From the Vault: Yuru-chara: Japanese Mascots, Part 2
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Hello and welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is Joe McCormick. Today is Saturday, so we're heading into the vault for an older episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This one originally aired July 11th, 2024, and it is part two of our series on the Yuru Kiara, Japanese mascots. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Stuff to Blow Your Mind

Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb. And I am Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two of our series on Yuru Kiara, the lovable, wobbly mascot characters of Japan.

Now, if you haven't heard part one yet, you should go back and listen to that episode first. In that one, we talked about the origins of the Yurukyar concept. Rob shared some of his experiences with these characters on a recent trip to Japan. And we talked about a couple of our favorite examples, including the Kumamoto mascot, a real megastar called Kumamon, which looks like a bear but apparently is not a bear.

Listen to the episode. You'll understand. And then the more obscure park-associated mascot, Hakugyo. And we're back today to talk about some more. That's right. Okay, so my last selection was more emotional than, I guess, substantially interesting to everybody. But this next one, I think, is even more fascinating because it does include ties into mythology and architecture.

So this is one that I definitely got to observe in the wild. So me and my family were big Studio Ghibli fans, of course, so we made our way to visit Ghibli Park during our trip to Japan. So we spent two nights in Nagoya to do so. And while traveling on the Nagoya Municipal Subway, we frequently encountered helpful signs that featured its mascot, its official mascot, Hachi.

Hachi is, well, I would say to the uninformed gaijin eye, Hachi is a humanoid uniformed Nagoya City subway employee, but his head is a golden fish with a human cartoon face and

complete with fins on the side and an upward cresting tail on the back of the head. So when you say he has a fish head, you're not saying his head is the head of a fish. You're saying his head is an entire fish. Right. But like, you know, kind of like a flat face fish with like a cartoon human nose.

So there's something interesting going on here. But at the very least, you can say a subway employee with a fish for a head. A human-bodied subway employee with a fish for a head, but the fish for a head has a human face. Correct. Yeah. So already I'm on board, right? I mean, he's cute. He's a bit weird. He's showing up and giving me helpful advice. Yeah.

You know, he often brings attention to important signage or in particular, the glass, kind of like glass pane doors in between subway cars. I found that they had stickers on there, I guess, to keep people from bonking into them if they were, you know, to they were free of smudges and so forth. As someone who has more than once in my life walked straight into a glass door, I appreciate that. But this is where things get even cooler. So it's not merely a fish that is serving as his head.

Hachi has a shachi hoko, or shachi for a head. So what is this? Well, in Japanese mythology, this is a fearsome sea monster, often described as a great fish with either the head of a tiger or of a dragon. It's also sometimes compared to a dolphin or an orca, and shachi actually apparently means orca in Japanese. Now, the origins of this mythical creature seemingly extend back through Chinese and Vedic influences.

namely connecting to the Chai Wen and the Makara in those different mythologies, both creatures that were often used as rooftop guardian sculptures. So comparable in some ways to like a gargoyle in the West.

Okay.

is frequently found as a traditional Japanese architectural flourish. So great golden fish, upward tail, generally gleaming gold in appearance, and traditionally employed as a means of supernatural fire prevention. Because the mythical fish here was said to hold water in its belly, and it could control the rain. So, you know, you can think of this as an invocation of a protective spirit, right?

While you're doing other things as well, of course, to try and keep fires from getting out of hand and burning down buildings or districts. Almost like a symbolic sprinkler system. Yeah. But why on the subway, you might ask? Well, the main reason is because Nagoya's historic Nagoya Castle, originally built in 1610, partially destroyed in 1945, and sort of continually restored since 1957, prominently features golden sachi on the roof.

And I included a picture of one here for you, Joe, and everyone out there, you can look these up as well. The English for this word is S-H-A-C-H-I.

Oh, OK. So am I understanding this image correctly? If I'm looking at it right, the fish's face is not facing out from the roof. It's turned inward along the roof line and the fish is sort of waving its tail out toward the rest of the world. That's correct. Yes. And pretty much I think all the times that I saw it utilized while I was over there and just looking around at various pictures that that seems to be the standard.

