Ningyo#Male ningyo

The earliest records of the ningyo attested in written Japanese sources are freshwater beings allegedly captured in the 7th century (§Asuka period), documented later in the Nihon Shoki.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Though not explicitly called ningyo in the Nihon Shoki.{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=40}}}} But subsequent examples are usually seawater beings.{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|pp=35–36}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|An odd intervening example of a freshwater ningyo is the one reportedly caught during the Kōnin era (810–824) in Lake Biwa, according to Kō Yamato honzō betsuroku ('Records of the Expanded Japanese Pharmacopoeia') of the Edo Period.{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|pp=35–36}}{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|pp=39–40}}}}

In later medieval times (§Kamakura and Muromachi periods)), it was held to be a sign of ill omen, and its beaching (§Omens in Michinoku) was blamed for subsequent bloody battles or calamity.

The notion that eating its flesh imparts longevity is attached to the legend of the {{interlanguage link|Yao Bikuni|ja|八百比丘尼}} ('eight hundred [year old] Buddhist priestess',{{sfnp|Hayward|2018|p=53}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=32}} cf. §Yao Bikuni)

During the Edo period, the ningyo was made the subject of burlesque gesaku novels (cf. §Saikaku, 1687 and Santō Kyōden's §Hakoiri musume, 1791). There were also preserved ningyo being manufactured using fish parts (§Mummies or Feejee mermaids), and illustrated by some scholars of the period (e.g. §Baien gyofu); some such mummies are held by certain temples that have ningyo legend attached to them (cf. §Prince Shōtoku).

The description of the ningyo as having a red cockscomb (§Shokoku rijindan, and Saikaku) or light red hair (§Kasshi yawa) corroborates the hypothesis that oarfish sightings led to ningyo lore.

One giant ningyo was allegedly shot in 1805, even though it was held to be lucky, according to the news circulated in kawaraban pamphlet form (§Kairai)

The Japanese {{nihongo|ningyo|人魚|extra=literally "human-fish"{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021}}}} has been glossed in a noted dictionary (Kojien) as a "fabulous creature" which is "half woman, half fish", later revised to "half human (usually woman) and half fish". Hence the term ningyo includes not just the mermaid but the merman also.

Accordingly, the ningyo is sometimes referred to by the verbatim translation "human-fish" in English-language scholarship,{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021}}{{sfnp|Hayward|2018|pp=51–52, 66}} thus allowing for the gender ambiguity.

The term ningyo was not explicitly used in the earliest accounts (cf. §Asuka period, year 619) recorded in the Nihon shoki (720 AD).{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=7–8}}{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=40}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|pp=51–52}} A later embellished account in

{{interlanguage link|Shōtoku taishi denryaku|ja|聖徳太子伝暦|lt=Shōtoku Taishi Denryaku|extra=917, but with later interpolations}} involving Prince Shōtoku claims that the Prince Regent knew the term ningyo, though this is regarded with skepticism.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=10–11}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=52}} The term ningyo was likely absent from any of the primary sources used in compiling the Shoki,{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|pp=51–52}} and nonexistent in the Japanese vocabulary during the Prince's time.{{harvp|Uchida|1960|p=46}} apud {{harvp|Yoshioka|1993|p=35}}

The term ningyo was also absent in medieval sources describing the Kamakura Period strandings in northern Japan §Omens in Michinoku) considered ominous.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=34–35}} For example, a "large fish" washed ashore in the Hōji 1 (1247) according to 13th{{Refn|name="azuma-kagami"}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=13}} and 14th century texts.{{Refn|name="hojo-kudaiki"}} But these were called ningyo in a 17th-century recompilation.{{Refn|name="hojo-godaiki"}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=13}}

The earliest examples (cf. §Asuka period) were caught in fresh waters, and it has been hypothesized they must have actually been giant salamanders.Kumagusu Minakata (1973) [1901], p. 306. also cited by {{harvnb|Yoshioka|1993|p=35}}.{{Refn|group"lower-alpha"|Chinese classical source describe a mythic "fish" called gei ({{lang|zh|鯢|p=ní}}), which is also a type of giant salamander according to Minakata in the same essay.{{sfnp|Minakata |1973|p=306}} The name of this "fish" consists of the 'fish' radical ({{lang|zh|魚}}) and the character for 'child' ({{lang|zh|兒}}).}}

Another prominent theory is that the misidentification of the dugong led to mermaid lore, but detractors pointed out that the dugong's range reaches only as far north as Okinawa (formerly the Kingdom of Ryūkyū), and so was not likely to have been seen during premodern times in various locations in Japan where mermaid legend (priestess who ate the mermaid) is known to occur.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2011|pp=68–69, 72}} However, this argument is flawed, since there were other sea mammals of the Sirenia order, namely Steller's sea cows which were native to the Bering Sea, and could have plausibly wandered into northern Japanese seas.{{sfnp|Nakamaru|2015|pp=9–10}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2009|pp=84–86}} Other sea mammals such as seals and dolphins are also candidates to have been mistaken for human-fish.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|A bearded seal gained the popular name Tama-chan when it wandered off its native polar seas came upstream to be seen by residents of Tokyo.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2009|p=90}}}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2009|pp=89–90}}

An inscribed wooden slat (mokkan) containing drawings of ningyo (13th century) suggest the actual animal captured may have been a pinniped, such as a seal (cf. §Ritual offering tablet).

The ichthyologist's hypothesis that the ningyo legend originated from sightings of the red-crested oarfish{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|First proposed by {{interlanguage link|Keitarō Uchida|ja|内田恵太郎}} (1960, 1962).{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=42}}}} is bolstered by the lore or reports that the ningyo has red cockscomb (§Shokoku rijindan) or light red hair (§Kasshi yawa). This cockscomb also is mentioned in the novel by §Saikaku.

Despite the ningyo being defined as half-woman, half-fish in some modern dictionaries, the ningyo has been also depicted as having a human female head resting on a fish-like body, as in the well known Japanese woodblock print kawaraban pamphlet example (shown right, q.v. §Kairai).{{sfnp|Hayward|2018|pp=51–52, 66}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=34–35}}

The ningyo reportedly caught in the 7th century became associated with then Prince Regent Shōtōku, and the creature has been depicted as a gift presented to him in picture scrolls entitled Shōtōku Taishi eden, the oldest surviving copy of this (1069) being the earliest piece of ningyo art in Japan.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=9–10}} There are multiple copies of the scrolls in existence. Also, much later in the 19th century. An example is the ningyo represented as a composite of the goddess Kannon and a fish (cf. §Prince Shōtoku and fig.).

The ningyo was human-headed in the 11th century anecdote involving the head of the Taira clan (cf. §Presented to Tadamori),{{harvp|Castiglioni|2021|p=18}}, quoting from the anthology Kokon Chomonjū (1254), pp. 400–401

When the ex-magistrate Taira no Tadamori 平忠盛 (1096–1153) moved his residence to Beppo 別保 in the Ise 伊勢 domain..[he caught] a big fish with a head similar to a man, endowed with hands, thick teeth like a fish, and a prominent mouth, which resembled that of a monkey. The body was like that of a normal fish.. (abridged)

{{multiple image

| total_width = 320

| image1 = Wakan-sansaizue-49kan-20a-ningyo.jpg

| alt1 = Ningyo or hill fish

| caption1 = The {{nihongo|ningyo|人魚}} aka {{nihongo|ryōgyo|鯪魚|extra='hill-fish'}} (cf. full image){{efn|Wakan sansai zue (1712). Book 49 on Fish&Shellfish}}

| image2 = Wakan-sansaizue-14kan-53b-teijin.jpg

| alt2 = Teijin (Di people)

| caption2 = The {{nihongo|Teijin|氐人}}, or the "Di people"{{efn|Book 14 on Foreign peoples.}}

| footer = {{right|{{small|— Wakan sansai zue (1712)}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Although Fujisawa reproduced these images consecutively in his essay,{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925|pp=19–20}}, Fig. 6, Fig. 7 they were neither adjacent or even in the same book in Wakan sansai zue.}}}}

}}

File:SekienNingyo.jpg's Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (1781)}}}}]]

But during the Edo period, illustrations of ningyo were varied, and in popular literature for entertainment (such as the kibyōshi genre), both human-headed fish type (armless) and half-human type with arms were illustrated (cf. §Two archetypes).{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=26}} One theory is that the two types derive from Classical Chinese literature, in particular the limbed {{ill|lingyu (mythology)|lt=lingyu|zh|陵魚}} ("hill-fish") and the limbless {{ill|chiru (mythology)|lt=chiru|zh|赤鱬}} ("red ru fish") passed down from the ancient Shan hai jing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas"){{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=26}} (cf. § Chinese lingyu and chiru).

However, this explanation is compromised by the fact that the Chinese "hill-fish" is considered four-limbed, and illustrated as such, whereas it was actually the Japanese work Wakan sansai zue (1712) which transformed the image of the Chinese "hill-fish" to that of a two-armed legless one (cf. fig. right), while equating it with the Japanese ningyo.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|pp=24–25}} And this illustration has struck commentators as closely resembling the Western mermaid. (cf. § Ningyo in Wakan sansai zue) The Wakan sansai zue did also give notice and print the facsimile illustration of the merfolk pronounced Teijin in Japanese (Diren or {{interlanguage link|Di people (Shan Hai Jing)|zh|氐人|lt=Di people}}in Chinese{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Here distinguished from historical Di (Five Barbarians), though a commentator could be found equating these peoples.}}) mentioned in the classic Shan hai jing,{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=20}} which were indeed illustrated as two-armed merfolk in Chinese sources.

Also, what the yōkai wood-block print illustrator Toriyama Sekien drew (1781, fig. left) was not a Japanese ningyo but one dwelling in the far reaches of China west of a World tree (kenboku; pinyin: jianmu {{lang|zh|建木}}). The caption adds that such ningyo was also known as the people of the Di Nation.

The Japanese Shogunate had acquired a copy of Johannes Jonston's Natural History in Dutch (1660) already by 1663,{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=59–60}} containing illustrations of the Western siren-mermaid. But it is not clear whether such "Dutch" (Rangaku, Western learning) images got widely disseminated in Japan before {{interlanguage link|Ōtsuki Gentaku|ja|大槻玄沢}}'s {{nihongo|Rokumotsu shinshi|六物新志|extra='New Treatise on Six Things', 1786}}, which digested this and other works on the topic of mermaid, with reproduced illustrations.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=60, 64–65}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=22–23}}{{sfnp|Ōtsuki Gentaku|1786}}

By the late Edo Period (mid to late 19th century), the visual iconography of the ningyo came gradually to match the half-human half-fish of the European mermaid.{{sfnp|Hayward|2018|p=18}}

One of the most famous folk stories involving ningyo (or rather the flesh of the human-fish), purports that a girl who ate it acquired everlasting youth and longevity, and became the nun {{nihongo|Yao Bikuni|八百比丘尼||"eight-hundred (years) Buddhist priestess"}} also read Happyaku Bikuni, living to the age of 800 years.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=32}}{{sfnp|Foster|2015|p=155}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Though she lived for 800 years in most versions, in some versions her lifespan is 200, 400, other number of years.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2011|p=72}}

She is also called {{nihongo|Shira Bikuni/Shiro Bikuni|白比丘尼||"white nun/priestess"}} by some sources.

