Mermaids have a rich (rather culturally diverse) folklore surrounding them. What do you envision when you hear the word “mermaid?” An illustrious beauty with long, flowing hair?
Well, consider some renditions from 19th century Japan.
These illustrations range from about 1805-1840.
Apparently, reports of mermaid encounters were quite common during this time period…though undoubtedly far less desirable than running into one of our own culturally appropriated versions of the creature.
SheWalksSoftly 
14 responses to “Vintage Japanese Mermaids”
All I have to say is WOW. Never seen anything like this before
I hadn’t seen mermaids illustrated in this way either!
Are you familiar with the Fee-gee mermaid? I’ve seen it spelled several different ways but Google usually gives me the same results.
Oh yes! I’ve even seen some “specimens” (a.k.a. renditions of it) in oddities museums!
I have decided, I do not like mermaids any longer! 😉
Haha…well, we can always pretend that this particular variety has gone extinct since the 1800’s. 😉
Fiji mermaid. Yes, that’s the first thing I thought when I saw those paintings..
I saw a “specimen” of the Fiji Mermaid at the Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, ME last year…quite amusing!
I’ve heard of that museum and am looking forward to going there sometime this year! How was it for you?
There’s a cryptozoology museum in Portland? Seriously?! It figures I learn this from someone who doesn’t even live here. Thanks Dana! I’ll definitely check it out!
Here’s the crypto museum: http://cryptozoologymuseum.com/
It’s a very densely packed little place in the back portion of a Portland bookstore. Lots of fun browsing in there!
I’ll just pretend that I only saw the first image and think about her. She’s dreamy.
Seriously though, it’s really interesting to see all the different interpretations of the same thing.
I guess we can, as always, leave it to the Japanese to do interesting art.
Japanese culture is FULL of delightfully interesting art! I always love seeing the different cultural visions of well known characters.
Reblogged this on scrapbook.