Interesting. I guess when I imagine artistic conventions of representing like an animal or a creature on the outside of a building, I would always have thought of it as having the face facing out, but there's no reason it has to be that way. Yeah. And the front half of the creature is very impressive. Again, in these statues, it's very much like a dragonoid sort of head. You know, even I can see the tiger associations and also you can sort of see roughly, okay, I can imagine.

or dolphins standing in for this creature. Now, on top of that, I guess we can also acknowledge that subway fires are certainly always a possibility. So I imagine you could also make a case for employing a mythological creature associated with fire prevention against subway fires, or maybe more generally against unwanted safety-related scenarios in general. It's employed on buildings as a protective spirit to help protect against fire.

uh like sort of worst case scenarios and likewise in the subway uh our friend here uh the the mascot uh hot she is here to help uh just looking at this fellow i i cannot help but but feel assured yeah he's very lovable i highly recommend if you're interested look him up if you

It's generally spelled H-A-T-C-H-I-I in English. Or just look for Nagoya Municipal Subway mascot and you'll find him. Okay, you ready to talk about my next selection? Yeah, yeah. I hear you got a very interesting choice. This is not one that I was familiar with. Well, so I think the most interesting thing about the Yuru Kiara I'm about to talk about is that it is the only one I'm aware of. There may be others that have escaped my attention.

that is a successful usurper king. So I mentioned in the last episode coming across a mascot who was said to be a big fan of heavy metal music, which it seems incongruous with the vibe of most of these mascots. Like what soft, toddling character of this kind could be a metalhead? The answer is it's Funasiyi, the unofficial mascot of Funabashi Chiba.

Now, you might wonder, unofficial? How does a city end up with an unofficial mascot? So I was reading about this in a couple of blog posts, one on a Kauai culture site called Yume Twins and also on the Mondo Mascots blog. Rob, I think you name dropped this one in the last episode, didn't you? Yeah, it's a great resource, especially if you just want to overload on images of various mascots and eventually learn what they represent. Yeah.

Yeah. And so the short story is that in the year 2013, Funabashi City decided to get in on the mascot hype and created its own official character. This character was called Funeemon, who was widely considered by locals to be excruciatingly bland and boring.

Rob, I will let you judge for yourself. Here I've included a picture. This is Funayamon on the right. He is described in most of the sources I could find as an Edo period salaryman or Edo period merchant. He's wearing typical clothing for the period and glasses.

And I have to agree, it is not a thrilling design. It's also not even super cute. It's just like an adult guy. Yeah, it just looks like somebody's dad who's, you know, a pretty cool dad, but as a mascot for the city, I don't know. Yeah. So in rebellion against this uninspiring official mascot, the people of Funabashi City elevated, I think, a pre-existing character,

This character is a hyperactive sentient pear named Funasi, who was born in a pear orchard and loves headbanging to Ozzy Osbourne. Funasi seems to have an appetite for extreme experiences and thrill-seeking.

and also allegedly sustained an injury while participating in a luchador exhibition in Mexico in 2016. Now, for whoever's writing this character's sort of backstory, as we mentioned in the last episode, a lot of these mascot characters have more extensive personal histories and backstories and sort of storylines than you might expect. You know, we talked last time about the ones that were falling in love with each other and all that stuff.

Uh, we, uh, but, but so this, this one really likes getting into extreme experiences and, and, you know, the loud headbanging and all that. And I wonder if that is in fact a reaction to the, the fact that this character filled the void of a character who was perceived to be too boring. Hmm. Yeah, I can see that being the case. Maybe combine that with some of this sort of attention seeking, uh,

arguably at times out of control um enthusiasm for uh for these various mascots you know um i was reading about about one the other day in fact it was the one that was prominently featured on john oliver how that particular mascot kind of got into a little bit of trouble uh based on just sort of being a little bit too aggressive and a bit too extreme and it's stunts um

Wait, well, that's not the same one, is it? No, no, it was a different one. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, different one. But I'm saying it seems like there is a line somewhere in there where you could go too far. But I guess Funasi's doing it right. I looked up Funasi and wrestling to see, okay, well, what is he doing? Where has he been engaging with like Lucha Libre or whatever? And I couldn't find many immediate answers, but I did see some clips of him being like thrown and flung around by some pretty big guys

name Japanese professional wrestlers. So, uh, you know, he's, he's getting out there. I mean, I don't think he's having official matches, but he's, uh, he's getting out there. Carpe diem.

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The world is built on code. From the apps we use every day to the systems powering industries, developers like you are the architects of tomorrow. But let's be real, the road to innovation can be tricky. You need the right tools to push what's possible and build the future. That's where Microsoft comes in. Microsoft has the tools to help you build your own way.

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Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash with Amex CST 1022318. Hello, hello. Malcolm Gladwell here from Revisionist History. You know, I'm always seeking out the story behind the story, looking for bold thinking, brave collaboration, and the kind of game changers who make a real difference in the world. That's why I was truly inspired when I found out about the work 3AM Innovations has been doing to make firefighting safer.

This story begins, as many do, with a problem. How can you keep fire crews informed, connected, and, as I mentioned, safe when they're doing their vital work? 3AM Innovation's solution to this problem is Florian, an innovative piece of technology that is already changing the way firefighters communicate.

