Here’s one more sea creature you don’t want to run into, Ningyo, the Japanese mermaid. Unlike the cute, sexy Disney version we’re all used to seeing by now, the Japanese mermaid is nothing to look at. Additionally, it can’t speak, has a very pleasant smell, and is supposed to grant immortality to those who eat it. Some of the ancient sketches are even more horrible-looking than mine below, but I’ll leave you to look them up. While you’re searching, you might also come across a number of pretty awful-looking abominations crafted by sewing two corpses together to display in temples throughout the country… It’s amazing what people will do, right?

Anyway, the stories about Japanese mermaids are generally not happy ones. They are often harbingers of bad luck, and fishermen who were unfortunate enough to catch a ningyo would quickly throw it back and hope nothing bad would happen to them.

There’s another story, from right here in good ol’ Fukui prefecture. A long time ago, in the southern half of the prefecture, then called Wakasa province, a fisherman caught a strange fish and decided to serve it up to his friends. One of the friends took a peek in the kitchen to see this odd fish and noticed it had a human face, so he warned the other friends not to eat it. So they all did the old napkin trick, and hid the fish, planning to throw it out later. However, one of them got really drunk, forgot to throw it out, and later gave it to his daughter. After she ate it, she stopped aging, and it’s said she lived in Obama city (that’s right, Obama!) until the ripe old age of 800, when she took her own life (after seeing her friends, husband, children, grandchildren, and so on all pass away).

Ningyo

Anyone want some sushi?