Amabie and creativity

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 After spending a day at office doing nothing constructive but cancelling businesses, I was too exhausted. I treated myself a quick stop at a coffee shop. There, I saw on SNS with a strange figure of monster or mermaid-like creature.

画像1

『肥後国海中の怪(アマビエの図)』（京都大学附属図書館所蔵）
Photograph courtesy of the Main Library, Kyoto University - Amabie

The figure was called Amabie, which is believed to be a spirit or mermaid ( or maybe a merman ) , and said to have been discovered by local official in Kumamoto in Southern Japan about 150 years ago.

According to Wikipedia,  legend has it as follows :

According to legend, an amabie appeared in Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture), around the middle of the fourth month, in the year Kōka-3 (mid-May 1846) 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;[a] 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 kawaraban [ja] (woodblock-printed bulletins), where its portrait was printed, and this is how the story disseminated in Japan.

Original : Amabie - Wikipedia

As far as I could see, young people were enthusiastic about creating their own Amabie - drawing picture, making crocheting dolls, or even some sweets in the figure of Amabie.

I have never came across with the name of this spirit in my life, and to be honest I was impressed with the high research skill of younger generation. Gradually, I became interested in how these people born in the era of high technology got interested in the little mermaid found in Kumamoto some 150 years ago. Even the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare made logo with Amabie, possibly to appeal to younger generation to draw attention to Covid-19 and possible contract to the virus.

Some might laugh and humbug, to go on viral about unscientific and superstitious creature just because it is believed to have said “if disease spreads, draw a picture of me and show the picture of me to those who fall ill” ?

But why not ? Having looked at some of the creations by young people, I thought it was absolutely constructive way of spending a day at home, creating something new out of the old. They were all unique, and one can tell that the creators have enjoyed making them to entertain people. Besides, it is far better than wondering about the towns, doing nothing but looking for a place to hang about, or eating and drinking away complaining about curfew.

Some of the local authorities started to construct statues of Amabie in their area. I wonder how people will see it after 150 years later. Will they see us as superstitious buggers or will they still enjoy the world of legend?

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