What Is It?

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.