From dispatch to on-scene activities, and even all the way to post-fire training efforts, Florian is a powerhouse that offers an unparalleled amount of data for everyone along the command chain. 3D mapping, hydrant status, automated tracking of crews, and more are all available at any moment, making the near-impossible task of managing a chaotic situation on the ground, well, possible.

The whole system is powered by T-Mobile for Business's powerful 5G network. But it's more than that. 3AM Innovations have teamed up with partners like Microsoft, Panasonic, and others to ensure this essential tech is operational when needed most. That spirit of selfless collaboration is just a small part of why T-Mobile for Business gave 3AM Innovations its 2024 Innovation in Community Award.

T-Mobile for Business will once again be honoring outside-the-box thinking like this on October 20th in Orlando, Florida. If your company is a T-Mobile for Business customer, you can nominate your team, group, or organization for this unique award show. Head to t-mobile.com slash enter for more details on how to enter. I'll be there. Will you? All right. The next one I want to cover here is Taribi Tosin.

a.k.a. Father Television from Hokkaido Prefecture.

Um, this guy, I included a picture of him for you here, Joe, tell me what you get off of just an initial look here at, uh, to Reby Tosin. What do you say? What do you think he is? Um, he is a red thing, uh, almost maybe like an upturned flower pot for a head as sort of, uh, slightly, uh, you know, like a upside down flower pot, but with a little bit of soft corners on it, uh, with a face, the face looks very, uh,

Jolly, you know, big, big smile on the face. It has the best kind of mustache, which is just four hairs. And then has a sort of, I don't know, a black spike reaching up from the top of his head, which almost suggests a piece of fruit, you know, like an apple has a stem. Maybe it's a piece of fruit with the stem poking off. And then, oh, also, so if his head and body is an upturned clay flower pot, it's

He has two legs underneath that are right side up, clay flower pots of a smaller size, and then sort of a green loincloth. That's what I get. Yeah, yeah. I looked at him and I instantly thought, like, maybe pepper? Like, maybe he's a hot pepper or some other kind of a vegetable or fruit? Yeah.

I showed a picture of him to my wife and she was like, I think he's a traffic cone. Also, I think a valid guess. Yeah, that's good. But the reality here, and this makes sense once you see the images side by side, is he's designed to resemble the Sapporo TV tower.

And once you see it, you're like, okay, I can see it now. He's very vaguely tower-shaped. The tower in question has this kind of like green band structure around the lower portion of it that has been transformed into a belt in his mascot form. And then that black apparatus on the top of his head, well, those are the upper extremes of the television tower itself. I see, yes.

So I like that, you know, there's like a journey for at least for someone like me to figure out what he is. But I was looking into it more. And I think part of the appeal of this guy is that his name in Japanese also has there's like a pun involved here, like Mr. Television Tower, which does not translate all that well. But I was instantly amused as well, because someone's for me ideas of TV is this kind of like stand in parent or

Yeah. Are you kids hugging the TV? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's father television. He just has the best of intentions for us. Yeah, I like this one. He seems sage and redolent with pleasure. Yeah, and there's not a lot to him, I admit, but it's another example of what they can be born of. They can be born of local landmarks, architectural touches, and so forth. But the next one I want to mention is interesting because it seems to be very mission-oriented. Like, this is...

This is a Yuri Kiara that was dreamt up, that was designed in order to fulfill a particular objective in reaching the masses and conveying some very important safety ideas. Oh, I'm intrigued. Who is it? All right. This one is Tsukimi Mori.

So this is another one. I'm fairly certain that I got to see this one in the wild because we were in Osaka. That's where this one is utilized. Osaka is a really fun city, though, and we had a little harder time navigating ourselves on the public transportation. So I wasn't as on the ball about getting pictures and chronicling him. But basically, this is a large, slightly scary purple and pink creature with

with a single glowing eye, with a yellow pupil, and he lives in the gap in the subway stations.

Oh, my Lord, Rob. I was trying to think, what does he remind me of? And he looks like a purple version of the monsters from The Green Slime. He really does. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely a sense of The Green Slime to him. If we were to see him animated, I bet he would have some very Miyazaki-esque elements. He kind of reminds me of Cat Bus a few times, but like a darkness Cat Bus. Yeah.

And so his mission here is, and there are a lot of, I think, objectively cute signs, warning people of all ages, but especially children, about the dangers of closing doors and the gap on Japanese trains and subways.

So Gaijin may be more used to, you know, mere mind the gap and watch for the closing doors announcements. But Japanese subway and train systems are generally more proactive on this. Oftentimes there are automatic gates in front of the gap that help, you know, that help make sure that people are not getting too close. And then you have initiatives like this.