According to local legend in Okayama Prefecture, she was called {{nihongo|Sennen Bikuni|千年比丘尼}} and lived 1000 years.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2011|p=67}} Hayashi Razan ({{interlanguage link|Honchō jinjakō|ja|本朝神社考|lt=Honchō jinjakō}}) relates the legend of {{nihongo|Shira Bikuni|白比丘尼}} who lived 400 years.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2011|p=67}}}}

In the typical version the girl who ate the ningyo was from Obama, Wakasa Province,{{sfnp|Foster|2015|p=155}} and as a nun dwelled in a {{interlanguage link|sōan|ja|草庵|lt=iori}} grass hut on the mountain at {{interlanguage link|Kūin-ji|ja|空印寺}} temple in the region.{{harvp|Minakata|1973|p=311}}: "in the past lived at this temple むかし当寺に住み", quoted by {{harvp|Kuzumi|2011|pp=68–69}}, citation 13 She traveled all over Japan in her life, but then she resolves to end her life in her home country, and sealed herself in a cave where she dwelled{{sfnp|Foster|2015|p=155}} or has herself buried alive on the mountain at the temple,{{Refn|According to the Kūin-ji temple's "Abbreviated history (ryaku engi) of Yaobikuni", she dwelled in a humble abode (iori) at Mount Nochise next to where a shrine stands, and entered the cave on the same Mt. Nochise within the premises of the temple.}} and requests a camellia tree be planted at the site as indicator of whether she still remains alive.{{sfnp|Foster|2015|p=155}}

In a version passed down at Obama, Wakasa, the sixteen-year-old girl eats the ningyo inadvertently, after her father receives the prepared dish as a guest,{{sfnp|Foster|2015|p=155}} so that the family is not implicated in knowingly eating the ningyo or butchering it. The Kūin-ji temple history claims the father to have been a rich man named Takahashi, descended from the founder of the province, and when the daughter turned 16, the dragon king appeared in the guise of a white-bearded man and gave her the flesh as a gift. But there are versions known all over Japan, and the father is often identified as a fisherman.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2011|pp=67–68}} A fisherman reeled in the ningyo but discarded it due to its strangeness, but the young daughter had picked it up and eaten it, according to one telling.{{efn|{{interlanguage link|Yamazaki Yoshishige|ja|山崎美成}} (1796–1856)'s essay.}}

The oldest written sources of the legend date from the 15th century, and one of these sources relate that the {{nihongo|Shira Bikuni|白比丘尼|extra="white nun"}} appeared in Kyoto in the middle of that century (year 1449) at age 800.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|{{interlanguage link|Zuikei Shūhō|ja|瑞渓周鳳}}'s diary {{nihongo|Gaun nikkenroku|臥雲日件録}} claims she appeared in Kyoto on the 26th day of the 7th month of Hōtoku 1 (1449)—actually still Bun'an 6, which was not changde to Hōtoku 1 until the 28th of this month though another source, the {{interlanguage link|Yasutomi-ki|ja|康富記|lt=Yasutomi-ki}} ("Nakahara no Yasutomi's diary") states she appeared on the 5th month that year, aged 200.}}

Assuming age 800 in keeping with her commonly used name, her birth can be back dated to around the mid-7th century, during the Asuka Period.{{Refn|Yanagita backdates her birth to the Taika era (645–650), but the temple's document claims she was born Hakuchi 5 (year 654).}}

Folklorist {{interlanguage link|Morihiko Fujisawa|ja|藤澤衛彦}}'s chronology makes her a survivor from an even older age. He dated Yao Bikuni eating ningyo flesh in the year 480 AD during the Kofun Period (Tumulus Period).Fujisawa (1931, pub. Rokubunkan) {{=}}{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925}} (pub. Daitōkaku）, pp. 40–42. apud {{harvp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=51}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Given as 5th year of Emperor Seinei or Japanese imperial year (Kōki) 1140 according to the system used until World War II, which is 480 A.D. Fujisawa in the previous chapter places Yaobikuni's birth at the 12th year of Yūryaku (Kōki 1128), namely 468 A.D.{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925}}. "Yao-hime to yuki-onna (furōchōsei densetsu) 八百姫と雪女（不老長生傳説）", p. 17.}} However, no written source for this could be evinced, according to a recent researcher, and an oral tradition is presumed.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=51}}

File:Kan'on reigenki-Saikoku junrei 32-Omi kanonji.jpg; (Upper landscape) Hiroshige II. Kan'on reigenki: "Saikoku junrei No. 32. Ōmi Kannonji. Ningyo"}}}}]]

In the 27th year of Empress Suiko (619, man-like fish were supposedly netted twice: on {{nihongo|Gamō River|蒲生河}}{{Refn|Presumably the present-day Hino River or its tributary {{nihongo|Sakura River|佐久良川}}.}} in Ōmi Province during the 4th month, and in Horie, Settsu Province ({{interlanguage link|Horie River|ja|堀江川}}, an artificial canal no longer extant), according to the Nihon shoki.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=7–8}}

They were freshwater creatures,{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|pp=35–36}} and the description of it being "childlike" suggested its true identity to be the Japanese giant salamander according to Minakata Kumagusu.Minakata 1973 [1901], p. 306. Cited by {{harvp|Yoshioka|1993|p=35}}.{{Refn|group"lower-alpha"|The Chinese character {{lang|zh|鯢}} composed of the fish radical 魚 and child character 児 is a semi-mythologized creature, which Minakata deduces to be a salamander also.{{sfnp|Minakata|1973|p=306}}}}

File:Illustrated Biography of Prince Shotoku 3(detail)-ningyo.jpg

Crown Prince Shōtoku at age 48 was allegedly presented with a ningyo from Settsu Province, but he abhorred the unlucky gift and ordered it to be discarded immediately. This account occurs in a picture scroll called Shōtoku Taishi eden. There were some 40 copies of this made, of which the copy held by Hōryū-ji temple, dated to 1069 is the oldest known pictorial depiction of the Japanese ningyo.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=9–10}}

While Shoki never used the term ningyo explicitly, Prince Shōtoku had been involved in the Gamō River incident and knew to use the term, according to the prince's abridged history or {{interlanguage link|Shōtoku taishi denryaku|ja|聖徳太子伝暦|lt=Denryaku}}.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=10–11}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=52}} Shōtoku also knew the ningyo to bring forth disaster according to the Denryaku,{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=52}} and an annotation provides that it was customary for fishermen at the time to release a ningyo if ever caught in the net.{{Refn|Asai Ryōi, {{nihongo|Shōtoku taishi denryaku bikō|聖徳太子伝暦備講}}.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|pp=46–47}} The {{nihongo|Ishibajimura Kannonji engi|石場寺村観音寺縁起}} supposedly iterates this custom also according to Fujisawa,{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=28}} but the elusive document is hardly referenced elsewhere.}} When the prince was alarmed by the ill omen of a ningyo appearing in Ōmi Province, he had a statue of the Kannon goddess placed in the vicinity, according to document preserved at {{interlanguage link|Ganjō-ji (Higashiōmi)|ja|願成寺 (東近江市)|lt=Ganjō-ji}} temple.{{sfnp|Yamaguchi|2010|pp=72–73}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|This Ganjō-ji is the scene of a legend about a ningyo who fell in love with a nun and was mummified, and the temple owns the alleged mummy.{{sfnp|Yamaguchi|2010|pp=73–74}}}}

According to the engi or foundation myth of {{interlanguage link|Kannonshō-ji|ja|観音正寺}}, Prince Shōtoku met a ningyo in a pool{{Refn|Presumably of the "Gamō River",{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=25}} as given in the Nihon shoki.}} near Lake Biwa who confessed to have been reborn in its shape due to poor deeds in past life, and the prince performed service to provide it salvation by building a temple to house a Kannon goddess statue, which was the origins of this temple.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=25–27}}{{sfnp|Yamaguchi|2010|pp=77–80}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The list of 33 pilgrimage spots of the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage identifies number 32 as Kannon-shōji. However, the Kannon reijōki zue No. 32 names Ishiba-ji mura ({{lang|ja|石場寺村}} [sic.]Midsection of text quoted by {{harvp|Castiglioni|2021|p=26}}. instead of Ishidera mura). This seems to be erroneous confusion with the {{interlanguage link|Ishiba-ji|ja|石馬寺}} temple, except that Fujisawa claimed existence of the document {{nihongo|Ishibajimura Kannonji engi|石場寺村観音寺縁起}}, as aforementioned.}}

After the Asuka Period, the two oldest appearances of the ningyo are dated to the mid- to late Nara Period, and these were situated by the sea.

An ningyo beached on Yasui-no-ura in Izumo Province (a bay in present-day Yasugi, Shimane) in the Tenpyō-shōhō 8 or the year 756 AD, and later, another one appeared in {{interlanguage link|Suzu peninsula|ja|珠洲岬|lt=Susu-no-misaki}} in Noto Province (a peninsula in present-day Suzu, Ishikawa) in the year Hōki 9/778. These reports are preserved in a {{nihongo|Kagenki|嘉元記|extra=Jōji 2/1363}}, an old document concerning Hōryū-ji, the temple closely associated with Prince Shōtoku.{{sfnp|Minakata|1973|p=311}}

;(Ise Province. c. 1140s. In Kokon Chomonjū)

An anecdote of three presumed "ningyo" caught in a net in {{nihongo|Beppo|別保}} in Ise Province,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Also read "Beppō" or "Betsuho". In present-day Mie Prefecture. Beppō corresponds to what was the town of Kawage in Age District,{{harvp|Castiglioni|2021|p=18}}, n15 but in 2006 this town was merged into the city of Tsu, Mie in 2006, and became the Kawage area of the city; the District was abolished as well.}} is found in the Kokon Chomonjū ("Collection of Tales Heard, Present and Past", 1254) from the mid-Kamakura Period.{{Refn|name="kokonchomonju"|{{interlanguage link|Tachibana no Narisue|ja|橘成季}} Kokon Chomonjū 古今著聞集, Book 20, "Chapter 30 Fish, Insects, Birds and Animals 魚虫禽獣", paragraph 712 Matter of the Fishermen of Beppo, Ise Province Capturing Human-Fish and Presenting them to Former Junior Assistant Minister of Justice [Gyōbu-shōyū] Tadamori 伊勢国別保の浦人人魚を獲て前刑部少輔忠盛に献上の事.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=54}}

伊勢國別保（べつほ）といふ所へ、前（さきの）刑部（ぎやうぶの）少輔（せう）忠盛朝臣（あそん）下りたりけるに、浦人日ごとに網を引きけるに、或日大なる魚の、頭は人のやうにてありながら、歯はこまかにて魚にたがはず、口さし出でて猿に似たりけり。身はよのつねの魚にてありけるを、三喉ひき出したりけるを、二人してになひたりけるが、尾なほ土に多くひかれけり。人の近くよりければ、高くをめくこゑ、人のごとし、又涙をながすも、人にかはらず。驚きあざみて、二喉をば、忠盛朝臣の許へもて行き、一喉をば浦人にかへしてければ、浦人みな切り食ひてけり。されどもあへてことなし。その味殊によかりけるとぞ。人魚といふなるは、これていのものなるにや”{{harvp|Kuzumi|2006b|p=54}}, {{harvp|Kuzumi|2011|pp=65–66}}。

}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=18}}

The event dates a century earlier than the anthology: when Taira no Tadamori (d. 1153; father of Kiyomori) had moved his residence{{efn|Tadamori was by then the former {{nihongo|Junior Assistant Minister of Justice |刑部少輔|gyōbu-no-shō}}.{{Refn|name="kokonchomonju"}} Castiglioni simplifies to "former magistrate".{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=18}}}} to this place, populated by "bayside villagers" (fishermen)The term {{nihongo|urabito|浦人|extra=lit. 'bay people'}} is glossed as "fishermen and ama living by the bay 浦辺に住む漁師や海女など" in {{harvp|Kuzumi|2011|p=65}}{{Refn|name="kokonchomonju"}}.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=18}}

The big fish had human-like heads (but also sets of fine teeth like fish, and a protruding mouths like a monkey's), with fish-like bodies. When hauled to land and carried (by pairs of fishermen) with the tails dragging, the creatures screamed in high-pitched voice and shed tears like a human. The tale concludes with the presumption that creatures must have been ningyo (human-fish). The three ningyo were presented to Tadamori, but one was returned to the bay's villagers (fishermen), who carved it up and ate it.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|There are different interpretations regarding the divvying up of the ningyo. Here the rendering that is followed: "Two were presented to courtier Tadamori, and the remaining one the bay villagers sliced and ate 二疋は忠盛朝臣に献上し、残りの一疋は浦人共が割いて食べた（Iwaya Sazanami's edited translation）has been followed. However, in Castiglioni's rendering :

"The noble Tadamori was probably afraid [of accepting the gift] and returned [the creatures] to the fisherman who cut and ate them all", so that a single fisherman ate all three.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=18}} Castiglioni's rendering is roughly echoed by other Japanese commentators (Kawamura & Asami), except that their version is that .}} It was exquisitely delicious, and no special effects came of it.{{Refn|Cf. "No particular curse (ill effect) came of [eating it] 別に何の祟もなかったと云ふ" (Iwaya tr.) vs. "Those [creatures] were not so strange" (Castiglioni)}}

;(Mutsu and Dewa Provinces . Hōjō kudai ki, Azuma kagami, etc.)

