The supposed 300-year-old mummified "mermaid" that was worshipped in Japan–world history and facts

The supposed 300-year-old mummified "mermaid" that was worshipped in Japan for its immortality-giving powers has been exposed as a fabrication made from cloth, paper, cotton, and fish parts.


The artifact was allegedly caught off the Japanese island of Shikoku between 1736 and 1741 and is now kept at the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi.


Scientists sent the relic for various analyses including CT scanning, radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and fluorescent X-ray analysis, among others. The results revealed that the mummy was manufactured, likely created to cash in on the Japanese fascination with mermaids.

The mermaid mummy's hair is mammalian in origin, while the nails were made from animal keratin, and the jaws were taken from an unknown carnivorous fish. The upper body, meanwhile, was mostly made from cloth, paper, and cotton, with pufferfish skin used on the arms, shoulders, neck, and cheeks.


No internal skeleton was detected, but there were metal needles in the back of the neck and lower body. The bottom half, on the other hand, was made with scales from a croaker fish.


According to Hiroshi Kinoshita of the Okayama Folklore Society, who conceived the study, the mummies were likely made in various parts of Japan as a spectacle or for export to foreign countries.

There were groups and technicians in Japan at the time who had the skills to make these elaborate mummies. Kinoshita added that mermaids have a legend of immortality in Japan, and it is said that if one eats the flesh of a mermaid, they will never die.


There is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid and lived for 800 years. The mermaid mummy's discovery location also had a legend preserved about a mermaid who predicted an infectious disease.



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