The frightening monster, which was purportedly caught between 1736 and 1741 in the Pacific Ocean off Japan, resembles a person with the exception of its deformed face, razor-sharp pointed teeth, and fish tail.
In order to learn the truth about a mummified ‘mermaid,’ scientists will investigate its flesh to see if it may provide eternal life to those who consume it.
Fishermen purportedly caught the “mermaid” off the coast of Kochi Prefecture, on Japan’s Shikoku island, between 1736 and 1741, and it is now housed in the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi.
Researchers from Okayama’s Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts have taken the odd specimen for CT scanning in an attempt to solve the riddle of its origins.
The gruesome-looking specimen, according to project leader Hiroshi Kinoshita of the Okayama Folklore Society, may have religious significance.
He said: “Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality. 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 legend is also preserved near the temple where the mermaid mummy was found.
“I heard that some people, believing in the legend, used to eat the scales of mermaid mummies.”
A letter found next to the mummy, allegedly written by a previous owner in 1903, purports to explain the tale of the fishy creature’s origins.
It reads: “A mermaid was caught in a fish-catching net in the sea off Kochi Prefecture.”
“The fishermen who caught it did not 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.”
The exact date the specimen was delivered to the Enjuin temple is unknown, but according to chief priest Kozen Kuida, the “mermaid” was put on display in a glass case 40 years ago and has since been transferred to a fireproof safe.
He told The Asahi Shimbun: “We have worshipped it, hoping that it would help alleviate the coronavirus pandemic even if only slightly.”
Mr Kinoshita said that a mermaid foreshadowed the outbreak of an infectious sickness in Japanese mythology.
While the priests of Enjuin temple may revere the mummified specimen, Mr Kinoshita believes it was made on purpose during Japan’s Edo period, which lasted from 1603 to 1867.
He said: “Of course, I don’t think it’s a real mermaid.
“I think this was made for export to Europe […] or for spectacles in Japan.
“The legend of mermaids remains in Europe, China, Japan, and all over the world. Therefore, I can imagine that people at that time were also very interested in it.
“I think it is made from living animals and we would like to identify them by CT scans or DNA testing.
“It looks like a fish with scales on the lower body and a primate with hands and a face on the upper body.”
In reality, a creature known as a Ningyo — literally, “human fish” — is portrayed in Japanese legend as having the mouth of a monkey, small teeth like a fish, shimmering golden scales, and the sound of a small bird.
There has been a lot of history with cryptozoological hoaxes like this.
P.T. Barnum, the American businessman and circus owner whose life was the inspiration for the 2017 film “The Greatest Showman,” had a similar specimen on display at his “American Museum” in New York from 1842 to 1865, when the building burned down.
The so-called Fiji mermaid was made up of the mummified body and head of a juvenile monkey sewn onto the tail of a fish. It was named after the islands near where it was reportedly caught in the South Pacific.
The specimen sparked a series of imitative hoaxes, one of which may be seen at the Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton, England.
The full findings of the mummy’s re-examination will be released later this year.
Image Credit: PEN NEWS
You were reading: Mummified “mermaid” as said grants immortality to whoever eats its flesh: the tail of a fish