Drypoint etching, 100×150, March 2021
Series: Japanese phantoms
The Amabiko-nyudo (Amabiko Monk) appeared off the coast of Hyuga Province (now Miyazaki Prefecture). It predicted that there would be good harvests and bad disease for the next six years, and said that people would be saved from bad luck if they venerated its image in the morning and evening. Its appearance looks like a old person and the body was covered with things like scales. It also had nine legs like a bird’s, and feathers grew on its body. There are many ways to represent ‘Amabiko’ in Chinese characters and in folklore. Last summer I made a picture of an Amabiko with three legs and hair covering its whole body.
