Greetings yokai fans!

Take a deep dive into Okinawa’s tropical waters with Bitan, the healing cow of the sea! I’m happy to get to do some Okinawan yokai again now that I am leaning heavy into the aquatic theme. Back when I was doing kitsune, I had to basically leave Okinawa out of the equation due to the lack of foxes and Inari worship on the southern islands. But now that I am doing undersea critters, I can cover some of the really neat yokai from this area.

And they fit especially well with the summer weather!

ビタン
びたん

Translation: unknown
Habitat: ocean (around Taketomi Island, Okinawa)
Diet: unknown

Appearance: Bitan are large, chubby, cow-like sea creatures which lives in the waters around Okinawa. They have horns and beards like a dragon. Their bodies are fish-like and densely covered in scales. Their tails are split in two.

Behavior: Nothing is recorded about bitan’s natural behavior. However, the locals of Taketomi Island claim that the image of a bitan has magical healing properties.

Interactions: Copying a picture of a bitan and hanging it on your wall is said to cure headaches immediately. As evidence of its healing power, the people of Taketomi Island are said to rarely suffer from headaches.

Origin: Bitan appears in Ryūkyū kitan, published in 1832. It was written by Beizanshi, a traveler from Suzhou, China who visited the Ryūkyū islands and recorded what he witnessed.

The bitan strongly resembles the roku, another cow-like fish found in the Chinese encyclopedia Shan hai jing. However the resemblance seems to be coincidental, as there is no evidence which links the two creatures.

Legends: Long ago, during the reign of Tensonshi, the first dynasty of the Ryūkyū islands, there lived a woman named Bintara. She worked in the royal palace as a housemaid. One day she entered the water and transformed into a sea creature. The creature came to be known as a bitan. That even a lowly housemaid could transform into such a miraculous, healing fish is a testament to the holiness of the Tensoshi dynasty.