Japanese Scientists Launch Effort to Study ‘Mermaid Mummy’

Researchers from Japan’s Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts and scientists from other organizations are undertaking a research project. For the first-ever time, they will scientifically analyze a creature dubbed the “mermaid mummy.”

They intend to announce their findings in the autumn of 2022.

In 2018, a Japanese Scientists announced plans to study a rare, mummified human-mimic called the “Loch Ness Monster” found in Scotland. The discovery of this mummy and its discovery on the shoreline of Loch Ness by two local boys made it the second oldest specimen to be found in Scotland.

The “Loch Ness Monster” is believed to belong to a species called Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, and had the remains of three teeth which matched those of modern humans. It is thought that this individual died around 130,000 years ago during the ice age.

Japanese scientists recently announced their ambitious plans to study the remains of a mummy who was found in an ancient Baltic Sea.

The mummy, dubbed the “Mermaid Mummy” because of her webbed feet and fish-shaped head, will be studied by a team at the Aichi Prefectural University in Nagoya with hopes that she can give clues on how humans first came to live near water.

The team believes that this mummified individual is either a creature that predates Homo sapiens or an early human who lived near water for millennia before being covered with ash and then buried.

Scientists from Japan are on the hunt for this “mummy” after discovering a strangely intact female body in a cave.

Scientists in Japan have announced plans to study the remains of an ancient female mummy found in a remote cave, which appears to reveal some elements of human evolution.

The scientists deemed her “Mermaid Mummy” due to her white, fish-like skin and long and flowing hair. However, they knew little else about who she was and where she came from before the discovery. They have so far not been able to answer those questions since they do not have enough of the woman’s body left.

Hiroshi Kinoshita is the Okayama Folklore Society’s board member.

He called the officials at the Enjuin temple where the mermaid mummy is housed and the university to conduct the study after discovering the mummified creature’s location.

Moreover, Kinoshita came up with the project after he came across an image of the mermaid mummy while reading Kiyoaki Sato’s writings.

Sato was a natural historian from Satosho in the Okayama prefecture. He is believed to have transcribed Japan’s first-ever encyclopedia on Japanese folklore’s supernatural creatures such as the “yokai” ghouls, hobgoblins, and many others.

Takafumi Kato is a professor at the Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts specializing in paleontology. He is in charge of the morphology analysis of the Enjuin temple specimen’s upper body.

The mermaid mummy is Kato’s first-ever research on a mythical creature. Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported last February 2022 that a “mermaid mummy” kept at a temple had been a source of mystery for hundreds of years.

This creature with the lower body of a fish and the upper body of a human being has been a subject of nightmares among Japanese people and an object of worship.

Kozen Kuida is the head priest at the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi in the prefecture. On February 2022, he removed the treasured specimen that measures 30 centimeters long from a paulownia box at the CT scanning room of the university’s veterinary hospital.

The mermaid mummy was caught in a fishing net between 1736 and 1741 on the coast of present-day Kochi Prefecture, which was formerly Tosa Province. This information is based on a note in the same container as the so-called “dried mermaid.”

The mermaid mummy appeared to be holding its hands to its mouth and locked in a scream. Scientists scrutinized it while lying face up on an examination table, and they saw that it featured scales on the lower body, hair on its head, nails, and teeth.