There had been frequent beachings of ningyo in Mutsu or Dewa Province (Michinoku region) according to the {{interlanguage link|Hōjō godai ki|ja|北条五代記|lt=Hōjō godai ki}} (printed 1641),{{Refn|name="hojo-godaiki"|Hōjō godai ki 北条五代記, Book 7, Ch. 19.{{sfnp|Mozume|1922|p=37}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=13–14}}}}, and each sighting is treated as an omen, associated with some armed conflict or ill fortune which struck afterwards:{{Refn|name="hojo-godaiki"}}{{harvnb|Fujisawa|1925|pp=40–42}}, untitled list for the "summary of ningyo appearances (人魚の出現の概略)"; {{harvp|Yoshioka|1993|p=36}}"Table 1 Records of Appearances of Ningyo 人魚の出現記録」"; {{harvp|Kuzumi|2001|p=37}}；{{harvp|Kuzumi|2005|p=46}}. Note that Fujisawa inconveniently converts to the obsolete Japanese imperial year system instead of the western calendar system.

• Bunji 5 (1189) summer. Beaching at {{interlanguage link|Sotogahama|ja|外が浜|lt=Soto-no-hama}} (in Mutsu). Presaging extermination of Fujiwara no Hidehira's sons
• Kennin 3 (1203), 4th month. Tsugaru-no-ura.{{efn|"Tsugaru-no-ura" would have to be some bay in the Tsugaru Region ≈old Tsugaru District, Mutsu, but no clarification is made, so it might be the shore of the Sea of Japan facing west from Tsugaru, Aomori or possibly Aomori Bay facing north from the current-day Higashitsugaru District, Aomori.}} Minamoto no Sanetomo harmed by evil zen priest.
• Kenpo 1 (1213). Akita-no-ura, Dewa. Same year, {{interlanguage link|Wada Conflict|ja|和田合戦}}.
• Hōji 1 (1247). 11th day of 3rd month. A fish-headed but human cadaver like fish. Tsugaru-no-ura. Same year, {{interlanguage link|Miura no Yasumura|ja|三浦泰村}}'s uprising (i.e., the {{interlanguage link|Hōji Conflict|ja|宝治合戦}}{{sfnp|Lai|2015|p=33}}) {{Refn|name="azuma-kagami"|Azuma kagam 吾妻鏡 (Yoshikawa-bon) Book 36; (Hōjō-bon) Book 38, entry for Hōji 1, 29th of 5th month.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|pp=47–48}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006b|pp=54–55}}}}{{Refn|name="hojo-kudaiki"|'Hōjō kudai ki'' 北条九代記 8.}})

Actually all these cases, culminating in the Hōji 1 event, were recorded in much older Azuma kagami (chronicle up to year 1266) and the Hōjō kudai ki (aka {{interlanguage link|Kamakura nendai ki|ja|鎌倉年代記|lt=Kamakura nendai ki}}, 1331){{Refn|name="hojo-kudaiki"}} except that the creature is not called a "ningyo" but rather a "large fish" (which was human cadaver-like with "four limbs"),{{Refn|name="azuma-kagami"}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=13}} or a creature "having hands and feet, covered in overlapping scales, and a head no different than a fish's".{{Refn|name="hojo-kudaiki"}} And these near-contemporary sources also interpret the ningyo ("big fish") appearances as presaging major warfare occurring within that year.{{harvp|Kuzumi|2001|pp=36–37}} quotes from Azuma kagami (in literary Chinese), then explains in Japanese: "For example, when [ningyo] appeared in the summer of Bunji 5 (1189).. the Northern Fujiwara perished.. [it] appeared in Kenpo 1, and in the 5th month of that year, Wada Yoshimori raised troops 例えば文治5年（1189年）夏にあらわれた時には..奥州藤原一族が滅亡.. 建保元年出現したが、同年5月に和田義盛が挙兵".{{sfnp|Lai|2015|pp=32–33}}

In Hōji 1, on the very same day (11th of 3rd month) when "big fish" was beached up north in Tsugaru, Michinoku (or perhaps the day preceding{{Refn|name="azuma-kagami"}}) the ocean by the Yuigahama (beach) was bright scarlet, and reported to have changed to blood.{{Refn|name="hojo-kudaiki"}} Yuigahama was the location of bloodshed on a number of occasion. The reason it may have indeed turned scarlet was possibly due to a red tide occurrence.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=48}})

The Hōji 1 event was discussed in one late source, called the {{nihongo|Honchō nendaiki|本朝年代記}} (published Jōkyō1/1684),{{Refn|name="honcho"|Shinpen bunrui honchō nendaiki 新編分類本朝年代記 Book 1, "Jin・zatsu no rui 仁・雑之類";{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=47}} Bunrui honchō nendaiki 分類本朝年代記 130.{{sfnp|Mozume|1922|p=39}}}} but this miscopies the day to the "20th of the 3rd month", which makes it the probably direct source of Ihara Saikaku's fictional piece in which a ningyo appears.{{Refn|{{interlanguage link|Kingoro Maeda|ja|前田金五郎|lt=Maeda, Kingoro}} ed. (1967) Budōdenraiki'' 武道伝来記, note 52.{{sfnp|Sasaki|2000|p=(21) note (3)}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=47}}}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Saikaku also shifts the site of the beaching to Tsugar-no-Ōura ({{interlanguage link|Ōura, Aomori|ja|大浦村 (青森県)|lt=Ōura}} in Tsugaru), as does Osamu Dazai's adaptation of the ningyo story.{{harvp|Kuzumi|2001|p=36}}, {{harvp|Kuzumi|2005|p=47}} but other sources state Tugaru-no-ura or "Tsugaru Bay".}}

There are two later sightings in the 14th century recorded in the aforementioned Kagenki. The second sighting occurred after the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate, and belongs in the Muromachi Period.

• Enkyō 3 (1310), 11th of 4th month. In Obama-no-tsu Obama Bay in Wakasa Province. It was considered {{nihongo|"auspicious"|目出度（めでた）かり|medetakari}} to the land, and was named {{nihongo|Shinsen|真仙|extra='True Immortal'}}.{{Refn|name="kagenki-chronology"|The compilation {{interlanguage link|Shiseki shūran|ja|史籍集覧|lt=Shiseki shūran}}, quoting from Kagenki.{{harvp|Minakata|1973}} [1901], p. 311{{sfnp|Mozume|1922|p=37top}}{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=41}}{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=36}}}}
• Enbun2 (1357), 3rd of rabbit(2nd/4th) month.{{efn|The text gives u-no-tsuki, which could mean the 2nd or 4th month. Note that the same source, Kagenki gave shigatsu for the fourth month. Fujisawa inexplicably converted to the 3rd month, though there is an entirely different record from Hōreki 1/1789 (cf. below) which states "{{nihongo|rabbit third month|卯の三月|u no sangatsu}}".}} Appeared in Futami-ura, Ise Province. It seemed to bestow {{nihongo|"longevity"|長久なるべし|chōkyū naru beshi}}, and was named {{nihongo|Enmeiju|延命寿|extra='Life-extended Lifespan'}}.{{Refn|name="kagenki-chronology"}}

Although these two cases appear to be auspicious omens, Fujisawa insists these examples do not corroborate the notion that the ningyō itself was seen as an auspicious object, since the attributions of good luck were consigned here via association with the Yao-bikuni's longevity or the sacredness of Futami-ura bay.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=48}}

There is subsequently a gap, and the next record listed occurred in the warring period (Sengoku period) part of the Muromachi Period:

• Tenbun19 (1550), 21st of 4th month. A ningyo was caught in the sea off Ōno-no-kōri (ancient district), Bungo Province (current-day Ōita Prefecture). It was presented to the shogun's household. It cried like a deer, and died after 10 days.{{Refn|{{interlanguage link|Kōgen bukan|ja|江源武鑑|lt=Kōgen bukan}}.{{sfn|Mozume|1922|p=39top}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=57}} The reliability of this book has been questioned, and some claim this to be attributed to a pseudoauthor.}}

A description of deer-like voice is unusual, since the ningyo is typically said to sound like a human child or infant.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=57}}

The archeological find in Akita (cf. §Ritual offering tablet) from the same era as listed above also can be counted as another example of the Michinoku region. There are also later anecdotes in the Tsugaru Province occurring in the Edo Period, but these will be discussed below under (§Tsugaru domain).

A drawings of a ningyo was found on a piece of wooden tablet excavated in the Suzaki archaeological site at Ikawa, Akita. It was discovered at the remains of a well,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Jammed between the outer wall (made of two halves of a log which had served as a dugout canoe) and the oval {{interlanguage link|magemono|ja|曲物}} cistern. {{harvp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=15–17}} stating "between the external stone wall and the internal wooden one", does not coincide with his source, the {{harvp|Takahashi|Watanabe|Koyama|Kudō|2000}} report}} The tablet measures 80.6 cm×14.5 cm×0.5 cm), and dated to some time close to 1286.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The wood used for the well was dated as being logged down in 1286 using tree ring analysis, and the tablet was assumed to have been made not too many years apart from that.}}

The ningyo is human-headed and fish-bodied, except it has two arms and two legs alongside a finned tail. Except for the face its entirety is covered with marks which apparently represent scales.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=16}} The actual animal was probably a seal, or some sort of pinniped, according to the archaeologists' report.{{Refn|The site lies adjacent to Hachirōgata lagoon, and only a short canal separates it from the sea, i.e. Akita Bay. That bay's old name was Akita-no-ura, where a ningyo sighting was recorded (cf. above). There is also some possibility that "Akita-no-ura" might have referred to the Hachirō lagoon itself.}}

The inscriptions have been transcribed as "Ara, tsutanaya, teuchi ni tote sōrō, sowaka (Oh, pity, but let it be killed, sowaka)" and similarly "Oh, pity, bound up like that even though a human, sowaka". Since the beast was considered ill omen, the Buddhist priest (also illustrated on the tablet) probably made offering in the form of prayer, "sowaka" being a Sanskrit word often chanted at the end of the mantra.

Certainly by the Edo Period, there developed a gender bias towards the ningyo being mostly female, due to European influence,{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=66}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=23}} though there might have Buddhist influence (daughters of the dragon-king of the sea) that may have contributed as well.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=29–30}} Still, there have been preserved some illustrated examples of mermen in the Edo Period (§Male ningyo).

A sighting of a ningyo alleged in Wakasa Province in the Hōei (era), probably c. 1705,{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=46}} was recorded by {{interlanguage link|Kikuoka Senryō|ja|菊岡沾涼}} in {{interlanguage link|Shokoku rijindan|ja|諸国里人談|lt=Shokoku rijindan}} ("Stories of Common Folk [from the Provinces]", 1740s). It reportedly had a red cockscomb-like appendage at the collar, which parallels what Saikaku stated in his novel (1674, cf. below) regarding the ningyo possessing a cockscomb on its head.{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=37}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|p=51}}

File:Nagasaki bunkenroku nukigaki-colored-kaijo(ningyo).png

A mid-18th century account of a ningyo sighting was recorded by samurai daimyo essayist Matsura Seizan, in his {{interlanguage link|Kasshi yawa|ja|甲子夜話|lt=Kasshi yawa}}. It occurred in the early part of the Enkyō era (1744–1748), and his named sources were his own uncle Hongaku-in ({{lang|ja|本学院}}, {{interlanguage link|Matsura Kunishi|ja|松浦邦}}) and aunt Kōshō-in ({{lang|ja|光照院}}).{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|This Kōshō-in was wife of daimyo {{interlanguage link|Inagaki Terunaka|ja|稲垣昭央}} and daughter of {{interlanguage link|Matsura Sanenobu|ja|松浦誠信}}.}} On their journey by sea from Hirado Domain en route to Edo, they encountered a ningyo around the Genkai Sea, in an area where no ama (female diving fishermen) could be expected to operate. It surfaced more than 10 ken (≈20 meters) ahead of the vessel, and at first, its lower half could not be seen, but its "guise was woman-like, with pale bluish hue, and light red hair which was long"; then it smiled and dove down, at which point the fish-like tail-end made its appearance, allowing the witnesses to determine it was a ningyo.{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=38}}

Though written much later, a work by {{nihongo|Hirakawa Kai|廣川獬}} called {{nihongo||長崎聞見録/見聞録|Nagasaki bunkenroku/kenbunroku|extra="Records of Things Heard and Seen in Nagasaki", pub. Kansei12/1800}}, reports side-by-side on both a {{interlanguage link|Kaijin (folklore)|ja|海人 (未確認生物)|lt=kaijin|preserve=1}} "mer-human" and a kaijo ("mer-woman", glossed as being a ningyo).{{efn|It also carries an article on the {{nihongo||落斯馬|rashima}}, or rosuma, which Minakata Kumagusu said was a Chinese transliteration of Norwegian rosmer denoting a walrus,{{sfnp|Minakata|1973|p=311}} which is illustrated here as having two horns growing from the head and bending forward.}} The text for the kaijo aka ningyo reads "Above the body's midsection it is a sort of female human, and below midsection a type of fish. The ningyo bones are remarkable medicine with the effect of stemming the flow of anal blood. The Europeans call it {{nihongo|ペイシムトル[ト]|peishimutoru[to]}}, and the Dutch sometimes carry it around".{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|{{langx|ja|"半身以上は女人に類して、半身以下は魚類也。人魚骨は、功能下血を留るに妙薬也。蛮語にペイシムトルトと云。紅毛人持わたる事あり"}}.}}{{cite book|author=Hirokawa Kai|author-link=|chapter=Kaijin・kaijo |script-chapter=ja:海人・海女 |title=Nagasaki kenbunroku nukigaki |script-title=ja:長崎見聞録抜書 |publisher= |date=1797 |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2536412/1/36 |doi=10.11501/2536412}}{{harvnb|Fujisawa|1925|p=30}}, Fig. 8 第八図, Fig. 14 第十四図.。

File:Fujisawa(1922)-kenkyu-v2-p033-fig17-ningyo(Tsugaru kyuki).jpg

The ningyo was reported captured in the Tsugaru Domain in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the latter case (given various years during the Hōreki era), ink drawings of the creature have been preserved, and is shown as wearing an apron-like kesa of Buddhist priests. Its capture was embellished into a tall tale, by way of linking it with the incident of an apprentice priest who was lost at sea a century before{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=34}} (explained further below).

