What is the jinmengyo?
Jinmengyo are fish whose head markings look like a human face. In 1990, carp in Kaibami Pond in the grounds of Ryuoson Zenpoji Temple in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, became famous as “jinmengyo,” setting off a nationwide boom.
The jinmengyo boom of 1990
In the spring of 1990, a photo of the human-faced fish taken by a reader appeared in a weekly photo magazine, and newspapers and TV followed one after another. In summer, up to 10,000 people a day flocked to the pond, causing huge traffic jams on nearby roads, and souvenir shops even sold “jinmengyo buns.” Together with the jinmenken (human-faced dog), rumored from the year before, it is remembered as one of the strange booms of the early Heisei era.
What is the jinmengyo really?
Jinmengyo are carp whose head markings and bumps look like a human face from certain angles. Humans tend to see three dots grouped together as a face (pareidolia, or the “simulacra phenomenon”), so we find faces even in the markings of fish. Carp said to be human-faced have continued to be seen in Zenpoji’s pond, and visitors still come today.
