The spiny monster of Saitama, the rat monster of an old temple… What are the true identities of the bizarre animals that appeared in various parts of Japan during the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras?

The Identity of “Mysterious Animals” that Are Neither Monsters nor UMAs

In Japan, there have been many stories of sightings of unknown monsters in various parts of the country since ancient times. Were they really yokai or UMA?

The book, “Kai-zo Zuzu Zukan” (Hozumi Akiyuki, Tetsujinsha), published on February 27, discusses “bizarre animals” sighted in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras. The “bizarre animals” here refer to “animals whose true identities are now known” and “animals that have been recorded as bizarre for various reasons.

Japan is an island nation, and because of its isolation during the Edo period (1603-1867), animals outside of one’s own region, especially those from overseas, were not well known to the general public. Because of this lack of knowledge, people often thought of unfamiliar animals as “monsters” when they encountered them.

This was true not only for the general public but also for the media. Newspapers and magazines of the time reported sightings of “strange animals” as “incidents. The author, Mr. Hozumi, uses modern knowledge to reveal the true identities of more than 50 of these “strange animals. Here are just a few of them.

The spiny monster of Saitama, Japan, which even the Ueno Zoo was unable to solve.

The following is an article that appeared in the Tokyo Metropolitan Newspaper on October 1, 1899. On September 15 of the same year, Yasutaro Nagashima, a resident of Osato-gun, Saitama Prefecture, caught a strange monster. Since he did not know its name, he packed it in a box and brought it to the Ueno Zoo to await its appraisal, but the Ueno Zoo refused to accept it, saying that they did not know what kind of animal it was and that they did not know how to keep it. At a loss, Yasutaro brought the monster to the head office of the Tokyo Metropolitan Newspaper in Tokyo and showed it to the reporters.

The monster was about the size of a puppy, with sharp, black, spotted, 2″ (6 cm) spines on its back. It resembled a hedgehog, but its belly was black, like the shell of a turtle or a wild boar. Its mouth was shaped like a long duck’s beak, and its four legs were black and shaped like the palm of a baby’s hand.

Hozumi suspects that this “spiny monster” may be a hedgehog. He says that it resembles a hedgehog and that its mouth “looks like a duck with a longer beak…” (from “Illustrated Book of Mysterious Animals”). It is understandable that the Ueno Zoo staff refused to accept the animal, since it was a year later that the echidna was first shown to the public in Japan. However, the mystery remains as to why the echidna, which is found only in Australia and other countries, was in Saitama Prefecture. ……