The earlier record is that in Genroku 1/1688, a ningyo was captured at Nouchi-no-ura.,{{efn|Presumably a bay of the village of Nonai (though the source reads as "Nouchi"), in Higashitsugaru District. If this is the case, it must have been part of Aomori Bay.}} according to the {{nihongo||津軽一統志|Tsugaru ittōshi}}{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=33}}

Then in Hōreki 9 (1759),{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Yoshioka emends to Hōreki 8 (1758).

{{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=36}} The various sources give 7th, 8th or 9th year of the era.}} on the 3rd month {{efn|The "{{nihongo|rabbit third month|卯の三月|u no sangatsu}}" to be precise.}} at the port of Ishizaki village{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Ishizakisawa, part of what is now Tairadate, Aomori. It faces the {{interlanguage link|Hiradate Channel|ja|平舘海峡}}.}}, a fish of "this shape" (i.e., as depicted in the fig. right) was reported caught, according to the {{nihongo|Tsugaru nikki|津軽日記|extra='Tsugaru diary'}} {{sfnp|Yoshioka|1993|p=36}} or {{nihongo|Tsugaru ke henran nikki|津軽家編覧日記|}} (excerpted in the {{nihongo|Tsugaru han kyūki denrui|津軽藩旧記伝類|}}?).{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Fujisawa only names the source as {{nihongo||津軽舊記（津軽旧記）|Tsugaru kyūki }}, but this appears to be Tsugaru han kyūki denrui, which is a collection of excerpts from other writings.}}{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=34}} About a hundred years before the capture, when a certain apprentice monk from {{nihongo|Tōkō-ji|藤光寺}} temple in Tsugaru was faring across the sea towards Matsumae Domain, and fell off the boat. This incident was connected to the fish catch, and when questioned the storytellers confessed they enlarged (embellished) the tall tale.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=34}} A similar account with illustration is found in the {{nihongo|Mitsuhashi nikki|三橋日記|extra='Mitsuhashi diary'}} in the entry for Hōreki 7 (1757), later part of the 3rd month,{{efn|「Mitsuhashi nikki, held by the Hirosaki City Library.}} and the creature drawn is observed to be wearing a {{interlanguage link|wagesa|ja|輪袈裟|lt=wagesa}} or "ring surplice", and the text describes it as a "{{nihongo|Light-black strange formed fish|薄黒い異形の魚}}" The {{nihongo|Hirayama nikki|平山日記|extra='Hirayama diary'}} is yet another source, stating that in Hōreki 8, "a {{nihongo|human-faced fish|人面魚|jinmengyo}} appeared in the sea of Ishizaki village, and all manners of people went to spectate".{{efn|{{langx|ja|"石崎村海之人面魚出諸人見物ニ行"}}.}}

File:Ningyo-no-zu-Bunka02-05.jpg

The aforementioned woodblock print from Bunka 2 (1805), entitled "{{nihongo|Ningyo no zu. Ichimei, Kairai|人魚図。一名海雷}}" publicized the appearance of a ningyo also called {{nihongo|Kairai|海雷|extra="sea lightning"}}. It happened on the 5th month of the year, in Yokata-ura, in what is now Toyama Bay.{{sfnp|Hayward|2018|pp=51–52, 66}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=34–35}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Even though the flier itself reads "Yomo-no-ura, Hōjō-ga-fuchi, Etchū Province 越中国、放生淵四方浦", the correct reading is "Yokata-ura". Castiglioni miscopied it as {{nihongo|Nishigataura|西方浦}}.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=34–35}}}}

This ningyo was a creature with head of a long-haired young woman's, a pair of golden horns, a red belly, three eyes on each side of its torso, and a carp-like tail end, according to the text of the flier.{{sfnp|Hayward|2018|pp=51–52, 66}} This mermaid purportedly measured 3 jō 5 shaku or {{convert|10.6|m|ft}}.{{sfnp|Sato|1993|p=100}}

While the printed illustration only shows one side of the ningyo, the text itself confirms it had 3 eyes on each side of the body.{{sfnp|Sato|1993|p=100}} The feature of eyes on the torso is shared by the prediction beast kudan, also known to have appeared in Etchū Province, and the hakutaku (or baize, of Chinese origin), as scholars have pointed out.{{sfnp|Sato|1993|p=100}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=34–35}}

The flier reports that the people grew frightened, and destroyed it with 450 rifles.{{cite book|last=Suzuki |first=Tōru |author-link=:ja:鈴木亨 (歴史家) |title=Nihon kawaraban |script-title=ja:日本史瓦版 |publisher=Sanshūsha |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Of7oe4ENX8oC&pg=PA167 |page=167|isbn=9784384038323 |language=ja}} Yet the flier also states that "A person who views this fish once will enjoy great longevity, avoid bad turns of events and disasters, and gain luck and virtue".{{efn|"此魚を一度見る人、寿命長久し悪事災難をのがれ福徳を得る" {{in lang|ja}}.}}{{sfnp|Sato|1993|p=100}}{{sfnp|Foster|2015|p=155}}

There is a picture entitled {{nihongo|"Honrable picture of male human-fish"|男人魚|onga toko ningyo}} survives which was copied by the young lord of Hirosaki Domain, to be shown to his mother, wishing to impart longevity upon her. Thus this is another example of ningyo localized in the area of the Hirosaki aka Tsugaru Domain.

There is also a {{nihongo|"Picture of ningyo that crossed to here from Holland"|阿蘭陀渡り人魚の図|Oranda watari ningyo no zu}}{{efn|{{lang|zh|阿蘭陀渡里人魚の図}}, but 里 is read as り (ri).}} printed on kawaraban newspaper, with the facial features of an old man.{{Refn|This newsprint was also featured in the manga Hōzuki no Reitetsu Vol. 12, p. 101, with a facsimile sketch of the print, and was offered as an example of a male ningyo. The comic cited {{harvp|Abe|Chiba|1996}}, without indication of page.}} The newspaper described the creature as having "hair that was redhaired, hand like a monkey with webbings, and shaped like a snake", and purported that eating its flesh imparts longevity of 100 years, and even looking at it had the effect of warding sickness and extending lifespan.

File:Saikaku-budodenraiki2-fol19v-mermaid.jpg

The ningyo according to Saikaku's reckoning was first washed ashore during Emperor Go-Fukakusa's first era year (1247),{{efn|The text withholds the era name as Hōji, but gives the month and day which matches the Hōji1 example cited above.}} and he claims it was remembered as having "a scarlet cockscomb on its head, and a face of a beautiful woman. Four limbs like they were wrought out of jewels, golden-gleaming scales, the flesh most fragrant, and serene voice like the skylark-whistle" according to Ihara Saikaku's {{interlanguage link|Budō denraiki|en|lt=Budō denraiki}} ("Exemplary Tales of the Way of the Warrior", 1674), which features a ningyo as noted above.{{Refn|Saikaku (1687) Budō denraiki.

後深草院、元年三月二十日に、津軽の大浦といふ所へ、人魚はじめて流れ寄、其形ちは、かしらくれなゐの鶏冠ありて、面は美女のごとし。四足、るりをのべて、鱗に金色のひかり、身にかほりふかく、声は雲雀笛のしずかなる声せしと、世のためしに語り伝へり{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2001|pp=33–34}}

File:Hakoiri musume menya ningyo-f14b-ningyo-ecdysis.jpg

Santō Kyōden's {{nihongo|Hakoiri musume menya ningyō|箱入娘面屋人魚 |extra=, "Daughter in a Box: Shopfront Mermaid", 1791}}.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The title -人魚 would be normally read "ningyo', as Castiglioni phoneticizes, but the from the cover of the work ({{harvp|Fujisawa|1925|p=26}}, Fig. 20) one can read "にんぎゃう ningyō".}} is also well known as a work during the Tokugawa era which dealt with the ningyo mermaid topic.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|pp=49–50}}

It is an example of work in the genre of kibyōshi or "yellow jacket",{{efn|The term kibyōshi was applied to non-juvenile sophisticated works that appeared in the 1770s.}} and a humorous, satirical piece, whose cast of characters include Urashima Tarō, who has an affair with a carp mistress producing a mermaid daughter in the process.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|As in the familiar story, Urashima resides in the Ryūgū-jō (undersea Naga Palace). But he is being kept as a male mistress (gigolo) by Oto-hime, daughter of Naga king,{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|pp=49–50}} so he is not as dignified as to be lawfully wedded to her.}} The abandoned mermaid is netted by a fisherman named Heiji. To make ends meet she engages in miuri, i.e., selling herself into prostitution, but her fish-bodied oiran repulses customers. After discovering that licking a mermaid imparts longevity, Heiji opens a mermaid-licking shoppe, gains great wealth, and decides to marry her. She grows out of her outer skin, metamorphosing into a full-fledged woman with both arms and legs. Heiji sells the mermaid's skin slough (nukegara) for profit.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|loc=pp. 30–32, Fig. 13}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2005|pp=39–40}}

{{multiple image

| align = right

| total_width = 320

| image1 = Fujisawa(1922)-kenkyu-v2-p030-fig15-ningyo(Tatsunomiyakonamagusahachinoki).jpg

| alt1 = A ningyo from Tatsu no miyako namagusa hachi no ki (1793)

| link1 =

| caption1 = A ningyo. Tatsu no miyako namagusa hachi no ki (1793)

| image2 = Fujisawa(1922)-kenkyu-v2-p031-fig16-ningyo(Nanso Satomi hakkenden).jpg

| alt2 = A ningyo from Nansō Satomi hakkenden (1814–1842)

| link2 =

| caption2 = A ningyo. Nansō Satomi hakkenden (1814–1842).

| footer = More ningyo images in fiction

}}

In the mid-Edo period, illustrations of the ningyo consisted of two broad types, as exemplified in illustrated fictional tales.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=26}}

Where she is depicted as half-human with a pair of arms/hands, examples are readily given from works of fiction writers.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|pp=25–26}}

One example is the {{nihongo||竜宮羶鉢木|Tatsu no miyako namagusa hachi no ki|extra="The Flowerpot in the Sea-Queen's Palace", 1793}}, co-authored by Santō Kyōden and Takizawa Bakin and illustrated by Kitao Shigemasa.[https://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/bunko06/bunko06_00969/index.html Tatsu no miyako namagusa hachi no ki] @ Waseda U., [https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko06/bunko06_00969/bunko06_00969_p0013.jpg Middle Volume, fol. 10]{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925}} [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/972232/36 p. 30 (Fig. 15)]

Another is the depiction of a ningyo in the famous work by Bakin, the Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (1814–42),{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925}} [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/972232/36 p. 31 (Fig. 16)] though this work does not centrally revolve around denizens of the sea.

