Ancient Mummified ‘Mermaid’ Rumoured To Grant Immortality To Anyone Who Eats It Being Investigated

Scientists have announced plans to examine a mummified 'mermaid' that is rumoured to grant immortality to anyone who tastes its flesh.

Prepare for all your Peter Pan and Pirates of the Caribbean dreams - or nightmares - to come true.

Researchers from the Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts have revealed they will be taking a mummified 'mermaid' for CT scans in order to get to the bottom of its mysterious form and legend which has even been alleged to be connected to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mummified 'mermaid' to be investigated by scientists. (Pen News)

The mummy may also have religious significance according to the creator of the project, Hiroshi Kinoshita, of the Okayama Folklore Society.

'Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality. It is said that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid, you will never die', he said. 'There is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid and lived for 800 years. This ‘Yao-Bikuni’ legend is also preserved near the temple where the mermaid mummy was found. I heard that some people, believing in the legend, used to eat the scales of mermaid mummies.'

Kinoshita also explained how there is a legend surrounding mermaids that can 'predict[...] an infectious disease,' and that this may have foreshadowed the coronavirus pandemic.

Mummified 'mermaid' to be investigated by scientists. (Pen News)

While a letter which came with the mummy suggests it was 'caught in a fish-catching net in the sea off Kocki Prefecture,' Kinoshita is skeptical.

The letter states: 'The fishermen who caught it did not know it was a mermaid, but took it to Osaka and sold it as unusual fish. My ancestors bought it and kept it as a family treasure.'

The mummy currently resides in the Enjuin temple in the city of Asakuchi, where it is locked up in a fireproof safe, having previously been displayed in a glass case.

Chief priest Kozen Kuida told The Asahi Shimbun: ''We have worshipped it, hoping that it would help alleviate the coronavirus pandemic even if only slightly.'

Mummified 'mermaid' to be investigated by scientists. (Pen News)

However, Kinoshita doesn't buy the mummy's authenticity.

He stated: 'Of course, I don't think it's a real mermaid. I think this was made for export to Europe during the Edo period, or for spectacles in Japan.'

He noted that the spiked level of interest in the mummy is probably a result of the 'legend of mermaids [that] remains in Europe, China and Japan all over the world.'

A creature called the ningyo that has a body covered in scales, a monkey's mouth and a fish's teeth, also exists in Japanese folklore.

Japanese Folklore about mermaids. (Pen News)

Reflecting on the mythology, Kinoshita explained that the planned CT scans and even DNA testing hopes to prove whether the mummy is 'made from living animals'.

He concluded: 'It looks like a fish with scales on the lower body and a primate with hands and a face on the upper body.'

The findings from the scientific examination of the mummy will be published later this year.

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Topics: Science, World News

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.