I hear you ask,
well it is in fact a 1800s a mythical yokai that appeared off the coast of Kumamoto,
Japan, the Amabie, as it was called, was described as a mermaid/man/it-like
creature with long hair, a beak and 3 legs. It made several predictions related
to bountiful harvests and, before disappearing back into the sea, left the
locals with some advice in case of an epidemic, above image: edo-era tile engraving from Kyoto University
Digital Archives,
according to records, “If an epidemic occurs, draw a picture
of me and show it to everyone,” said the yokai. The advice was perfectly worded
for our current, social media-driven world. The legend recently resurfaced in
Japan and, sure enough, everyone began creating their own artistic version of
the Amabie and posting pictures to social media,above freelance illustrator Shunsuke Sataka created this
colorful, vintage style Amabie print,
manga artist Keiichi Tanaka’s drawing of
Amabie,
pattern-makers Tetetextile created a series of Amabie wallpapers for your smartphone,
cartoonist Sensha Yoshida created this caricature of an Amabie,
illustrator Izumi
Sakuan created this edo-era-inspired drawing of a fictional Amabie
Festival in which a child dresses up as the yokai, you can see many more original artworks by searching アマビエ (Amabie)
on Twitter or Instagram, let us just hope that the Amabie helps in the worldwide crisis.
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