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Mukade-kujira
Illustration of the "hai jiang," identified with the mukade-kujira by Minakata Kumagusu, from the Japanese Illustrated Encyclopedia of China (1718) (Public Domain).
The mukade-kujira (ムカデクジラ; Japanese: "whale-centipede") was a sea serpent in Japanese and possibly Chinese belief. It was described by the philosopher Kaibara Ekken in Yamato Honzo (1709), an agricultural textbook which also covered natural history,[1] and is reminiscent of the Greco-Roman scolopendra.[2]
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The mukade-kujira is as large as a whale, and has a mane, five fins on the back, and a two-cleft tail. Its legs number twelve, six being on each side; its flesh is coloured red and very poisonous, man being killed when he eats it.
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Although the mukade-kujira was no longer known in Japan by the 19th Century,[2] the term is now used to refer to the many-finned sea serpent, with which the mukade-kujira is often identified.
