In
Japanese folklore
Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, Tradition, customs, and material culture.
In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The Folklor ...
, the , literally translating to "child of hammer", is a
snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
-like being. The name ''tsuchinoko'' is prevalent in Western Japan, including
Kansai
The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...
and
Shikoku
is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...
; the creature is known as in Northeastern Japan.
Description
Tsuchinoko are described as being between in length, similar in appearance to a snake, but with a central girth that is much wider than its head or tail, and as having fangs and venom similar to that of a
viper
Vipers are snakes in the family Viperidae, found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, New Zealand, Ireland, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipe ...
.
Some accounts also describe the tsuchinoko as being able to jump up to in distance followed immediately by a second jump while still in the air.
According to legend, some tsuchinoko have the ability to speak and a propensity for lying, and they are also said to have a taste for alcohol. Legend records that it will sometimes swallow its own tail so that it can
roll like a wheel, similarly to the "
hoop snake" of American legend.
Sightings
In the late 1980s, a wave of purported sightings of the tsuchinoko was reported across Japan, primarily in the village of
Shimokitayama in
Nara Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...
. In 1988, Kazuo Nozaki, a member of Shimokitayama's village council, launched a "Tsuchinoko Expedition" to find the creature, which offered 1 million yen ($7,800 at the time) for its live capture and 300,000 yen for a sample of its skin. The expedition was joined by around 200 people from across the country and lasted until the beginning of the
Japanese asset price bubble
The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and the country's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceler ...
collapse in 1990 without finding evidence of its existence. To commemorate the event, the Shimokitayama Tsuchinoko Park was established in 2023.
Tohoku region
In a mountain close to
Lake Towada
is the largest Volcanic crater lake, crater lake in Honshū island, Japan. Located on the border between Aomori Prefecture, Aomori and Akita Prefecture, Akita prefectures, it lies 400 meters (1,800 ft) above sea level and is 327 m ...
, a sighting of a 30cm creature with similar shape to Tsuchinoko was reported. In 1 April, 2007, a Tsuchinoko-shaped dead body of a snake from a dried grass in a farm located in
Ōkura was found.
Search efforts and bounties
This is a list of municipalities and companies offering rewards for capturing Tsuchinoko, including those who ended the bounties.
*
Chikusa, Hyogo - 2 million
yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro.
T ...
(bounty ended after merging into
Shisō.)
*
Yoshii, Okayama - 20,000,000 yen
See also
*
List of cryptids
Cryptids are animals or other beings whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated by science. Cryptozoology, the study of cryptids, is a pseudoscience claiming that such beings may exist somewhere in the wild; it has been widely cri ...
References
A model of the tsuchinoko by Hajime EmotoEnglish introduction
{{Japanese folklore long
Yōkai
Mythological and legendary Japanese snakes