Case file · Cryptid
Tsuchinoko hunts of Higashishirakawa
Since 1989 the Gifu village of Higashishirakawa has held an annual tsuchinoko hunt, offering a reward for the fat, short snake of Japanese folklore.
1989 CE · 35.65, 137.32 · status: claim
The account
The tsuchinoko is said to be thick-bodied, to jump, and sometimes to roll like a hoop by biting its tail. It descends from the nozuchi ('field hammer') snake in the 8th-century Kojiki and the 1712 encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue. Other towns such as Yoshii in Okayama offered rewards of millions of yen.
The sceptical view
No specimen has been confirmed; candidate explanations include snakes that have just swallowed prey, blue-tongued skinks escaped from pet owners, and mamushi pit vipers.