Drypoint etching, 100×150, October 2020
Series: Japanese phantoms
In the Edo period (probably in 1849), a female voice called out to people from the ocean in Echigo Province (now Niigata Prefecture). This heteromorph in a spiral shell called herself ‘Umidebito’ (person from the sea), and said, ‘There will be a good harvest for five years, but a bad cold will be prevalent. However, if you place a drawing of my form in your home and look at it in the morning and evening, you will escape misfortune.’ Then she disappeared. The Umidebito is one of the prophetic creatures of the sea, like the Amabiko, Amabie, and Alie.