The other type consists of examples where she is depicted as human-headed and armless, as in the case of Kyōden's Hakoiri musume just described (cf. fig., top of page),{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=26}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|loc=pp. 30–32, Fig. 13}} or the Etchū Province example above.

The dual visual representation has been attributed to the Japanese familiarity with Chinese sources that depict both types, specifically, a human-armed type of mermaid called the {{nihongo|ryōgyo|{{linktext|鯪|魚}}|extra=pinyin: lingyu, "hill-fish"}} and an armless (finned) type of mermaid called the {{nihongo|sekiju|{{linktext|赤|鱬}}|extra=pinyin: {{ill|Chiru (mythology)|lt=chiru|zh|赤鱬}}, "red ru fish"}}.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=26}}

However this formulation for explaining Chinese origin does not quite succeed, since, as its proponent{{efn|Fujisawa}} points out, the Chinese lingyu is actually four-legged,{{Refn|The mythic fish língyú is compared to a four-legged marine turtle or alligator in classical Chinese texts.}}{{Refn|Shan hai jing, illustration and caption for "Hill-fish (Lingyu) {{lang|zh|陵魚}}: "The Hill-Fish has a human face, hands, feet, and a fish's body. It dwells in the sea". The identical illustration of the ling ({{lang|zh|鯪魚}}) opposite giant crab is reproduced by Fujisawa.{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925}}, {{URL|1=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/972232/33|2=pp. 24–25, Fig. 11}}, though he does not articulate that the creature depicted is four-legged. A rather different four-legged fish occurs in an illustrated 1667 edition of Guo Pu's annotations Cf. :zh:陵魚.}} as is the renyu ({{lang|zh|人魚}}, "human fish") aka tiyu ({{linktext|䱱|魚}}; Japanese:teigyo){{Refn|Shan hai jing, illustration and caption for "Human-fish (Renyu) {{lang|zh|人魚}}, translated by Strassberg, excerpt: "They resemble catfish with four legs and make a sound like a baby 以鮎而四足、聲如小兒啼". The tiyu alias is lacking in Strassberg, but is found in the corresponding Chinese paragraph quoted in by Fujisawa.{{sfnp|Fujisawa|1925|p=23}} The tiyu and renyu human-fish are also given as synonymous in Bencao Gangmu.}} and it was the Japanese Wakan sansai zue ("Illustrated Sino-Japanese [Encyclopedia] of the Three Realms", 1712) which for some reason altered the image of the ningyo/renyu {{lang|zh|人魚}} (aka ryōgyo/lingyu {{lang|zh|鯪魚}}) into a two-armed but legless mermaid.{{Refn|Fujisawa states: "Sansai zue gives this as two-handed/armed and legless 「三才圖會」 には之を二手無足に記してゐる".{{harvp|Fujisawa|1925|pp=24–25}} It is assumed shorthand for Wakan sansai zue is meant here, rather than the Sancai Tuhui (1609), since the latter seems to lack an entry for lingyu, and its entry for renyu depicts a carp-like fish with four feet.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The text reads it resembles the fei {{lang|zh|{{linktext|𩵥}}}} (whereas Shan hai ing says catfish {{lang|zh|{{linktext|鮎}}}}). The definition of fei is elusive; according to Japanese sources it is one of the vulgar characters for the carp order (cypriniform) ugui (big-scaled redfin).}}}}

A different commentator also regards the pictorialization of the ningyo in Wakan sansai zue to be an "addition.. with an illustration.. much like the Western idea of a mermaid".{{Refn|Nathaniel Kingdon's paper, which discusses natural history scholarship in Korea by the brothers {{interlanguage link|Jeong Yakjeon|ko|정약전}} 丁若銓 and {{interlanguage link|Jeong Yakjong|丁若鍾|ko|정약종}}.}}

As to the knowledge people held about the ningyo during the Edo Period, the influence of Classical Chinese literature is palpable. Even Kyōden's Hakoiri musume reveals the writer's literacy, as the work discusses the distinction between the teigyo (Chinese: tiyu) and the geigyo (Chinese:niyu, {{lang|zh|鯢魚}}).

Japanese scholars writing on the ningyo drew much from Chinese sources,{{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=60, 66}} for example, the Bencao Gangmu (1596), the compendium of Chinese materia medica, which was introduced into Japan in 1607, and was frequently quoted on the subject of the mermaid.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|pp=21–22}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Bencao Gangmu is used by Gentaku (cf. infra),{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=60–62}} and also excerpted more extensively in Wakan sansai zue (1712){{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=62–63}} and also used by Ono Ranzan's Honzō kōmoku keimō (1803).{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=65}}}} Thus Kaibara Ekiken (1709) cited it, and distinguishes the teigyo ("ningyo" in small print) from the geigyo ("salamander").{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=60–62}}

The influential Wakan sansai zue was modeled after the Three Realms encyclopedia (Sancai Tuhui, 1609) of China, and also drew from such Chinese material on the topic of ningyo.{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=62–63}} But as already noted the image of the ningyo was not faithful to Chinese sources. The work also equates the ningyo with the {{nihongo|ryōgyo|{{linktext|鯪|魚}}}} ({{lang-zh|鯪魚/陵魚}}, but this synonymy is based on the gloss in the Japanese lexicon Wamyō Ruijushō, not Chinese sources.Cf. {{harvp|Fujisawa|1925}}, {{URL|1=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/972232/30 |2=p. 19, Fig. 6}} and modern Japanese translation, {{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=62}}

The popular encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue also describes the medical use of {{lang|es|peixe muller}} (in Spanish or Portuguese; Japanese transliteration: heishmure[ru], "woman fish"). The sources were Dutch or Chinese, which was the only foreign languages allowed to be studied during the isolation period of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Wakan sansai zue its claim that the woman-fish bones works as a detoxicant differs from known accounts, and stymies identification of any possible source.{{Refn|Wakan sansai zue states "In Holland, the ningyo bone heishimure 倍以之牟礼 is considered a detoxicant and its effect is splendid".Quoted, followed by the commentary that the source for "detoxicant" effect remains obscure.{{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=62–63}}.}}

Japanese scholars could also have accessed information that Europeans wrote in Chinese. Thus Ferdinand Verbiest (aka Nan Huairen) in 1672{{efn|In his work Kunyu tushuo ({{lang|zh|坤輿圖說}}, "Illustrated explanation of the world", Peking, 1672)}} wrote in Chinese that for the siren,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|{{Transliteration|zh|xī léng}} ({{lang|zh|西楞}}) being the Chinese character phoneticization used for "siren".{{sfn|Magnani|2022|pp=97–98}}}} "The female bones work even better (to stem [the bleeding of] blood diseases)".{{Refn| "{{lang|zh|其骨能止血病女魚更效}}{{sfnp|Magnani|2022|p=97}}}} This is clearly restated from naturalist Jonston (1657) earlier.{{Refn|name="jonston-nl&en"|Jonston (オランダ訳原文): "De beenders van dese visch hebben groote kracht om't bloed te stoppen, en an te trekken, men heest gezien datse het lopende bloed zo stildden, gelijk of de ader was gebonden: Nochtans zijn die van de Vrouwen oft Meermin veel krachtiger, en uit die dese, welke met plekken, na't swart hellende, gevlekt zijn". Jongh: "the bones of this fish are extremely powerful agents for reducing or increasing the flow of blood : and those of the Women or mermaids are stronger yet"}} But Gentaku (cf. {{section link||Ōtsuki Gentaku}}) while supplying an abriged translation from Jonston,{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=22}} curtailed the mention of female bones being advertised as better medicine.

A number of other Japanese scholarship on the ningyo also discussed the supposed siren-mermaid bones being trafficked by the Europeans as heishimureru (Spanish/Portuguese: peixe mulher; {{langx|gl|peixe muller}}, 'woman fish'){{Refn|The term is given as Spanish by Ōtsuki Gentaku;Quoted in {{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=64}}: "In our country called heishi murēru 歇伊止武禮児..; "ningyo 人魚 by Spain/Ispania-koku 伊斯把儞亜國 is called pese muēru 百設武唵爾".. {{harvp|Castiglioni|2021|p=22}} mistranscribes heishi murēru as "歇伊止武札児" giving "sa[tsu] 札" as in "Sapporo" instead of "礼/禮 rei". The Spaniard Domingo Fernández Navarrete gives "pexemulier". However {{harvp|Castiglioni|2021|loc=n19}} and {{harvp|Chaiklin|2010|loc=n49}} venture that peixe mulher is more likely Portuguese.}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=22}} One identifiable source was the Flemish Jesuit Verbiest aka Nan Huairen (mid-17c.) who wrote in Chinese, cited Ono Ranzan (1803), and possibly even used earlier by Kaibara Ekiken (1709), to describe the effects of the peixe muller medicine.{{Refn|The heishimureru is ascribed effectiveness against {{nihongo|geketsu|下血|rectal bleeding: melena}} by both Kaibara Ekiken (1709)Quoted by {{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=61}}{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|loc=n19}} and Ono Ranzan (1803)Quoted by {{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=65}} Ekiken's source is unclear, but Ranzan discloses his source to be Kunyu waiji'' ({{lang|zh|坤輿外紀}}, "Illustrated explanation of the world", Peking, 1672), written by Verbiest.}}

In the interim, many other European works referring to the siren-mermaid were introduced to the Japanese literati: Johannes Jonston (Latin 1657, Dutch tr. 1660), Ambrose Paré (Œuvres, 1575; Dutch tr. 1593), and François Valentyn (1724–26, in Dutch), thanks to the efforts of {{interlanguage link|Ōtsuki Gentaku|ja|大槻玄沢}}'s {{nihongo|Rokumotsu shinshi|六物新志|extra='New Treatise on Six Things', 1786}}, who gave translated digests from these works, accompanied by reproductions of siren-mermaid illustrations.{{harvp|Castiglioni|2021}}, p. 22; Fig. 8 (Facsimile from - Anburushisupaare 安蒲兒止私巴亞列, i.e., Ambroise Paré){{sfnp|Kovacic|2023|pp=128–130}}{{sfnp|Kuzumi|2006a|pp=64–65}} And this endeavor was instrumental in forging the image/iconography of the ningyo during the era that was influenced by the European siren-mermaid.{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=38}}{{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=59}} particularly credits Jonston's work, which was given an abridged translation into Japanese in 1741, but only afforded a token entry on the ningyo, and it was not until Gentaku in 1786 that a detailed translation of Jonston's discussion on it was given ({{harvp|Kuzumi|2006a|p=60}}).

File:Baien-gyofu-036-ningyo-crop.jpg

Specimens of taxidermically crafted ningyo have been observed and illustrated during the Edo Period, including the painting in Baien gyofu'' (cf. below) and the sketch by natural historian {{interlanguage link|Matsumori Taneyasu|ja|松森胤保}} dated Ansei 3/1856.

Mōri Baien's Baien gyofu ({{lang|ja|梅園魚譜}}, 'Baien's catalog of fishes', Bunsei 8/1825) contains a full-color hand-painted illustrations of a ningyo in frontal and side views. This has been determined to represent a so-called "stuffed" ningyo crafted by joining the tail-end of a fish, also called a Feejee mermaid in the West.

