Earlier we talked about the mysterious Japanese giant worms and Japanese hungry ghosts. Japan is still a largely closed country and many monsters live in it, including in the water. For many years, there are legends about encounters with giant river fish of various types.
One such story dates back to the 19th century, and it reported on an unnamed river, in which a whole flock of very strange creatures attacked fishermen and bathers. They killed people, and then gutted their bodies, ripped out their entrails. Inside, the person turned out to be completely empty, but in appearance he looked intact.
Because of this strange feature, some researchers of the mysterious creatures suggest that the purpose of the attack of these incomprehensible river monsters was not to kill people, but rather to defend their territory. The creatures have been described by surviving eyewitnesses as covered in scales and with a fish-like body.
They were 1.2-1.5 meters long, their muzzles were like those of a seal and with very sharp teeth in their mouths. Moreover, on their head and neck they had something very similar to a mane of hair, almost human in appearance.
In Japanese myths, there is a monster named kappa who can attack people in the water and also loves to rip out their entrails.
It was said that these creatures gather in groups on the banks of the river and behave very noisy, especially they like to play with each other and make loud barking sounds. These creatures were mentioned in the 1823 book "The World in Miniature" by Frederick Schoberl, as well as in 1996 in Strange Magazine, which called them "hairy reptile-like fish."
Something in these descriptions indicates otters. They are really noisy and playful and love to flock. And the giant Brazilian otters can scare the jaguar with their aggressive behavior. However, even the largest and most aggressive modern otters do not attack people, and even less gut them.
Brazilian giant otters scared the jaguar.
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No more recent reports of these river creatures have appeared in Japan. Maybe those otters were completely killed by people, avenging their killed relatives. Or they weren't otters at all.
Another mysterious river creature was frequently reported during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Most often he was called Ryuu Gyo "Dragonfish". This monstrous fish was said to be 2.4-3 meters in length and its head resembled a crocodile, and its entire body was covered with thick bone scales, as strong as armor.
One of the first mentions of it came from the area that is now occupied by Ibaraki Prefecture. Locals claimed to have caught such fish in their nets in 1873. The giant fish was about 2.5 meters long, with a huge mouth full of sharp teeth. Her entire body was covered with sharp bony growths.
The caught fish was shown to everyone as a curiosity until it began to go out, after which the remains were thrown back into the river.
Bone growths possibly identify the fish as belonging to the order of sturgeon. But the Japanese knew perfectly well the sturgeon fish (there is even a local sturgeon in Japan) and would hardly confuse them with another species. In addition, sturgeons have never been found specifically in this area.
Another story about the same strange, huge fish came from 1875, when a fisherman said that his nets were torn to shreds by a "river animal" in Watarai Prefecture. This time the fish was over 3 meters long. An angry fisherman tracked down this fish and somehow caught it.
According to his descriptions, the fish looked like a crocodile, but instead of legs it had flippers, and the whole body was covered with bone armor. The fisherman brought the caught creature to his village and people even prepared different dishes from it. But the fish meat tasted disgusting and smelled unpleasant.
A reptile with flippers? It looks like one of the ancient aquatic dinosaurs.
Another encounter with a dragon fish took place in 1888. The man said that he saw a fish about 3 meters long, dark in color and with long "spikes" along the back. This fish apparently hunted a deer, which came to the watering place and tried to grab it by sticking its huge mouth out of the water. When a villager saw this moment, he was frightened and ran to call the people, but when the people arrived, there were no more fish near the coast.
As with the “hairy reptiles,” there have been no more recent reports of dragon fish.
Another mysterious giant Japanese fish lives in the Nagara River, in Gifu Prefecture, and has already been seen in our years. The first message came in 1989. This fish is about 7 meters long and has wide fins, similar to wings. This fish simply flew out of the water and described a semicircle, plunged back into the water, leaving the eyewitness to stand with his mouth open. According to the man, he had never seen anything like it in this river.
In the summer of 1998, there was another remarkable sighting of a similar creature, when a group of people, admiring the views from a bridge across the river, were very surprised to see a huge rounded fish, which, like a large beam, glided along the surface of the water on its "wings" before disappearing from sight. This strange creature was observed, according to rumors, at least 10 people.
Based on the fact that the fish was round and had widely diverging "wings", it was assumed that people saw a large stingray. Indeed, in Southeast Asia, the Mekong River is home to huge freshwater rays, reaching a maximum of 5 meters in length. However, in Japan itself there are no freshwater rays and who was seen by people remained a mystery.
Freshwater Mekong stingray.