And yeah, I love him because Tsukimamori isn't just a cute lax fellow to make you feel chill about public transportation. He is very cute. But he could also be mistaken for one of the darker Pokemon, perhaps, you know, some of the ghost types. But again, his whole deal is about reminding you of the dangers of the gap. So he needs to be a little bit scary, even if he is not malicious. Like, I want to be clear.

So Kimo Mori is not here to grab your children and pull them into the gap. I got to say, it looks like that in some of the pictures you've supplied below, like he's peeking out below the train with his like fingers ready as a child is wandering by. It looks like he's going to snatch the child.

Right. This has led to some comparisons in the West to Pennywise, the dancing clown, you know, lurking in the sewer to pull children down. That is not what Tsukimomori is about. He is here. He's friendly, but he is scary because he is scaring you away from the dangerous part of the train.

Or one of the dangerous parts. Because, again, remember, he is a creature of the gap. His name quite literally means the gap gecko. And he was created by J.R. West Railways. Again, largely a service reminder for children and adults and parents. Kind of a nursery bogey, you know, to scare kids away from the dangerous zones.

And this was in response to apparently troubling stats at the time about gap-related accidents with kids. So, you know, there was a real reason to roll out this mascot. It wasn't just a situation where, wouldn't it be cool if we had a cute mascot? This, again, seemed to have been a very mission-first scenario. We need a Jenny Greenteeth of the subways. Exactly, yeah.

He's also really down on cell phone use on the train and on the move, especially among parents who should be helping their kids navigate that gap and not get a foot stuck or anything. We're told that he does love to dance. And I love this detail. He sleeps among the many lost things in the gap. So there are various images of him sleeping around lost shoes and lost cell phones and

And so forth, like sort of sleeping in the junk down there, his own treasure trove. He loves eclairs. So, you know, you do have some just sort of like neutral information about him. And we can relate to that, I guess. Is that like a thing? People drop eclairs through the gap? I don't know. I mean, maybe one person dropped an eclair and he was like, this is good. I'm a fan now. I await other eclairs to be dropped into the gap. So again, it would be unfair to classify Tsukima Mori as a malevolent force.

But he's at least adjacent to dangerous realities. And as such, you know, he reminds me a bit of past discussions of things like chinny green teeth and indeed like the Kappa, you know, superstitious, supernatural monster to warn people away from water related dangers. And in this case, it's it's subway oriented.

Yes, but though, as soon as I said Jenny Greenteeth a few moments ago, I did realize, no, that's still not quite right, because Jenny Greenteeth does want to snatch the children and Tsukima Mori does not. That's right. Yeah, the energy here seems to be

To amuse, to entertain, but also to be a little bit scary because he is a scary but cute creature that comes from a place that you should be more aware of and you should have a little more uncertainty about because it is like a dangerous in-between zone when boarding the train. So look him up. There are a lot of interesting posters and images of this guy and some interesting reactions to him, but he's doing good work. So I applaud him. So say we all. Yeah.

Alright, now this brings us to some more cultural connections that we can make about our Yoro Kiara. So most cultures have their various mythological and folkloric creatures, obviously. We talk about a lot of them on the show. We're always trying to drag them in from different parts of the world. But it is often observed that Japanese culture offers a particularly powerful trifecta of cultural influences here.

that may help us understand some of the energy underlying the appeal of their mascots, of their Irokiyara. You know, why are they such a big deal compared to other parts of the world that also have

cute, imaginary beings that may be invoked in various ad campaigns and public awareness and typical mascot work and so forth. And on one hand, there is certainly, and this is cited in a lot of sources we're looking at, there is the polytheistic nature of Japan's Shinto religion and the presence of supernatural kami

in all things in Shintoism. So this absolutely can't be overlooked. It's a traditional worldview in which there are multiple supernatural agents of power that can reside in pretty much anything. That's very fast and loose. There's a lot more to Shintoism than that, but basically in terms of the key points we might reference in understanding something as

far more simple as Japanese mascots. Essentially, you can look at Shintoism as one possible leg of understanding them culturally.

Now, I think we do have to also be careful here not to other the situation too much, because while there does seem to be a uniquely Japanese emphasis in play here, we can, of course, point to the coexistence of various mythic, folkloric, and otherwise at least supernatural adjacent beings in various cultures, regardless of the dominant religion or religions in that culture.

And beings from outside traditions have a way of working their way into even those religions, at least into the periphery. Okay, so there's Shintoism, and then as we've already referred to several examples of this, but there are also the yokai, which we've discussed in greater detail on the show before. A catch-all for various monsters, supernatural phenomenon, and ghosts, though...

Yuri, which are more in line with the haunting ghosts of Western tradition, are kind of their own separate category. Yokai ghosts are kind of they're more in line with this idea of kami and that they're they're everywhere. And they might be just completely neutral to humans or they might be a little bit mischievous. It just depends.

