WHAT IS AN AMABIE?
(from Wikipedia)
An amabie appeared in Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture) according to legend, around the middle of the fourth month, in the year Kōka-3 (mid-May, 1846) in the Edo era.
A glowing object had been spotted in the sea, almost on a nightly basis. The town's official went to the coast to investigate, and witnessed the amabie.
According to the sketch made by the official, it had long hair, a mouth like bird's bill, was covered in scales from the neck down, and three-legged.
Addressing the official, it identified itself as an amabie and told him that it lived in the open sea. It went on to deliver a prophecy: "Good harvest will continue for six years from the current year;[a] if disease spreads, show a picture of me to those who fall ill and they will be cured." Afterward, it returned to the sea. The story was printed in the kawaraban (woodblock-printed bulletins), where its portrait was printed, and this is how the story disseminated in Japan