• {{nihongo|Fishmen|魚人|Gyojin}}, often incorrectly referred to as Mermen, are a race who appear throughout the entire anime/manga series of One Piece on a regular basis. They look like humans with fish features and are obviously inspired by the ningyo. Fishman is written like ningyo but with the characters switched (人魚, Ningyo -> 魚人, Gyojin). {{nihongo|Merfolk|人魚|Ningyo}} appear in the series too. These are more peaceful of nature than the Fishmen and, like the mermaids and mermen of folklore, their upper half is that of a human while the lower half is that of a fish, though male Merfolk are somewhat uncommon.
• The manga/anime series Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi is based on the Yao Bikuni myth, in which the main characters become immortal by consuming the flesh of a mermaid.
• There is a fake "ningyo" in the National Museum of Ethnology.[http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/staff/kondo/wp12.html 民族学者の仕事場： Vol.4 近藤雅樹] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822015108/http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/staff/kondo/wp12.html |date=2009-08-22 }}[http://www.jitsuwa.com/main-page/urakikou/text-6/no-1/index.html 驚異の伝承と新説 トンでも不思議発見 VOL.1「ミイラの謎が明かされた？！」 ]
• The character Serilly from the Puyo Puyo series of games is a lonely ningyo who desires to make friends, but is often paranoid that everyone who approaches her wants to eat her.
• In Okinawa, people have believed that eating ningyo would be unlucky. They also do not eat dugong.
• The character "Ponyo" in the film of the same name is a ningyo or "human-faced fish".
• The primary antagonist of the video game Siren is based on the character Yao Bikuni, and the background of the story is loosely based on the Yao Bikuni legend.
• The 2010 Super Sentai series, Tensou Sentai Goseiger featured the antagonistic cryptid-themed monster group Yuumajuu. One of their members is Jogon of the Ningyo, who has the secondary theme of silverfish.
• The CCG and roleplaying game Legend of the Five Rings has ningyo characters as members of the Mantis Clan.
• The video game Mermaid Swamp is based on the myth of Yao Bikuni and the ningyo myth.
• A host of ningyo characters feature prominently in the manga and anime series Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san.
• In Yo-kai Watch, Ningyo appears where its English dub name is Mermaidyn. She is depicted as a mermaid who is constantly caught on the hook of Nate Adams' fishing pole much to his annoyance. Yao Bikuni also appears as Mermadonna, who is Mermaidyn's evolved form.
• Bikuni appears in the anime Konohana Kitan as a secondary character.
• The film Lu Over the Wall revolves around an idiosyncratic interpretation of ningyo in which they can manipulate water and turn humans into immortal ningyo by biting them.
• Yaobikuni is a playable character in the mobile RPG Onmyōji.
• Yaobikuni is a character in the manga series Blade of the Immortal.
• Mermaid, a short film by Osamu Tezuka released on September 21, 1964. In a fictional place where using the imagination is banned, a boy saves a fish, which surprises everyone by turning into a mermaid and playing with him. The boy is arrested for imagining this "nonsense", and is robbed of his imagination as punishment. However, he regains this ability and turns himself into a mermaid, so they happily leave forever that totalitarian society to live their eternal love alone in the deep abyss.
• In episode 15 of Vampire Princess Miyu, the action presents a ningyo and a Yao Bikuni as well, where the protagonist (a Vampire) kills the ningyo which is discovered to be a Shinma. The protagonist ignores Yao Bikuni's plea to make her live eternal happy dreams until the end of her life and instead lets her live the next 100 years to experience human suffering.
• In the PC game Return of the Obra Dinn, three Ningyos are captured and held captive by the crew of the ship, causing spider crabs (another Japanese game culture reference) and a giant kraken to attack in retaliation, resulting in the death of several crew members.
• In the PC game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, there are 3 Ningyos: one dead at the bottom of the fountainhead palace lake, one alive in the fountainhead palace lake and the Dragon is officially titled in the native Japanese version 'Ningyo Dragon'. There is also an incarnation of Yao Bikuni who is the True/Corrupted Monk whose official title in the native Japanese version of the game is 'Princess Yao'. The game writers directly drew the connection via demonstrating that a parasitic bug that existed in the Ningyo was the reason for the immortality, and this parasite is the cause of the True/Corrupted Monks immortality as well as a significant amount of others in the game.
• In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, the character Sessyoin Kiara obtains a mermaid-like appearance and powers after having eaten Yao Bikuni.

• Amabie
• Fiji mermaid
• Jenny Haniver

{{notelist}}

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{{cite book|editor-last=Iwaya |editor-first=Sazanami |editor-link=:ja:巌谷小波 |chapter=Dai 19 shō Chūgyo hen. 953 Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:第十九章 蟲魚篇． 九五三 人魚 |title=Tōyō kōhi taizen |script-title=ja:東洋口碑大全 |volume=1 |publisher=Hakubunkan |date=1913 |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/950433/643 |page=1199}}

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{{cite book|last=Jonston|first=Johannes |author-link=Johannes Jonston |chapter=Boek. I. / III. Opschrift./ I. Hooft-St.: Van de visch Anthropomorphus, oft die een menschen-gestalte heeft, en van de Remorant |title=Beschryvingh van de Natuur der Vissen en bloedloze Water-dieren |location=Amsterdam |publisher=I. I. Schipper |year=1660 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JxFQAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA168 |page=168, Tab. XL}}

{{harvnb|Ōtsuki Gentaku|1786}}[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2555433/27 Book Two 巻下： fol. 24v]–25r. "{{lang|ja|勇斯東（ヨンストン）『禽獣蟲魚譜』曰く、{{Ruby-ja|安杜路卜木児畢思|アントロホモルピシス}}[羅甸語なり。和蘭迷伊児名能(メイルミンネン)或は膚魯烏吸悉(フロウヒス)と翻す。倶に此に婦魚と翻す。].. 肉: 主治上有黒色斑點者貼肉..}}", etc.

{{cite dictionary |title=Toyama-han (kinsei) |script-title=ja:富山藩(近世) |lang=ja |dictionary=Kadokawa Japanese Place Name Dictionary (old place names) |url=http://jlogos.com/ausp/word.html?id=7320462 |via=JLogos }}

{{cite dictionary |title=Gamōgawa (Hinokawa) |year=1978 |script-title=ja:がもうがわ蒲生川 (日野川) |lang=ja |dictionary=Kadokawa Japanese Place Name Dictionary |volume=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NaDTAAAAMAAJ&q=蒲生河 |page=245 }}

{{cite book|author=Todasan Kakurin-ji |author-link=Kakurin-ji (Kakogawa) |chapter= |title=Kakurin-ji to Shōtoku Taishi: 'Shōtoku Taishe eden' no bi |script-title=ja:鶴林寺と聖徳太子: 「聖徳太子絵伝」の美 |publisher=Hōzōkan |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dcRAQAAMAAJ&q=人魚 |page=51|isbn=9784831822130}}

{{cite book|author=Kōyo Shun'ō |author-link= |others=Tsujimoto Motosada (illustr.); Shimada Masataka (engr.) |chapter=Dai 32 ban. Ōmi-no-kuni Kanzaki-kōri Ishibaji-mura Kwannonji |script-chapter=ja:第三十二番 近江國神﨑郡石場寺村(sic.) 観音寺 |title=Kannon reijōki zue |script-title=ja:観音霊場記図会 |publisher=皇都書房/堺屋仁兵衛 |date=1844 |url=https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/ha04/ha04_01807/ha04_01807_0005/ha04_01807_0005.pdf |at=[https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/ha04/ha04_01807/ha04_01807_0005/ha04_01807_0005_p0035.jpg fol. 38–39]}} [https://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/ha04/ha04_01807/index.html index]

{{citation|author=Mantei Ōga |author-link=:ja:万亭応賀 |author-mask=Mantei Ōga (text) |others=Toyokuni III aka Kunisada; Hiroshige II (illustr.) |chapter=Saikoku junrei 32 ban Ōmi Kannonji / Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:西國順礼三拾二番近江観音寺（さいこくじゅんれいおふみかんおんじ） 人魚 |title=Kan'on reigenki |script-title=ja:観音霊験記 |publisher=Nanden Nisanshō |date=1858–1859|url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1313508}} (National Diet Library copy)

{{Cite book|last1=Kawamura |first1=Teruo |author1-link=:ja:川村晃生 |last2=Asami |first2=Kazuhiko |author2-link=:ja:浅見和彦 |title=Kowareyuku keikan: kiete yuku Nihon no meisho |script-title=ja:壊れゆく景観: 消えてゆく日本の名所 |publisher=Keio University Press Inc. |date=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pY1MAQAAIAAJ&q=漁師 |page=86 |isbn=9784766413083}}

{{cite book|last=Kingdon |first=Nathaniel |author-link= |chapter=Chapter 2. Half the Picture: Korean Scholars and the Environment in the Early Nineteenth Century |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=De-nin D. |editor-link= |title=Eco–Art History in East and Southeast Asia |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |date=2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlmGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71 |pages=70–72 |isbn=9781527527300}}

{{cite web|url=http://satana-aka.la.coocan.jp/akasatana6.html |last=Kushida |first=Kōzō |author-mask=Kushida, Kōzō[?] 櫛田公造 |title=Shi wa shinbun shinshi no shi |script-title=ja:“し”は新聞・新志のシ |website=Tokyo ningyō manhitsu club: akasatana manpitsu |access-date=2023-03-28}}

{{cite book|author=Matsura Seizan |author-link=Matsura Seizan |chapter=Kan 20: Ningyo no koto Ōtsuki Gentaku ga Rokubutsu shinshi ni kuwashii nari |script-chapter=ja:卷二十 〇人魚のこと大槻玄澤が六物新志に詳なり.. |title=Kasshi yawa: 100 kan |script-title=ja:甲子夜話: 100卷 |volume=8 |location= |publisher=Kokusho kankōkai |date=1910 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UC4ss5oowUC&pg=PP307 |page=283}}。

{{Cite book|author=Mōri Baien |author-link=Mōri Baien |chapter=NIngyo |script-chapter=ja:人魚 |title=Baien gyofu |script-title=ja:梅園魚譜 |publisher= |date=1825 |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1286914/29 |pages=}}

{{cite journal|last=Morita |first=Masaya |author-link=:ja:森田雅也 |title=Nanba Saikaku to umi no michi (3): Inochi toraruru ningyo no umi |script-title=ja:難波西鶴と海の道（9）:命とらるる人魚の海 |newspaper=Osaka Nichinichi shinbun |date=2011-04-27 |url=http://saikaku48.jp/article/saikaku_umi_2011_2013/009.pdf |page=}}

{{harvp|Mozume|1922}} "Shira bikuni", Kōbunko [https://books.google.com/books?id=7vYZAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP659 10: 623–624]

{{cite book|editor-last=Mukasa |editor-first=San |author-link=:ja:武笠三 |chapter=Hōjō kudaiki, Book 8. §Yui-no-hama chi ni henzu/Taigyo shisu/Kōchō no kaii |script-chapter=ja:北條九代記8 〇由比濱（ゆひのはま）血に變ず_付大魚死す_竝黄蝶（くわうてふ）の怪異 |title=Hogen monogatari: Heiji monogatari. Hōjō kudaiki |script-title=ja:保元物語: 平治物語. 北條九代記|publisher=Yuhōdō |date=1913 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3rZDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP569 |pages=549–550}}

{{Citation|last=Murai |first=Mayako |author-link= |editor1-last=Bacchilega |editor1-first=Cristina |editor1-link=|editor2-last=Brown |editor2-first=Marie Alohalani |editor2-link= |title=Yao Bikuni |work=The Penguin Book of Mermaids |volume=1 |publisher=Shūwa system |year=2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d16IDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA210 |pages=210–212 |isbn=9780525505570}}

{{harvp|Nakamaru|2015|p=8}}, comparing the definitions of ningyo in Kojien dictionary, 5th edition (1998) and 6th edition (2008). The definition changes from "upper half human woman" to "upper half human (usually woman).

