Case file · Folklore / legend
Amabie of the Higo coast
An 1846 woodblock sheet reported that a glowing creature with a beak, long hair and three legs rose from the sea off Higo (Kumamoto), foretold good harvests and an epidemic, and told people to share its picture.
1846 CE · 32.70, 130.55 · status: legend
The account
The sheet is kept at Kyoto University Library. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 the image went viral in Japan as a charm against disease, and the health ministry used it on posters.
The sceptical view
Prophecy creatures (yogen-jū) on broadsheets were sold as protective images; the sighting itself is part of that genre.