Neither fish nor man
Its tail - Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - Photography Cees de Jonge
“Year 619. Autumn, 7th month. There was a fisherman of the province of Settsu, who cast his net in the Horiye. Something entered his net formed like a child, which was neither a fish nor a man. Its name was unknown.”
A fish tail! There is but one creature in the world that combines a person’s face with a fish tail, and that is... a mermaid!
Mermaids have existed in Japanese culture and consciousness since ancient times. We encounter them in the earliest written texts from Japan, such as the one above, completed in the year 720. The text recounts a fisherman accidentally catching with his net an unknown creature, “neither fish nor human”.
Since the 10th century the word “ningyo” 人魚 started appearing in Japanese dictionaries: this word combines the two characters for person and fish, encapsulating the essence of this creature.