So we've talked about them before. They occur in various places throughout one's daily life, according to the traditions, often associated with things such as bathrooms, restaurant kitchens, alleys, and so forth. And there's a very strong case to be made that Pokemon as well owe a lot of their popularity to these traditions. And various Pokemon are directly based on Yo-Kai, and some Yo-Kai and some Pokemon are also Yuru Kiara. So...

you know, it's all kind of interconnected. I should also note that we've discussed

Tsukumogami on the show before household objects that are thought to become animate through age in Japanese traditions There seems to be this slide towards personification Which of course ties into the very basic human tendency to identify human like qualities and animals plants and various? inanimate or even non-corporeal things I think sometimes examples like this from another culture just give us the distance to recognize the larger global phenomenon. Uh-huh

Also, I'm going to present as kind of like the third leg of the tripod here, potentially, to understand Yurokiyara. And this also ties into just sort of cuteness in general and kawaii. But as Eddie Y.L. Chang points out in the 2018 article, Let the Yurokiyara Do the Job, there's also this longstanding popularity of small things in Japanese culture, particularly the small sculpture art form of netsuki.

combined with longstanding appreciation for animal forms and cute things in general. All right. So you've got this sort of pyramid of different influences

that could be feeding into the yuru-kiara phenomenon. On one hand, the traditional Shinto beliefs about the spirits or entities all throughout nature. On the other hand, you've got the sort of yokai, the various sort of like monsters or beings that we've talked about on the show. And then also this tradition of making these cute small sculptures like Natsuki. ♪

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This episode is brought to you by Microsoft. The world is built on code. From the apps we use every day to the systems powering industries, developers like you are the architects of tomorrow. But let's be real, the road to innovation can be tricky. You need the right tools to push what's possible and build the future. That's where Microsoft comes in. Microsoft has the tools to help you build your own way.

With Azure AI Foundry's streamlined toolchain, model choice, GitHub Copilot, and VS Code, you can build the next big thing the way you want. But here's what's key. You can innovate confidently with responsible AI and security that's built in from the start. The future is in your hands. To learn more, go to developer.microsoft.com slash AI. Microsoft. Yours to build.

That's the powerful backing of American Express. Turn

Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash with Amex CST 1022318. Hello, hello. Malcolm Gladwell here from Revisionist History. You know, I'm always seeking out the story behind the story, looking for bold thinking, brave collaboration, and the kind of game changers who make a real difference in the world. That's why I was truly inspired when I found out about the work 3AM Innovations has been doing to make firefighting safer.

This story begins, as many do, with a problem. How can you keep fire crews informed, connected, and, as I mentioned, safe when they're doing their vital work? 3AM Innovation's solution to this problem is Florian, an innovative piece of technology that is already changing the way firefighters communicate.

From dispatch to on-scene activities, and even all the way to post-fire training efforts, Florian is a powerhouse that offers an unparalleled amount of data for everyone along the command chain. 3D mapping, hydrant status, automated tracking of crews, and more are all available at any moment, making the near-impossible task of managing a chaotic situation on the ground, well, possible.

The whole system is powered by T-Mobile for Business's powerful 5G network. But it's more than that. 3AM Innovations have teamed up with partners like Microsoft, Panasonic, and others to ensure this essential tech is operational when needed most. That spirit of selfless collaboration is just a small part of why T-Mobile for Business gave 3AM Innovations its 2024 Innovation in Community Award.

T-Mobile for Business will once again be honoring outside-the-box thinking like this on October 20th in Orlando, Florida. If your company is a T-Mobile for Business customer, you can nominate your team, group, or organization for this unique award show. Head to T-Mobile.com slash enter for more details on how to enter. I'll be there. Will you?

Specifically regarding the one leg of the tripod here of Yokai, I wanted to come back to something from an essay that I mentioned in part one. So the last time I talked about the essay about Kumamon, the bear or not bear Urikiyara of the Kumamoto Prefecture, right?

This essay was called Kumamon, Japan's surprisingly cheeky mascot, that was in a book called Introducing Japanese Popular Culture 2023 from Rutledge, edited by Elisa Friedman. The essay was by Deborah J. Ochi. And this part that I'm about to mention was in the context of a paragraph talking about how yuriki are sometimes deployed by authorities after large, frightening public events. One big example is

is the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear incident at Fukushima, after which Ochi says that the number of mascots in Japan increased, as did the perception of their healing power for the people.

And I've also read that the figure of Kumamon specifically was widely used to comfort the public after the devastating 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. So there's a sense that part of the role, part of the cultural role of these like these sort of cute, positive, informal characters is that they they help people feel better after a tragic event. Right.

