Readers offer their take on mythical sea creature
We asked for your take on the mythological Japanese sea creature — and you delivered
Last week in the paper we told you the story of amabie — the Japanese water spirit reported to have appeared off the country’s southwest coast in 1846 with a prophecy of bountiful harvest … but also disease.
In order to suppress the worst of a coming plague, the creature was reported to say, “Draw a picture of me and show it to the people,” with a dutifully drawn illustration printed in the local news. And this, 174 years later, people have been recently doing by the thousands around the world on social media in the wake of the COVID -19 pandemic, using the hashtag amabie.
Sanae Ohki of the Edmonton Japanese Community Association explains, “Even in Japan, it was a very local concept until recently — it is very interesting to have someone draw it.”
The fundamental components are a beak, scales, long hair and three legs. The rest is up to you.
Which brings us to all these amazing drawings. In response to a request to draw your own amabie (ah-mah-bee-yeh) in last Saturday’s Journal, dozens of you out there from as far away as Israel sent in beautiful, inventive iterations of the creature.
As Chaerin Hong in Grade 5 said to accompany a wonderful, Big Bird-like amabie, “I made this picture to stop COVID-19 from hurting any more people on this planet. “I hope it helps.”
Kids and adults into their 60s submitted, and like the first illustration in 1846, we’re posting some of them here to show off some creativity in the face of adversity, the pandemic’s silver lining. And there’s no reason to stop drawing them — we’ll post more in the coming weeks, just send them to the email address below. And look at hashtag yegamabie on Instagram for even more.