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Andrew from our Nagoya HQ Customer Support team has been looking into tales of a peculiar Japanese ‘Yokai’ and prevention of the spread of the coronavirus.
Yokai are very much part of Japanese culture. They are mythical, mystical and supernatural beings of various powers, shapes and forms that show up across traditional Japanese culture through folklore. They’ve cropped up in art and literature over centuries.
Recently, it seems that people in Japan have enlisted the help of a lesser-known Yokai in the fight against the coronavirus – the ‘Amabie’. This time, on social media.
Think of a mermaid. Now give it three legs, a beak, scales, and long hair down to its feet. Oh, and it glows all over. You’ve got yourself an Amabie.
According to legend, Amabie appeared just once in 1846 in Higo Province (modern-day Kumamoto Prefecture). An official saw the sea glowing and went to investigate, when he got to the beach an Amabie popped out of the water and delivered a message. The mysterious creature stated that there would be six years of good crops, but also an epidemic. The Amabie then told the official to draw its picture and distribute them to guard against illness. The story and drawing were put in a local newspaper, to put a stop to the epidemic.
Despite being a rather obscure story it’s resonating right now, and Amabie pictures have taken off on social media. Japanese celebrities have even gotten into the action and drawn their own idiosyncratic take on the creature. A quick glance at #Amabie on Instagram and you’ll find a huge variation of images and GIF’s as people pin their hopes on the beast, in order to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Even the much loved Kumamoto mascot, Kumamon has had a go.
There are all sorts of interpretations of Amabie. Cute….
..and downright scary. This creation from manga artist Junji Ito…
Japanese folklore has a long tradition of plague-averting creatures. There’s the similarly-named Amabiko, Hakutaku, the Jinja Hime. My personal favourite is Shoki The Demon Queller, an imported Chinese hero who fights disease demons with a huge sword. Pictures of him were hung in homes across the country, in the hope that his ferocious visage would keep plague away.
Here’s my rendition of the Amabie. The main point is that I draw it. I don’t need to be an artist and I will give anything a go once. I suggest you try it too.
