Mermaids in Japan – from hideous harbingers of violence to beautiful enchantresses

(Version anglaise seulement)

par Ella Tennant, Lecturer, Language and Culture, Keele University

A report that scientists have begun tests on a 300-year-old “mermaid mummy” to identify its origins, has stimulated an interest in the existence of mermaids in Japanese folklore.

Tales of mermaids and their more dangerously seductive siren sisters, are firmly entrenched in cultural mythologies of many regions and can be found in medieval art and contemporary…