now kept in a temple in the city of Asakuchi. Shaped like a mermaid, the creature has a lower body with hair, teeth, nails and scales.
With a smiling face, fangs, two hands, and hair on the head and brows, this is a terrifyingly human form – except for the fish-like lower half.
Researchers from Kurashiki University of Science and Arts have taken the mummy for a CT scan to unravel its secrets. NYT report good.
Hiroshi Kinoshita of the Okayama Folklore Society, who came up with the project, told the NYT that the strange creature may have had religious significance.
“Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality,” he said.
“It is said that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid, you will never die.”
“There is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid and lived for 800 years.”
“This ‘Yao-Bikuni’ legend is also preserved near the temple where the mermaid mummy was found.”
“I have heard that some people, believing in the legend, used to eat the scales of mermaid mummies.”
“There is also a legend that a mermaid predicted an infectious disease,” Hiroshi said.
In addition, a historical letter from 1903, apparently written by a former owner, was placed near the mummy and gives a story about its emergence.
“A mermaid was caught in a fishing net in the sea near Kochi province,” the letter said.
“The fishermen who caught it didn’t know it was a mermaid, but took it to Osaka and sold it as an unusual fish. My ancestors bought it and kept it as a family treasure.”
It is not yet clear when and how the mummies arrived at Asakuchi’s Enzuin Temple.
But the chief priest, Kozen Kuida, said it was displayed in a glass case some 40 years ago and is now kept in a fireproof vault.
“We have worshiped it, hoping it will help ease the coronavirus pandemic, even if it is just a little,” he told the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
Kinoshita, however, takes a more pragmatic view of the creature.
One claim of Origin is that it may have been a hoax and that the creature may have been an article of the show intended to be exported to Europe, according to another report.
The scientists’ findings are expected to be published later in 2022.
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