Mystery Timeline｜1603–1867
The era when Toriyama Sekien's yokai paintings and ghost stories such as Yotsuya Kaidan flourished, and countless yokai were depicted in art and tales.
A long, slender silver deep-sea fish over 3 meters long. It is thought to be behind sea serpent and mermaid legends, and is known in Japan for the folk belief that it heralds earthquakes. Research has found no link to earthquakes.
An egg-laying mammal with a duck's bill. When a specimen reached Britain in 1798, it was so strange that scientists suspected it was a stitched-together fake. We explain how it came to be accepted as real.
An ape long told of in legends and rumors as a hairy giant of the forest. It was scientifically described in 1847. Its name comes from "Gorillai," a word in an ancient Carthaginian voyage account.
