Mystery Of The World – After being a mystery for almost 300 years, scientists have finally found the answer to the curiosity of people almost all over the world about mermaids. The discovery of a 12 inch mermaid mummy that is centuries old.
Reported by Mystery Of The World from The Sun, Tuesday (14/6/2024), the creature is actually a man-made material made from paper, cloth and cotton. It is known that the creature was allegedly discovered in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the Japanese island of Shikoki between 1736 and 1741.
The ‘creature’ worshiped by the local (Japanese) population was kept in a temple in the city of Asakuchi for approximately 40 years. With pointed teeth, two arms and hair on his head and forehead, he has a frightening human appearance. However, at the bottom it looks like an animal which is a fish and is thought to be a mermaid .
Local residents are said to have worshiped the mysterious ‘creature’ for years and believe that it will grant immortality to anyone who tastes its flesh.
Man-made in the late 1800s
Chief Kozen Kuida told Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun that they also used the opportunity to worship him. This is understandable because it is hoped that it can help reduce the number of people infected with the Covid-19 virus at that time.
However, everything came to light when researchers from Kurashiki University of Science and Arts took samples for testing and computed tomography (CT) scans last year. The research results show that the ‘creature’ is an artificial material produced by humans in the late 1800s.
Scientists say the lower part of the body came from the fish’s tail, but believe it is a man-made addition. Researchers found that its jaw and teeth were taken from a fish, while the hair on its head came from a mammal.
Mermaids and Japanese legends
Meanwhile, Okayama folklorist Hiroshi Kinoshita said the ‘creature’ may have an important meaning in their beliefs. Chief Kozen Kuida also said that it would continue with worship carried out by local residents.
“Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality. It is said that if you eat mermaid meat, you will not die forever. There is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate mermaid meat and lived for 800 years,” he claimed, reported by The Sun.
He believes it was produced around the Edo period, an era of Japanese history that lasted from 1603 to 1867. He also thinks the ‘creature’ was made for export to Europe during the Edo period.
“The legend of mermaids lives on in Europe, China and Japan all over the world. So I can imagine people at that time were also very interested in it,” he added.