{{cite book|last=Naramoto |first=Tatsuya |author-link= |title=Kenran taru chōnin bunka no kaika |script-title=ja:絢爛たる町人文化の開花 |publisher=Ōbunsha |year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cAGmxwEACAAJ |page=140}}

{{cite book|editor1-last=Blair |editor1-first=Emma Helen |editor1-link=Emma Helen Blair |editor2-last=Robertson |editor2-first=James Alexander |editor2-link=James Alexander Robertson |others=Edward Gaylord Bourne, notes |chapter=Manila and the Philippines about 1650 (concluded). Domingo Fernandez Navarrete, O. P.; Madrid, 1675 [From his Tratados historicos.] |title=The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803: Explorations |volume=38 |location= |publisher=A. H. Clark Company |year=1906 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QcvTAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA29 |page=29}}

{{citation|last=Niino |first=Naoyoshi |author-link=:ja:新野直吉 |title=Hirafu to deatta Oga |script-title=ja:比羅夫と出会った恩荷 |editor=Handa Ichitarō kyōju taikan kinen kai |work=Akita chihō-shi ronshū |script-work=ja:秋田地方史論集 |publisher=Mishima shobō |date=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bt8xAAAAMAAJ&q="秋田浦"+"秋田湾" |page=47}}

{{cite book|editor=Nishimaki |editor-first=Kōzaburō |editor-link= |title=Kawaraban shinbun: Ōsaka natsu no jin kara gōshō Zeniya Gohei no saigo |script-title=ja:かわら版新聞: 大阪夏の陣から豪商銭屋五兵衛の最期 |publisher=Heibonsha |date=1978 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rIIzAQAAIAAJ&q=阿蘭陀+人魚+蛇 |pages=23, 85 |quote=面光女のごとく頭紅毛有両手猿にて又水かき有其形蛇の如く四尺五寸あり |language=ja}}

{{citation |last=Oishi |first=Kaz |author-link= |chapter=Ch. 6. Oriental Aesthetes and Modernity: The Reception of Coleridge in Early Twentieth-Century Japan |editor1-last=Vallins |editor1-first=JDavid |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Oishi |editor2-first=Kaz |editor2-link= |editor3-last=Perry |editor3-first=Seamus |editor3-link=Seamus Perry|title=Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism |location= |publisher=A&C Black|date=2013|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mfdLAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 |pages=93 |isbn=9781441149879 }}

{{cite book|last=Porter |first=Deborah Lynn |author-link= |title=From Deluge to Discourse: Myth, History, and the Generation of Chinese Fiction |publisher=SUNY Press |date=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xOPhkHmw7mIC&pg=PA78 |at=p. 210 and [https://books.google.com/books?id=xOPhkHmw7mIC&pg=PA210 note 8] |isbn=9781438416342}}

{{citation|author=Ihara Saikaku |author-link= |title=Budō denraiki |script-title=ja:武道伝来記 |trans-title=Exemplary Tales of the Way of the Warrior |chapter=Book 2, Part 4 Inochi toraruru ningyo no umi |script-chapter=ja: 巻二の四、「命とらるる人魚の海」|date=1647 |chapter-url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2554415/51 |at=fol. 19v–20r}}

{{Cite book|author=Ihara Saikaku |editor1-last=Taniwaki |editor1-first=Masachika |editor1-link=:ja:谷脇理史 |editor2-last=Inoue |editor2-first=Toshiyuki |editor2-link= |editor3-last=Fuji|editor3-first=Akio|editor3-link= |chapter=Budō denraiki |script-chapter=ja:武道伝来記 |title=Budō denraiki/Saikaku okimiyage/Yorozu no fumihōgu/Saikaku nagori no tomo |script-title=ja:武道伝来記/西鶴置土産/万の文反古西鶴名残の友 |series=Shin nihon koten bungaku taikei 77 |publisher=Iwanami shoten |date=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4APAAAAYAAJ&q=るりをのべて |pages=|isbn=978-4002400778}}

{{Cite book|author=Sasaki Ujisato |author-link= |chapter=Kan dai 4 ge. Tenbun 18 – Tenbun 20 nen |script-chapter=ja:巻第四下 天文十八年—天文二十年 |title=Kōgen bukan |script-title=ja:江源武鑑 |publisher=Kōbundō shoten |date=1982 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7kbAQAAMAAJ&q=十日計|page=84 }}

{{cite book|editor-last=Seki |editor-first=Keigo |editor-link=Keigo Seki |chapter=Ryūgū e no nukemichi |script-chapter=ja:竜宮への抜け穴 |title=Nihonjin monogatari: Himerareta sekai |script-title=ja:日本人物語: 秘められた世界 |volume=5 |publisher=Mainichi shimbunsha |date=1962 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqHTAAAAMAAJ&q=%E7%94%B2%E5%AD%90%E5%A4%9C%E8%A9%B1+%E6%B5%B7%E5%A5%B3|page=51}}

{{cite book|editor-last=Strassberg |editor-first=Richard E. |editor-link= |chapter=266. The Di people (Diren) |script-chapter=zh:氐人 |title=A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas |publisher=University of California Press |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fnpFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA190 |page=190 |isbn=978-0-52029-851-4}}

{{cite book|editor-last=Strassberg |editor-first=Richard E. |editor-link= |chapter=125. Human-fish (Renyu) |script-chapter=zh:人魚 |title=A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas |publisher=University of California Press |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fnpFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 |page=130 |isbn=978-0-52029-851-4}}

{{cite book|editor-last=Strassberg |editor-first=Richard E. |editor-link= |chapter=292. Hill-fish (Lingyu) |script-chapter=zh:陵魚 |title=A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas |publisher=University of California Press |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fnpFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA204 |pages=203–204 |isbn=978-0-52029-851-4}}

{{cite book|editor-last=Strassberg |editor-first=Richard E. |editor-link= |chapter=15. Red Ru-fish (Chiru) |script-chapter=zh:赤鱬 |title=A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas |publisher=University of California Press |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1911212/21 |page=34}}

{{citation|editor=Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce |editor-link=Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce |chapter=Ugui |script-chapter=ja:ウグヒ |title=Suisan zokuji shū |script-title=ja:水産俗字集 |publisher=Dai-Nihon Suisankai |date=1887 |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2596381/38 |page=34}}

{{cite book|last=Suzuki |first=Tōru |author-link= |title=Nihonshi kawaraban |script-title=ja:日本史瓦版 |publisher=Sanshūsha |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Of7oe4ENX8oC&pg=PA167 |page=167|isbn=9784384038323 |language=ja}}

{{Cite book|last1=Takahashi |first1=Manabu |author-link= |last2=Watanabe |first2=Shin'ichi |author2-link= |last3=Koyama |first3=Yuki |author3-link= |last4=Kudō |first4=Naoko |author4-link= |year=2000 |title=Suzaki iseki: Ken'ei hojō seibi jigyō (Hamaikawa chiku) ni kakaru maizō bunkazai hakkutsu chōsa hōkokusho |script-title=ja:洲崎遺跡 県営ほ場整備事業(浜井川地区)に係る埋蔵文化財発掘調査報告書 |series=Akitaken bunkazai chōsa hōkokusho dai 303 shū|publisher=Akitaken Kyōiku Iinkai |url=https://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/en/article/19322 |pages=5, 38, 449, 455–456 |doi=10.24484/sitereports.12057}}

{{citation|last=Terajima |first=Ryōan |author-link=:ja:寺島良安 |author-mask=Terajima Ryōan |chapter=Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:人魚 |title=Wakan Sansai zue |script-title=ja:和漢三才図会 |volume=80 of 81 |publisher= |date=n.d. |orig-date=1712 |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2596381/38 |at=Book 49 (kan-no-49), fol. 20b-21a}}

{{citation|last=Terajima |first=Ryōan |author-link=:ja:寺島良安 |author-mask=Terajima Ryōan |chapter=Teijin |script-chapter=ja: 氐人 |title=Wakan Sansai zue |script-title=ja:和漢三才図会 |volume=15 of 81 |publisher= |date=n.d. |orig-date=1712 |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2596362/58 |at=Book 14 (kan-no-14), fol. 52b}}

{{citation|last=Toriyama |first=Sekien |author-link=Toriyama Sekien |translator=Hiroko Yoda |translator2=Matt Alt |chapter=Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:人魚 |title=Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |year=2017 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeTtDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 |pages=168 |isbn=9780486818757 }}

{{Cite book|author1=Tachibana no Narisue |author1-link=:ja:橘成季 |editor1-last=Tsukamoto |editor1-first=Tsukamoto Tetsuzō |editor-link= |date=1922 |orig-date=1914 |chapter=(Book 20, No. 30) Fish, insects, birds, animals Gyochūkinjū |script-chapter=ja:巻第二十 第三十 魚蟲禽獸 |title=Kokon chomonjū zen |script-title=ja:古今著聞集 全 |publisher=Yūfōdō shoten |chapter-url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/977874/317 |page=625}} (September 1914 print gives Miura, Satoshi 三浦理 as editor-publisher)

{{cite journal|last=Wakameda |first=T. |author-link= |title=Tales from Saikaku: The Mermaid's Curse |journal=The Japan Magazine: A Representative Monthly of Things Japanese |volume=11 |number=2 |date=June 1920 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMROAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA64 |pages=64–66}}

{{cite book|editor1=Wang Qi |editor1-link=:zh:王圻 |editor2=Wang Siyi |editor2-link= |chapter=Niaoshou 6-juan Linjie-lei Renyu |script-chapter=zh:鳥獸六巻 鱗介類 人魚 |trans-chapter=Birds & Beasts, Book 6 / Fish & Shellfish / Human-fish. |title=Sancai Tuhui Book 94 of 106 |script-title=zh:三才圖會 第94卷(全106卷） |publisher=N. p. |date=1609 |chapter-url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2574392/53 |pages=}}; Also {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBJaAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP398 |2=Huaiyin caotang 槐陰草堂 published version of 1609}}, with additional proofing editors (潭濱黄・晟東曙) listed at the book 5 title page .

{{cite web|last=Yabuno |first=Tadashi|author-link= |title=Mōri Baien Mōri gyofu ningyo |script-title=ja:毛利梅園「梅園魚譜」 人魚 |work=鬼火 Le feu follet |url=https://onibi.cocolog-nifty.com/alain_leroy_/2015/06/post-c8a6.html |date=2015-06-01 |access-date=2022-06-25}}

{{cite web|last=Yabuno |first=Tadashi |author-link= |title=Flying tanpatsu Kasshi yawa kan no 59 5 Katō Kiyomasa no kotei |script-title=ja:フライング単発 甲子夜話卷之五十九 5 加藤淸正の故邸 |work=鬼火 Le feu follet |url=https://onibi.cocolog-nifty.com/alain_leroy_/cat23783608/index.html |date=2022-09-18 |access-date=2022-09-28}}

{{cite book|last=Yamaoka |first=Matsuake |author-link=:ja:山岡浚明 |chapter=Saii ◎Gyoyō |script-chapter=ja:災異 ◎魚妖 |trans-chapter=Cataclysms: ◎Fish abnormalities |title=Ruijūmeibutsukō |script-title=ja:類聚名物考 |publisher=Kondō kappansho |year=1904 |orig-date=1779 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lDVDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP789 |page=783}} (The ◎Ningyo subheading, the quote is misattributed to "Kudaiki", and is from the "Kodaiki".)

{{cite book|last=Yamazaki |first=Yoshishige |author-link=:ja:山崎美成 |chapter=Book 4, 22. Wakasa no happyaku ni |script-chapter=ja:若狭の八百尼 |title=Teisei kidan |script-title=ja:提醒紀談 |publisher=Suharaya Ihachi |year=1850 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLNiAAAAcAAJ&q=%E6%AF%94%E4%B8%98%E5%B0%BC&pg=PP241 |pages=}}; reprinted in {{harvp|Mozume|1922}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=7vYZAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP659 10: 623]

{{cite book|last=Yanagita |first=Kunio |author-link=Kunio Yanagita |title=Santō mintan shū |script-title=ja:山島民譚集 |publisher=Chikuma shobo |date=1973 |orig-date=1964 |pages=579–580}} Quoted and commented by {{harvp|Kuzumi|2011|p=66}}.