On the topic of linking Kumomon to pre-existing yokai, here's the quote I wanted to discuss. Ochi writes, quote, During the COVID-19 pandemic, yuru-kyara were again mobilized across the linguistic landscape, appearing on public notices and backdrops for televised official announcements. Kumomon occasionally appeared along with his Kumamoto ancestor Amabi, a

a folkloric yokai spirit associated with pandemic relief who was also widely used.

So I had to learn more about this Amabi, and I did so by consulting The Book of Yo-Kai by the folklorist Michael Dylan Foster. I've talked about this book before on the show. He is a scholar currently affiliated with UC Davis, and the section on the Amabi, I think it's from the expanded recent edition of the book. So according to Foster, the earliest image we have of this Yo-Kai is

is printed on a Kawaraban broadsheet from the year 1846. Now, Kawaraban means tile block printing, and it was a type of media similar to a newspaper or a tabloid considered very ephemeral, so printed roughly on cheap paper with the idea that it would be read once and then tossed away.

And it was used in the Edo period for reporting major news events and for reporting official announcements, but also on scandals, rumors, and gossip, including things of a supernatural character. So you might read about the effects of a recent typhoon. You might read about the siege of a castle or a murder in the city. But also you might read about a ghost woman who turned into a giant spider. Why not? I mean, that's basically just an extension of your...

your rumor mill and your, uh, your gossip columns, right? I want to know what the, the ghost women are up to around town. Yes.

So there is a particular 1846 Kawaraban preserved in the library of Kyoto University that includes both a narrative and an illustration about a Kumamoto official's encounter with a spirit from the ocean. So the text reads as follows in translation. Every night, something brightly lit would appear in the sea of Higo. And that's off of present-day Kumamoto Prefecture.

When a local official went out to take a look, something like what is in the picture here appeared and said, I live in the sea and am called Amabi. For the next six years, there will be abundant harvests throughout the provinces, but disease will spread. So make haste to copy an image of me and show it to the people. So saying, it returned back into the sea.

And Rob, I've included here a photograph of this broadsheet, including the illustration. So this is the first representation of the Amabi and the text that showed up next to it.

Now, I was thinking, man, the face really reminds me of something, but I was not able to figure out what it was. Rob, in the notes, you figured out what it was it was reminding me of. But the Amabi is a three-legged avian mermaid. So it's got a bird's beak, a diamond-shaped eyes, though we can usually only see one of its eyes because its head is turned in profile.

It's got long hair reaching down to her feet and of which there are three, by the way, she has three feet, three toes on each foot and a body covered in shingled rounded scales like a fish. But I was trying to think, what does the face remind me of? And you got it exactly. What is it?

Oh, man, I thought it was just me. But I look at this creature and monstrous aspects of the creature aside, I get strong Kathy vibe. Kathy from your local newspaper cartoon section. Yes, it's Kathy. It's the combination of like the hair and something about the eye. Yeah, like Kathy has like her eyes are depicted like so close to each other. They're touching. And then, yeah, the long hair and sort of the general shape of Kathy.

is also present in this creature from the sea. So the Amabi in this illustration is not fearsome, I will say. Instead, it looks strange, and I think it is supposed to look strange, but it's closer to cute than scary.

Yes, I would agree. But again, the details of the narrative. So off the coast of what is now Kumamoto, people would see a bright light in the darkness at night. An official goes out there to figure out what it is. I guess he goes out in a boat, though it doesn't say how he investigated. I'm assuming I'm picturing a boat trip. Hmm.

sees this three-legged avian mermaid with a beak. It says, I live in the sea. I'm called a mobby. You're going to have six years of good harvests, but you are also going to have an epidemic of deadly disease. Share my picture with people. And the implication that I read into it here, and I think this is what it is meant, is that sharing the image will prevent the disease from spreading. And then finally, the yokai goes back underneath the waves.

Now, Foster writes that this is the first written record we have of belief in the Amabi, but there is a very similar being that slightly precedes it called the Amabiko, or sometimes Amahiko, which appears in at least 11 documents from the 1840s through the 1880s.

And Foster cites a folklore scholar named Yumoto Koichi who argues that these are actually the same creature and that Amabi is simply a transcription error of the word Amabiko that caught on and then got copied down the line.

So possibly the same, possibly different, but in either case, they're very similar creatures. What's the deal with the Amabiko? Some are said to rise out of the sea. Others appear in the mountains, but they tend to give similar predictions and warnings to what we heard in the first story. For example, there's an 1844 story of an Amabiko that appears in the Bay of Echigo and says disease is going to spread and seven out of 10 people in Japan are going to die because

But if you look at a picture of me, you will be spared. And then, Rob, I've attached a picture of what the Amabiko looks like in this 1844 document. Different kind of look, more like a three-legged black octopus dolphin. Yes, I think that's an accurate description. Yeah, totally different character. Still, I wouldn't say...

