Amabie

◆ The legend

Late in the Edo period, the story goes, something began to glow in the sea off Higo Province (today's Kumamoto) night after night. When a local official went to look, a strange creature rose out of the water. It had long hair, a mouth like a bird's beak, a body covered in scales, and three legs. It called itself "Amabie." That, at least, is the tale preserved on a kawaraban, a single-sheet printed news bulletin of the time.

Amabie is said to have foretold good harvests for some years to come, and to have added: if sickness spreads, copy my likeness and show it to the people. Then it went back into the sea. Creatures like this, which predict the future and ask for their picture to be passed around, are known today as "prophetic beasts," and many such stories circulated on printed sheets during the Edo period.