Feeling Eel?

Today's Yokai can be found in lakes and deep ponds all over Japan but especially in Miyagi. She is Unagi Hime or the Eel Princess. There aren't that many pictures of her, here's one.

And some dude drew this one himself.

You can draw one yourself if you just follow this video's instructions.

Unagi hime live at the bottom of lakes and ponds. Very little is known about them, and stories about them are short and lacking in detail. Sometimes they are said to weave clothing on looms at the bottom of their ponds. The clacking sound of a loom can be heard near the banks of a pond where an unagi hime lives.

Here is the origin and a legend...

Origin: In Miyagi Prefecture, eels were believed to be guardians of the ponds they inhabit. A number of local legends tell of eels which battle with other guardian animals such as crabs and spiders. The eels usually take the form of beautiful women and try to recruit the help of humans in their fights. Sometimes the human is a famous warrior or priest, other times he is unnamed, but in most stories the eel loses the battle.

Legends: There is a pond nearby which a warrior named Genbē lived. One rainy summer night, Genbē took a walk around the pond. The eel who owned the pond appeared before Genbē in the form of a beautiful woman. She told the warrior that on the following night, the spider who owned a nearby pond would come and fight her. She begged the warrior to stay by the pond and protect her, for with his help she would surely win the battle. Genbē promised to help. However, on the following evening, he grew cowardly and stayed at home, shaking. The next morning, he returned to the pond and found the severed head of a giant eel. Its unblinking eyes stared at him with such hatred that he lost his mind. He threw himself into the pond and drowned.

I don't have any eels to speak of, though I did buy a Gatcha capsule of Ahab's nemesis today.

I didn't buy any, but here are some Frog gatcha that would have gone well with a previous post.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about Junji Ito's story, The Dissolving Classroom I snapped a few pics from its interior. Pretty bizarre stuff.

As usual, when I transfer from my pc, the pages are out of order. Not that it makes much of a difference.

Going back to a nautical theme, I suppose Aquaman should make a reappearance here.

 

 

I'll save a few more for a later naughty-cal post.

Since I was in the mall today and there just happened to be a Curious George Pop-up store, I popped in to have my picture taken.

I didn't want to leave empty-handed.

No new entries on the Countdown to Halloween from our old pals at i-mockery though there's always something there to enlighten and entertain if you click around.

See ya tomorrow!