What is the ikuchi?
The ikuchi is a giant sea monster described in Edo-period essays. It is said to appear off the coast of Hitachi Province (today’s Ibaraki Prefecture) and to have a long, slender body like an eel or a snake.
A body that passes over ships
The ikuchi sometimes passed over a ship, and its body was so long that it took hours to finish crossing, it is said. Huge amounts of slimy oil dripped from its body, and sailors had to bail desperately to keep the ship from sinking. The Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien drew a long sea monster under the name “ayakashi” and mentioned the ikuchi in his note.
What was the ikuchi really?
Explanations include large eels of the sea, sightings of the deep-sea oarfish, and large ocean currents or tide lines imagined as a monster. It is a Japanese legend of a giant sea serpent closely resembling the Western sea serpent.