Hmm. I wouldn't say fearsome, but I get a far more, more of a, I get far more of a neutral vibe off of this guy. I don't know for sure if he leans more, uh, benevolent or benevolent. Um, yeah, different, different sort of creature, but definitely three legs. Yeah. The sort of snout is still there. So I can see, I can see the lineage between these two designs. Yeah. Ambiguous. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, according to the story, clearly wants to help or wants to exploit an upcoming disaster or fear of disaster into getting people to look at pictures of him. Right. So a pattern emerges between these stories. There will be an epidemic. Many will die. But if you see a picture of me, you will live. So spread this illustration far and wide.

And it's funny because this reminds me of stuff in the modern era, like those email forwards you would get in the early 2000s that are like, you know, you will see a ghost in the mirror and die three days from now unless you send this email to 10 of your friends. Yeah, because as far as I'm understanding, there's nothing really informational in this image. It's not like study this image.

You know, it's not like various pieces of religious art, you know, particularly I'm thinking like Tibetan Buddhism, or also you see the examples of this in Buddhism in Japan, where like a very complex piece has a number of messages to convey to you about, say, how to reach meditative states and so forth. This is just a picture of a very simple drawing of a strange creature.

And it's just it's more like know that I exist, see what I look like, and that will give you an advantage against disease. Yeah, I don't think there's a lesson in how it looks. I think it's just apotropaic magic. It's like seeing me gives you magical protection against the disease that's coming.

And, you know, that's good news for the viewer, right? It's like, what do I have to do to get this reduction? Look at a picture. I'm in. Yeah. Don't even have to read anything. It's easy to do. But also, if you want to help your friends, you better make a copy of this picture or buy another copy of the broadsheet and show it to them. So it has great memetic power because it includes its own intrinsic motivation to spread the meme. Interesting. Yeah.

Now, according to Foster, the Amabi and the Amabiko are not even the only yokai that give these types of warnings and offer protection through replication and spreading of the image. He also cites a creature called the Kudabe, which does pretty much the same thing. There's the Jinjahime, which has the body of a fish and the head of a woman, but with two horns.

She predicts both seven years of plenty, but also the spread of a deadly disease, a named disease in this case called corori. And if you draw her picture and share it with everyone, you know, they will be spared.

There's another one called the Himeuo, which is said in an Edo-based tale to have emerged off the coast of the island of Hirado. And interesting detail here, Foster writes, quote, Hirado might have been selected as the location for the Himeuo because it was a distant marginal location and also a region historically associated with foreign ships and traders and thus a gateway for both prosperity and potential disease. There you go.

So it's interesting that in the Edo period, there are lots of yokai with the power of prophecy, predicting the future, often predicting disease, epidemics and plague, often predicting bounty or both at the same time. And the image of this creature can provide apotropaic immunity to anyone who lays eyes on it. So you better copy it quickly and show it to everyone you know.

And these are categorized by some scholars, such as Yumoto Koichi, as yoginju or prophecy beasts. And Foster talks about the many different kinds of motivations somebody might have to spread a story like this. On one hand, it could just be a desire to like excite and entertain the reader. You know, it's kind of like an interesting, entertaining story. In some cases, it could be a simple desire to sell broadsheets.

In some cases, it could be a genuine desire to give people the hope of protection in the face of frightening, uncontrollable forces like infectious disease. Oh, that's a great point. And it ties into what we've been talking about, too. Like a golden fish on your roof is not going to actually protect you against fire, but it gives you that sense of hope. It gives you like this...

this additional layer on top of knowledge of preparation or statistics and so forth. And I can see how that would apply to our Yoro Kiara as well. Here's one of these cute creatures giving me information, giving me helpful advice, but there is an optimism to it. There's a hope intrinsic in the design of the creature that is giving me this information. Exactly right. And that, in fact, brings us back to the Amabi's appearance in

During the covid pandemic. So before 2020, the Amabi was a relatively obscure yokai foster. It says, you know, it probably would have only been known to like certain types of historians or, you know, like real hobbyists or obsessives, though it did appear in some work by the manga artist Mizuki Shigeru in the 1980s.

But after news of COVID-19 first began to spread in early 2020, the image of the Amabi surged in popularity on the Internet. Foster mentions several posts on Twitter from February and even one at the end of January 2020 that included renderings of the Amabi.

communicated the lore that we've just talked about, and I think jokingly encouraged the proliferation of its image as a protective measure against infection. And while it's pretty clear to me that most of these posts had a spirit of irony about them, like the use of the Amabi was sort of meant as kidding,

The Amabi really caught on as a symbol of defense and vigilance against the virus, both virtually and in physical media and consumer culture. So there was like a viral Twitter hashtag called Amabi Challenge where people posted alongside. They posted the hashtag along with like images of homemade renderings of the mer-bird and

And the the Imabi imagery was also used on all kinds of products from like keychains, T-shirts, tote bags to rice crackers and beer. There were actual invocations of the Imabi in public religious rituals and prayers. And.

