Daija

Daija Category Snake Proposed scientific names Other names Country reported Japan First reported 1600s? Prominent investigators • none in particular

The Daija（大蛇） is the Japanese word for a large snake. This is also called by another name, Orochi. They have been sighted all over Japan for hundreds of years.

Daija/Orochi of Amagaike

On a rainy day in mid-January 1555, a man named Matazaemon was passing by a pond named Amagaike in what is now Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, when he noticed a giant snake-like creature by the pond. According to him, the serpent had a body so large in diameter that it had to be held by both arms, a deer-like head with eyes like stars, and a red tongue the size of a man's palm. The snake was looking in the direction of the pond when it noticed Matazaemon and turned around, so he scurried back. Nobunaga Oda, a warlord from the surrounding area, was intrigued by this and thought of draining all the water from the pond to capture the snake, but failed.

Daija/Orochi of Mt.Tsurugi

There were reports of giant snakes near Mt. Tsurugi in Tokushima Prefecture until the 1970s.

Taisho Period Sightings

A relative of cryptid researcher Bintaro Yamaguchi's aunt also encountered a giant snake while hunting in the area during the Taisho Period (1912-1926).

1970s Sightings

In May 1973, three people were mowing the grass near Mt. Tsurugi when a large snake with its head lifted up appeared from the grass. They described the size of the snake as "2.5 meters at the mouth only”.

On May 26, the previous witness saw the same thing, along with town council members and others. It was over 10 meters long and had a neck as thick as a propane gas cylinder.

Bintaro Yamaguchi thought that the giant snake sighted in the 1970s might have been an escaped anaconda. He also pointed out that the disappearance of sightings after a certain period of time may be due to the death of these foreign giant snakes, which could not adapt to the Japanese environment.