6/5/2023 0 Comments Mermaid findings![]() ![]() Where science says no, human ingenuity bridges the gap. Ningyo are worshiped at several other temples across the country, and during the early years of European travelers visiting Japan, fake mermaids were sold to curious Western tourists who were unfamiliar with the legend. ![]() ![]() This isn’t the first “mermaid” that’s been found in Japan. While those results haven’t yet been released, there’s a likely explanation: Someone may have grafted the head and torso of a monkey onto the tail of a fish and then added embellishments of human hair and nails. In February 2022, the temple priests agreed to let scientists examine the body using a CT scan and take DNA samples to evaluate its genetic makeup. Notes left inside the mummy’s original box indicate that the creature was supposedly caught in the mid-18th century, sold to an affluent family, and eventually passed on to the temple. After coming across a picture of mummified ningyo remains in a book about mythical creatures, he was able to track the body back to the temple, where it was worshiped as an omen of good health. The effort began with Hiroshi Kinoshita, a board member of the Okayama Folklore Society. Of Monkeys and MerfolkĮarlier this year, scientists got the chance to examine one of these ningyo up close and in person after it was found inside a safe in an Okayama Prefecture temple. Thanks to American and European influence, Japanese conceptions of merfolk have slowly shifted to the more familiar human-fish hybrid. On his deathbed, he appeared to Prince Shotoku and asked the prince to forgive him for his crimes and build a temple to display his remains as a reminder of the sanctity of life - and not to trespass. Supposedly, the creature came into being when a fisherman trespassed into protected waters and was cursed to wander the ocean as a monkey-fish mix. Head to Japan and you’ll hear tales of the ningyo, a monkey-fish hybrid that lives in the sea. In the collection of Middle Eastern folktales known as One Thousand and One Nights, mermaids have faces and hair like women and tails like fish, but their hands and feet are inside their bellies. Sailors often associated mermaids with sirens who lured ships off course and their crews to rocky deaths on shoals or reefs. In Scottish folklore, mermaids achieved their underwater ability by wearing the skin of a fish, and if they lost this skin while on land, they wouldn’t be able to return. ![]() In Europe and North America, the top half of a mermaid’s body resembles that of a human woman, while the bottom is a fishtail. Of course, what exactly a mermaid looks like depends on your source material. It also stands to reason that sailors and people living on shorelines sometimes saw things they couldn’t explain, and many believed what they were seeing took the form of a half-human, half-fish creature. Indeed, for hundreds of years sea travel was the only option for inter-ocean transport. It makes sense, as the sea is both a mysterious force and an essential part of life for many people. Myths surrounding mermaids, and to a lesser extent mermen, have existed for centuries. Is it interesting to see what they’ve come up with? Absolutely. Have merfolk fanatics had any luck? Not a bit. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) puts it simply: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” Unsurprisingly, however, this hasn’t stopped the search for proof of mermaids that could upend the scientific status quo. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.Do mermaids exist? Sadly, we can definitely say no, they do not. Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology - in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few.īut are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 30,000 years ago, when modern humans gained dominion over the land and, presumably, began to sail the seas. The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. The aboriginal people of Australia call mermaids yawkyawks – a name that may refer to their mesmerizing songs. In the ancient Far East, mermaids were the wives of powerful sea-dragons, and served as trusted messengers between their spouses and the emperors on land. The ancient Greek epic poet Homer wrote of them in The Odyssey. Mermaids - those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea - are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial. ![]()
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