Case file · Folklore / legend
The kutabe of Mount Tate
An 1827 account says that a creature with a human face, called kutabe, met an herb gatherer on Mount Tate and foretold an epidemic that its picture could ward off.
1827 CE · 36.58, 137.62 · status: legend
The account
It is an early form of the kudan, a calf with a human face that is born, speaks a true prophecy and dies. Kudan rumours resurfaced in wartime Japan, including claims of prophecies of the end of the war.
The sceptical view
Like the amabie, the kudan belongs to the genre of sold 'prophecy beast' prints; human-faced calves may echo real malformed births.