300-Year-Old Okayama 'Mermaid Mummy' Origin Investigated: Could It Be a Gruesome Fish and Monkey Mix?

Worshipped for centuries, the 300-year-old mummy in Okayama, Japan, was recently subject to researchers' investigation. Hoping to find the origins of the mysterious remains, experts stumble upon the creature's gruesome reality.

The mummified mermaid mummy is preserved in a box resting in an Okayama prefecture temple. Since its initial recovery, the mermaid mummy was kept at the heart of Honshu Island, Japan. Although housed in the region for centuries, its origin and reason for existence remained a mystery.

Mysteries of Okayama's Mermaid Mummy

(Photo: Felix Rottmann from Pexels)

Due to its supposed medicinal properties, the mummy has been worshipped for centuries. Recently researchers in Japan began investigating the mysteries of the mermaid mummy, hypothesizing that it's most likely an amalgam of a monkey's torso sewed onto a fish's tail, possibly embellished with human nails and hairs.

Board member of the Okayama Folklore Society, Hiroshi Kinoshita, discovered the 12 inches mummy inside a box at the Okayama Prefecture temple. He first became aware of the mermaid mummy's existence after stumbling upon a picture of the bizarre specimen in a mythical creature encyclopedia. Supposedly, it was initially caught by a fisherman between 1736-1741. Subsequently, the specimen was sold to an affluent family. Researchers are still unsure as to how the mermaid mummy ended up inside the Okaya temple, according to The Asahi Shimbun.

Today, a paleontologist at the Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Takafumi Kato, with his colleagues, began looking into the origins of the bizarre mermaid mummy after Kinoshita convinced the Okayama temple to let researchers investigate and analyze the remains.

On February 2nd, researchers used CT images to understand the Okayama mummy's structure better, as seen in the video. The team also took DNA samples to identify which species to construct the mermaid. Results of the study are set to be published later in the year.

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Real or Fake: Understanding the Lore of Okayama's Mermaid Mummy

Okayama's mermaid mummy draws similarities with two Japanese mythical creatures: the Amabies - beaked mermaids with three distinct tail fins; and the Ningyos - fish-like creatures with human heads. Both these creatures are associated with tales of miraculous health and increased longevity. In a famous tale, a woman, Yao Bikuni, has lived for 800 years after she accidentally consumed an entire Ningyo, reports the Metro.

Priests at the temple looked to the mermaid mummy as an omen of prosperous health. Kozen Kuida, head priest at the temple, explains that they worshipped the Okayama mummy hoping that it would alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Priests at the temple say that they hope the discoveries and studies on the mummified mermaid would add to its legacy and help it live on in future folklore. Kuida says that he hopes the research project leaves scientific records for the next generation.

Fake mermaids have been created numerous times in the past. Being sold to curious Western tourists. Similar hoaxes have been debunked, such as the Feejee Mermaid sold to Dutch tourists in Japan in 1810, which eventually ended up in the US, a part of P.T Barnum's famous collection reports LiveScience.