And then eventually the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officially produced an Amabi logo warning people that they could spread COVID-19 without realizing it and advising people to take measures to limit exposure. Ah, and you included this poster art for me here in our outline. And I believe I did in fact see this during my travels in Japan. So either they're still putting them up or there's still some out there that haven't been taken down.

Or people keep putting them up. Because, again, that's kind of what you're encouraged to do with the Amabi. Yeah. So I think it's interesting connecting this back to the Urukiyara we were talking about, because both the Amabi and Kumamon were in some cases used in top down public health messaging and in bottom up cultural processing of events during the COVID pandemic.

And I wonder if this tells us anything about the broader role filled by Yuru Kiara and how that relates to this yokai. I want to read a passage from Foster here. Foster writes, quote,

individuals circulating their own versions, and institutional promotion, a government icon, heartfelt belief in religious ceremonies, and rampant commodification in charms and keychains. So he notes that

This kind of goes along with the fact that beliefs about yokai seem to thrive in the context of uncertainty as like a way of coping with mysterious threats and questions that can't be answered or can't yet be answered. Hmm.

I think we can all recall those like early months of the pandemic when there was just like so much uncertainty and we just didn't, you know, there was just like so much not knowing what to do. And so the beliefs of this kind sort of provide people a sense of control in some way. And while the traditional apotropaic use of the Imabi image is

may have been interpreted as like literally efficacious in protecting against disease back in the day. The way I'm reading it is that I think the majority of the use in the early months of 2020 was more playful and symbolic, not that most people sharing it thought that it would literally mechanistically prevent the virus from entering and infecting their tissues, but

but that it actually would do something because, of course, on one hand, would provide a type of psychological comfort and that feeling of control over an uncontrollable situation, but also that by spreading the image of the yokai, you were increasing front-of-mind public consciousness of the virus, which meant people would be more likely to take actual direct steps to limit contagion. And it strikes me that

Apart from messaging about the pandemic, Yuru Kiara, like Kumamon, have a similar dual function. There's like on one hand, you have emotional comfort. And then on the other hand, you have information consciousness. And that could mean either spreading information directly, like telling you something you don't know, or increasing the salience of information you already have, making you think about what you do know. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's enough to if you wanted to go all ancient astronauts on this, you could say that Amabe was an actual visitor from space and or the ocean that realized that that information is one of the key tools you can use against pandemics and was like, hey, start spreading images of me in response to illness. It's not going to really pay off right away, but there will come a time where this could make some small difference.

But anyway, obviously, I love this, this idea that, you know, these various Yuru Kiara, much like these older forms, you know, that again, they have the information. They also have this emotional comfort, like you've been discussing, that brings with it, you know, sort of cuteness and hope all sort of tied together in a package.

And I wish there was more of this in the world, you know, because aside from messaging aimed directly at children, I feel like so much of the more serious messaging out there, at least in the U.S., is it's just purely fear based or at least that's how it often feels to me. You know, sometimes there's this layer of hope to it or an image of like a smiling adult where it's like, oh, this is what happiness looks like. This is what this is what protection looks like or so forth.

Um, or the, or, you know, the, the hope is wrapped up in the purchase of something that's going to protect you from the scary thing. Yeah. And I don't know, I would, I would rather live in a culture of cuteness and hope than a culture of fear. I feel like we could overall, we could all push things a little more towards hope and cuteness and away from just the pure fear. I mean, the fear is always going to be there. The cuteness and the hope doesn't erase that fear, but you know, if it makes it feel a little, like if, if your experience going to the subway is, um,

is less like, don't you dare get near the gap because you'll be torn in half, you know? Less shake hands with danger and more Yuru Kiara. Sorry, it's a bit of a rant there. No, yeah, I see that there's a difference between taking proper precautions and wallowing in fear, yeah. Yeah, and realizing that that kind of messaging, that sort of leveling of the message can apply to everybody and not just children, you know? And you can do it in a way that's also not

you know, sugarcoating anything. Or maybe you are sugarcoating it a little bit, but there's still medicine in the middle. Yeah. All right. We're going to go ahead and close out this episode, but we'd love to hear from everyone out there. What are your experiences with Yuru Kiara, with the lax mascots? What are your favorites? Write in because we'd love to hear from you. Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On Wednesdays, we do a short-form episode. On Fridays, we do Weird House Cinema. You can get all of this in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J. Posway. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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