Amabie
Amabie is a legendary Japanese mermaid or merman with a bird beak-like mouth and three legs or tail-fins, who allegedly emerges from the sea, prophesies either an abundant harvest or an epidemic, and instructed people to make copies of its likeness to defend against illness.
The amabie appears to be a variant or misspelling of the amabiko or amahiko, otherwise known as the amahiko-nyūdo, also a prophetic beast depicted variously in different examples, being mostly as 3-legged or 4-legged, and said to bear ape-like, daruma doll-like, or bird-like, or fish-like resemblance according to commentators.
This information was typically disseminated in the form of illustrated woodblock print bulletins or pamphlets or hand-drawn copies. The amabie was depicted on a woodblock print marked with an 1846 date, which is located at Kyoto University Library and the only known documentation. Attestation to the amabiko predating amabie had not been known until the discovery of a hand-painted leaflet dated 1844.
There are also other similar yogenjū that are not classed within the amabie/''amabiko group, e.g., the arie''.
Legend
According to legend, an amabie appeared in Higo Province, around the middle of the fourth month, in the year Kōka-3 in the Edo period. A glowing object had been spotted in the sea, almost on a nightly basis. The town's official went to the coast to investigate and witnessed the amabie. According to the sketch made by this official, it had long hair, a mouth like bird's bill, was covered in scales from the neck down and three-legged. Addressing the official, it identified itself as an amabie and told him that it lived in the open sea. It went on to deliver a prophecy: "Good harvest will continue for six years from the current year; if disease spreads, draw a picture of me and show the picture of me to those who fall ill." Afterward, it returned to the sea. The story was printed in the , where its portrait was printed, and this is how the story disseminated in Japan.Amabiko group
There is only one unique record of an amabie, whose meaning is uncertain. It has been conjectured that this amabie was simply a miscopying of "amabiko", a yōkai creature that can be considered identical. Like the amabie, the amabiko is a three-legged or multi-legged prophesizing creature which prescribes the display of its artistic likeness to defend against sickness or death. However, the appearance of the amabie is said to be rather mermaid-like, and for this reason one researcher concludes there is not enough of a close resemblance in physical appearance between the two.Name variations
There are a dozen or more attestations of amabiko or amahiko extant, with the copies dated 1843 perhaps being the oldest.Locality of appearances
Four describe appearances in Higo Province, one report the Amabiko Nyūdo in neighboring Hyuga Province, another vaguely points to the western sea.Beyond those clustered in the south, two describe appearances in Echigo Province in the north.
The two oldest accounts do not closely specify the locations, but several accounts name specific village or counties that turn out to be nonexistent fictitious place names.
Physical characteristics
The accompanying caption texts describes some as glowing or having ape-like voices, but description of physical appearance is rather scanty. The newspapers and commentators however provide iconographic analysis of the pictorials.The majority of pictorial represent the amabiko/''amabie as 3-legged, with a couple cases rather like an ordinary quadruped.
;Torso-less ape-like version
An amahiko/amabiko, whose appearance in Echigo Province is documented on a leaflet dated 1844.
The hand-copied pamphlet illustration depicts a creature rather like an ape with three legs, the legs seemingly projecting directly from the head. The body and face are covered profusely with short hair, except for it being bald-headed. The eyes and ears are human-like, with a pouty or protruding mouth. The creature appeared in the year 1844 and predicted doom to 70% of the Japanese population that year, which could be averted with its picture-amulet.
;Amahiko-no-mikoto
The Amahiko-no-mikoto was spotted in a rice paddy in Yuzawa, Niigata, as reported by the from 1875. The crude newspaper illustration depicts a daruma doll-like or ape-like, hairless-looking four-legged creature. This example stands out since it was emerged not in the ocean but in a wet rice field. Also, the addition of the imperial/divine title of "-mikoto" has been noted by one researcher as resembling the name of one of the Amatsukami or "Heavenly Deities" of ancient Japan.
This creature in the crude drawing is said to resemble a daruma doll or an ape.
;Ape-voiced
There are at least three examples of the amabiko crying like apes.
The texts of all three identify the place of appearance as Shinji-kōri, a non-existent county in Higo Province, and names the discoverer who heard the ape voices heard by night and tracked down the amabiko as one Shibata Hikozaemon.
One ape-voiced amabiko is represented by a hand-painted copy owned by, an authority in the study of this yōkai. This document has a terminus post quem of 1871 or later, The painting is said to depict a quadruped, with extremely close similarity in form to the mikoto by commentators. However, the amahiko that cried like an ape is reported to have been drawn as a "three-legged monster". And the encyclopedia example described the amabiko as a kechō in its sub-heading.
A tangential point of interest is that this text transcribed in the newspaper refers to "we amahiko who dwell in the sea", suggesting there are multiple numbers of the creature.
;Glowing
The foregoing amahiko was also described as a hikari-mono. The glowing is an attribute common to other examples, such as the amabie and amahiko reported in the Nagano Shinbun.
Amabiko was also purportedly seen glowing at night in the offing of the Western Sea, during the Tenpō era, and illustrations were brought for sale at 5 sen apiece to -kanamachi village, Tokyo, as reported in another newspaper, dated 20 October 1881. This creature allegedly predicted global-scale doom thirty-odd years ahead, conveniently coinciding with the time the peddlers were selling them, prompting researcher Eishun Nagano to comment that while the text may or may not have been genuinely composed in the Edo Period, the illustrations were probably contemporary, though he guesses that the merchandise was surimono woodblock print. The creature also professed to serve the heavenly Tenbu or Deva divinities, even though he is presumably sea-dwelling.
;Old man or monk
The amahiko nyūdō on a surimono'' print, which purportedly appeared in Hyūga Province, The illustration here resembles an old man with bird-like body and nine legs.
Similar ''yōkai''
In Japanese folklore or popular imagination, there are also other similar yōkai that follow the pattern of predicting doom and instructing humans to copy or view its image, but lie outside the classification of amabie/''amabiko according to a noted researcher. These are referred to generically as "other" yogenjū.Among the other prophetic beasts was the arie, which appeared in "Aotori-kōri" county, Higo Province, according to the Kōfu Nichinichi Shimbun newspaper dated 17 June 1876, although this report has been debunked by another paper.
The yamawarawa in the folklore of Amakusa is believed to haunt the mountains. Although neither of these last two emerge from sea, other similarities such as prophesying and three-leggedness indicate some sort of interrelationship.
There are various other yōkai creatures that are vastly different in appearance, but have the ability to predict, such as the kudan, the or "shrine princess", the hōnen game or "bumper crop year turtle", and the "turtle woman".
A tradition in the West ascribes every creature of the sea with the ability to foretell the future, and there is no scarcity of European legends about merfolk bringing prophecy. For this reason, the amabie is considered to be a type of mermaid, in some quarters. But since the amabie'' is credited with the ability to repel pestilence as well, it should be considered as more of a deity according to some.