Is this just a Fiji Mermaid? If you aren’t sure what that is, it’s a gaffe created by sewing the upper torso of a monkey to the lower half of a fish. They are works of taxidermy art and can be quite convincing. Is the “mermaid mummy” being worshipped at the Enjuin temple in the city of Asakuchi in Japan, such a fabrication? (Elsewhere in Japan this week, a split boulder may hint that an infamous nine-tailed fox demon has escaped.) Scientists from the Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts intend to find out, set to conduct some tests on the relic.
According to local lore, the mermaid was caught in a fishing net in Kochi Prefecture in the 1700s.
The mummy is in for a thorough examination. “Hiroshi Kinoshita…of the Okayama Folklore Society, will study the mummy from the viewpoint of folklore studies, while Takafumi Kato, a…paleontology professor, will conduct morphology analysis on the upper body of the artifact [and] an associate professor that specializes in ichthyology will study the fish-like lower body [while] an associate professor with expertise in molecular biology will do the DNA analysis.” I’m glad they’re not neglecting the folkloric angle. Even if the mummy turns out to be a gaffe, it is still an historic treasure.
