According to a woodblock news sheet dated 1846, a glowing light was seen in the sea off Higo Province, now Kumamoto Prefecture, almost every night. A town official went to look and met a creature with long hair, a bird-like beak, scales from the neck down and three legs or tail fins. It said it was an amabie that lived in the open sea, foretold six years of good harvests, and said that if disease spread, people should show its picture to the sick. Then it went back into the sea.
That print, held by Kyoto University Library, is the only record of the amabie. It is probably a miscopying of the amabiko, a similar prophetic creature known from a dozen or so hand-copied leaflets from the 1840s, some of which name villages that never existed.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the amabie went viral in Japan as a charm against disease, drawn by manga artists and shared widely online.
What the stories say
- A light glowing in the sea at night
- Long hair and a bird-like beak
- Three legs or tail fins
- A message about harvests or sickness
Famous cases
- 1846Amabie said to appear and foretell an epidemic
Kumamoto Prefecture, JapanA woodblock print dated 1846 says a glowing creature with long hair, a beak and scales rose from the sea off Higo Province (today Kumamoto) and told an official that if disease spread, people should show its picture to the sick. The print, kept at Kyoto University Library, is the only early record of the amabie, which became a popular good-luck image again during COVID-19.
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