{{nihongo|Yao Bikuni ryaku engi|八百比丘尼略縁起|extra="Yao Bikuni's abbreviated history"}}, held by Kūin-ji temple. Quoted in: {{cite book|editor=Kōshin kōwakai |editor-link= |title=Kōshin: minkan denshō no kenkyū |script-title=ja:庚申: 民間信仰の研究 |location=Kyoto |publisher=Dōhōsha |year=1978 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R24yAAAAMAAJ&q=八百比丘尼略縁起 |pages=544–545}} and {{cite book|editor1-last=Adachi|editor1-first=Ichirō |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Nakajio |editor2-first=Seinosuke |editor2-link= |chapter=Yao bikuni |script-chapter=ja:八百比丘尼 |title=Fukuiken Kyōdoshi: jinbutsu hen・minkandenshō hen |script-title=ja:福井県郷土誌 : 人物篇・民間伝承篇著 |publisher=Rekishi toshokan |date=1977 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_R9IAAAAMAAJ |pages=156–174}}

{{cite wikisource|author=Nan Huairen |author-link=Nan Huairen |chapter=Book Two |script-chapter=zh:卷下 |title=Kunyu tushuo |script-title=zh:坤輿圖説 |year=1672 |origyear= |wslink=zh:坤輿圖説 (四庫全書本)/卷下 |edition= |noicon=yes |quotation=大東海洋産魚名西楞上半身如男女形下半身則魚尾其骨能止血病女魚更效}}

{{Cite journal|ref={{SfnRef|Zhou|2017}}|author=Zou Zhenhuan |author-mask=Zou Zhenhua 鄒振环[邹振环] |author-link= |title=Tè gǎo. "Hǎi cuò tú" yǔ zhōngxī zhīshì zhī jiāoliú |script-title=zh:特稿. 《海错图》与中西知识之交流 |trans-title=Special report: "Illustrated Book of Sea Monsters" and the exchange of knowledge between China and the West |journal=Zijincheng |script-journal=zh:紫禁城 |publisher= |date=March 2017|url=https://www.dpm.org.cn/Uploads/File/2020/05/15/u5ebe519572a3a.pdf |pages=130–131}}

}}

;Bibliography

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal |last=Castiglioni |first=Andrea |author-link= |title=The Human-Fish: Animality, Teratology, and Religion in Premodern Japan |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=48 |number=1 |date=2021 |url=https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/article/1537/pdf/download |pages=1–44 |doi=10.18874/jjrs.48.1.2021.1-44 |jstor=27039930 |s2cid=237709697 |doi-access=free }}
• {{citation|last=Chaiklin |first=Martha|author-link= |title=Simian Amphibians: The Mermaid Trade in Early Modern Japan |editor-last=Nagazumi |editor-first=Yōko |editor-link=:ja:永積洋子 |work=Large and Broad The Dutch Impact on Early Modern Asia Essays in Honor of Leonard Blussé |publisher=Toyo Bunko |date=2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZP4SAAAAIAAJ&q=polypushttps://toyo-bunko.repo.nii.ac.jp/ |pages=241–273|isbn=9784809702440}}
• {{cite book |last=Foster |first=Michael Dylan |author-link=Michael Foster (folklorist) |title=The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore |publisher=University of California Press |date=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMRwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA155 |isbn=978-0-520-95912-5 }}
• {{cite book|last=Fujisawa |first=Morihiko |author-link=:ja:藤澤衛彦 |chapter= |script-chapter=ja:人魚傳説考|title=Nihon densetsu kenkyū |script-title=ja:日本伝説研究 |volume=2 |publisher=Daitōkaku |date=1925 |chapter-url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/972232/30 |pages=19–48}}
• {{cite book |last=Hayward |first=Philip |author-link= |chapter=Chapter 3. Japan: The 'Mermaidisation' of the Ningyo and related folkloric figures |title=Scaled for Success: The Internationalisation of the Mermaid |year=2018 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0861967322 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrFiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51 |pages=51–68 }}
• {{cite book |last=Kovacic |first=Mateja |author-link= |chapter=Chapter 4. Opening the West with Japanese Mermaid Mummies: Ningyo in the Making of the Theory of Evolution |editor1-last=Bremner |editor1-first=Lewis |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Dotulong |editor2-first=Manimporok |editor2-link= |editor3-last=Konishi |editor3-first=Sho |editor3-link=|title=Reopening the Opening of Japan: Transnational Approaches to Modern Japan and the Wider World |publisher=BRILL |date=2023 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtP7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA115|pages=115–170|isbn=9789004685208}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Kuzumi |first=Kazuo |author-link= |title=Dazai Osamu no 'Ningyo no umi' ni tsuite no hikaku bungakuteki kō |script-title=ja:太宰治の「人魚の海」についての比較文学的考察 |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Fukushima University. Liberal arts |issue=70 |publisher= |date=June 2001 |url=https://www.lib.fukushima-u.ac.jp/repo/repository/fukuro/R000000155/5-420.pdf |pages=33–45 |hdl=10270/137 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Kuzumi |first=Kazuo |author-link= |title=Edo jidai no 'ningyo' zō |script-title=ja:江戸時代の「人魚」像 |trans-title=Das Bild der „ Seejungfraun“ in der Edo-Zeit |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Human Development and Culture Fukushima University |number=2 |publisher= |date=December 2005 |url=https://www.lib.fukushima-u.ac.jp/repo/repository/fukuro/R000000542/16-12.pdf |pages=59–69 |hdl=10270/498 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Kuzumi |first=Kazuo |author-link= |title=Edo jidai no 'ningyo' zō (2): Hakubutsugaku no hakurai wo chūshin to shite |script-title=ja:江戸時代の「人魚」像（2）—博物学の舶来を中心として |trans-title=Das Bild der „ Seejungfraun“ in der Edo-Zeit 2 |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Human Development and Culture Fukushima University |number=2 |publisher= |date=June 2006a |url=https://www.lib.fukushima-u.ac.jp/repo/repository/fukuro/R000000545/16-19.pdf |pages=45–55 |hdl=10270/499 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Kuzumi |first=Kazuo |author-link= |title=Edo jidai izen no 'ningyo' zō: Nihon ni okeru 'ningyo' zō no genten e no apurōchi |script-title=ja:江戸時代以前の「人魚」像 : 日本における「人魚」像の原点へのアプローチ |trans-title=Das Bild der „Seejungfraun“ vor der Edo-Zeit: Das Herantreten an den Ausgangspunkt des Bildes der „ Seejungfrau“ in Japan |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Human Development and Culture Fukushima University |number=4 |publisher= |date=December 2006b |url=https://www.lib.fukushima-u.ac.jp/repo/repository/fukuro/R000000546/16-27.pdf |access-date= |pages=51–61 |hdl=10270/500 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Kuzumi |first=Kazuo |author-link= |title='Ningyo' no jitsuzōkō: minkan denshō no naka no 'yōsei' no shōtai ni tsuite |script-title=ja:「人魚」の実像考─民間伝承の中の「妖精」の正体について ─ |trans-title=Das reele Bild der „Meerfrau“ : Über die eigentliche Gestalt von der „Nixe“ in der zivilen Überlieferung |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Human Development and Culture Fukushima University |volume=10 |publisher=福島大学人間発達文化学類 |date=December 2009 |url=https://ir.lib.fukushima-u.ac.jp/repo/repository/fukuro/R000003655/16-67.pdf1 |access-date= |pages=81–96 |hdl=10270/3338 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Kuzumi |first=Kazuo |author-link= |title=Nihon no 'ningyo' densetsu:'Yaobikuni densetsu' wo chūshin to shite |script-title=ja:日本の「人魚」伝説─「八百比丘尼伝説」を中心として ─ |trans-title=Die Sagen der „Meerfrau“ in Japan: Über „Die Sage von Yaobikuni“ |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Human Development and Culture Fukushima University |number=13 |publisher= |date=June 2011 |url=https://www.lib.fukushima-u.ac.jp/repo/repository/fukuro/R000003996/16-85.pdf |access-date= |pages=45–55 |hdl=10270/3561 }}
• {{cite thesis |type=Masters |last=Lai |first=Youyu 頼宥羽 |author-link= |title=Chinzei yumiharizuki ron: Ryūkyū ōken ron wo chūshin ni |script-title=ja:『椿説弓張月』論. —琉球王権論を中心に— |publisher=National Chengchi University |date=July 2015 |url=http://saikaku48.jp/article/saikaku_umi_2011_2013/009.phttp://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/78039/1/600301.pdf |pages= |lang=ja }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• {{cite journal|last=Magnani |first=Arianna |author-link= |title=Searching for Sirenes in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Fantastic Taxonomies of Anthropomorphic Fish in Chinese and Jesuit Texts |journal=Sulla Via del Catai |number=26 |date=May 2022 |url=https://www.martinomartinicenter.org/uploads/2/2/8/5/22856686/26_magnani_87-105.pdf |pages=87–105}}
• {{citation|last=Minakata |first=Kumagusu |author-link=Minakata Kumagusu |title=Ningyo no hanashi |script-title=ja:人魚の話 |journal=Muro shinpō |script-journal=ja:牟婁新報 |date=24 September 1901}}
• {{citation |last=Minakata |first=Kumagusu |author-link=Minakata Kumagusu |author-mask=2 |title=Ningyo no hanashi |script-title=ja:人魚の話 |work=Minakata Kumagusu zenshū |script-work=ja:南方熊楠全集 |volume=6 |publisher=平凡社 |date=1973 |orig-date=1901 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypwLAAAAIAAJ |pages=305–311 }} [http://kiebine2007.amearare.com/minakata6.htm htm edition]
• {{cite book |last=Mozume |first=Takami |author-link=:ja:物集高見 |chapter=Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:人魚 |title=Kōbunko |script-title=ja:廣文庫 |volume=15 |publisher=Kōbunko kankōkai |date=1922 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHrWDbOvVIsC&pg=PA90 |pages=35–42 |isbn=9784054044517 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Nakamaru |first=Teiko |author-link= |title=Hakubutsugaku no ningyo hyōshō: honyūrui, josei, uo |script-title=ja:博物学の人魚表象—哺乳類、女性、魚— |trans-title=How the Naturalists Described Merfolk or Mermaids : Fishes, Women, and Mammalia |journal=Journal of Comparative literature |volume=58 |publisher=Nihon Hikaku Bungakukai |year=2015 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/hikaku/58/0/58_7/_pdf |pages=7–23 }}
• {{cite book |author=Ōtsuki Gentaku |author-link=:ja:大槻玄沢 |chapter=Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:人魚 |title=Rokumotsu shinshi |script-title=ja:六物新志 |volume=2 |publisher=Kenkadō |date=1786 |chapter-url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2555433/22 |at=fols. 19a–32a }}
• （Chinese text into Japanese）{{cite web|url=http://satana-aka.la.coocan.jp/akasatana34.html |author=藤倉玄晴 |author-mask=藤倉玄晴 (aka. MORO)|title=Nigyo tachitsuteto: zōho to tana kara hitotsukami, sono 6－Kinransha {{=}} Tōkyō ningyō manpitsu kurabu: akasatana manpitsu |script-title=ja:人魚たちつてと:増補と棚から一つかみ、その6－金蘭社「世界童話叢書」の人魚昔話 {{=}} 東京人形漫筆倶楽部：あかさたな漫筆 |access-date=2022-09-15}}
• {{Cite book|author=Santō Kyōden|author-link=Santō Kyōden|others=Utagawa Toyokuni (illustr.)|title=Hakoiri musume menya ningyō|script-title=ja:箱入娘面屋人魚|publisher=Tsuta no Karamaru|date=1791|url=https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/he13/he13_01961/he13_01961_0035/}} (Waseda University copy) [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/9892706 National Diet Library copy]
• {{cite journal |last=Sasaki |first=Akio |author-link= |title=Budōdenraiki ron: sono 3 |script-title=ja:『武道伝来記』論 : その三 |journal=Bulletin of Tokyo Kasei Gakuin Tsukuba Women's University |number=4 |date=2000 |url=https://warp.da.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/246515/www.kasei.ac.jp/library/kiyou/2000/17.SASAKI.pdf |pages=(11)–(21) }}
• {{cite journal |last=Sato |first=Kenji |author-link=:ja:佐藤健二 |title=Kudan no tanjō: hanashi no ikolojī・josetsu, etc. |script-title=ja:クダンの誕生--話のイコノロジー・序説 (共同研究「民俗誌の記述についての基礎的研究」) -- (調査をめぐる諸問題) |trans-title=The Birth of Kudan |journal=Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History |volume=51 |date=November 1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cosjAAAAMAAJ&q=人魚 |pages=[https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/outline/publication/ronbun/ronbun3/pdf/051003.pdf 71]–102 }}
• {{Cite journal|last=Uchida |first=Keitaro |author-link=:ja:内田恵太郎 |title=Ninja kō |script-title=ja:人魚考 |journal=Shizen |volume=15 |issue=8 |date=1960 |url= |pages=42–47}}
• {{cite book |last=Yamaguchi |first=Naoki |author-link= |chapter=2. Ningyo |script-chapter=ja:第2章：人魚 |title=Ketteiban Yōkai mīra kanzen FILE |script-title=ja:決定版妖怪ミイラ完全FILE |publisher=Gakken |date=2010 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHrWDbOvVIsC&pg=PA90 |pages=46–103 |isbn=9784054044517 }}
• {{Cite book|last=Yamaguchi |first=Naoki |author-link= |author-mask=2|year=2014|title=Nihon yōkai mīra taizen|script-title=ja:日本妖怪ミイラ大全|publisher=Gakken|pages=104–107|isbn=978-4-05-406041-8}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Yoshioka |first=Ikuo |author-link=:ja:吉岡郁夫 |title=Ningyo no shinka |script-title=ja:人魚の進化 |journal=Comparative folklore studies: for folklore studies of Asia |publisher=Tsukuba University |date=September 1993 |issue=8 |url=https://tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4441/files/5.pdf |pages=35–47 |issn=0915-7468 }} [https://hdl.handle.net/2241/14286 URI]

{{refend}}

{{Japanese folklore long}}

Category:Mermaids

Category:Yōkai

Category:Mythological creatures

Category:Immortality

Category:Water spirits

ja:人魚