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The Tsuchinoko or Tzuchinoko (ツチノコ or 槌の子, Japanese: "child of dirt" or "child of hammer") is a cryptid snake reported from Japan, described as extremely short and wide-bodied, with a distinct head and body.[1][2] It has been compared to the central European tatzelwurm,[3] and very similar cryptids are reported from South Korea, China, and possibly Papua New Guinea.[1]An unusual case is an eyewitness account by a Japanese who saw something similar in France .[4]
Description[]
Appearance[]
The Tsuchinoko is commonly described with features such as a very wide body, short length, a triangular shaped head and a tail much thinner and shorter than the body (often compared to a mouse's tail.) The color of its scales is said to be greyish, with it also sometimes being seen with its scales shining like those of the Chrysochroa fulgidissima beetle.[5] According to people who have allegedly seen the skeletons of the Tsuchinoko, it has a very wide ribcage, which might explain the "fat" appearance it gives off.[5]
The official website of Akaiwa City, the area where Tsuchinoko sightings once occurred, divides Tsuchinoko into two types, Type A and Type B. Type A has a long body and a round, warm-looking head, with inchworm-like movements and vertical standing behavior. Type B has a short, thick body shape and can leap up to 5 meters, making a squealing sound and moving like an inchworm.[6]
A model of Tsuchinoko of Type A.
A model of Tsuchinoko of Type B.
Behaviour[]
The Tsuchinoko has a very unique way of locomotion. The main traveling method it uses is not slithering, but moving like an inchworm.[5] Other than this, it has been observed to roll down hills in a tire-like shape, which is said to be the method it uses to catch its prey.[5] This rolling in a tire shape has given it some of its regional names such as the Koro (コロ) which are thought to be based on this, and there are even sayings like "...going downhill when a Tsuchinoko chases you is certain doom."[5] The Tsuchinoko, when it feels threatened, jumps at the threat with its mouth open. The Tsuchinoko is said to make different sounds. The most commonly heard Tsuchinoko sound is "chiii" (チー in japanese) and it makes this hissing sound when it attacks.[5] An uncommon sound that has been attributed to the Tsuchinoko is a deep, low grunt, like that of a Bullfrog but deeper. Tsuchinoko were often feared as bad omens, bad luck, and often killed on sight for this, and also for apparently being highly venomous, earning them the name "50 step snake."[5]
Folklore[]
Tsuchinoko being reported all across Japan, people there have many different views of them. Tsuchinoko was originally a regional name for the creature, but Soseki Yamamoto, the author of Runaway Tsuchinoko (1973), first heard this name when he sighted it, and this name became widespread thanks to him.[5] Before this it had about 50 or more names across Japan (see other names in the infobox) and wasn't recognized with one name.[5]
Physical evidence[]
Hoaxes[]
The Tsuchinoko photos that exist today are mostly fake, proven by DNA testing or obvious fake images using Blue-tongued Skinks. However, there are pieces of evidence that, although lost now, could have been real physical evidence.
Corpses[]
Tsuchinoko were killed on sight, usually out of fear, by Japanese villagers, which provided most of the supposed evidence of this creature.
Skeletons[]
Several people have seen the skeletons of the Tsuchinoko, or kept them, but most are lost.
Photographs[]
Some photographs have allegedly been taken of the Tsuchinoko.
Sightings[]
Undated[]
Cryptid researcher Bintaro Yamaguchi received eyewitness accounts of a "Tsuchinoko with legs" running at high speed from a person in Tokyo. He speculated that this might be a shingleback skink that had escaped from a private residence.[7] He also mentioned on another occasion that a cryptid researcher working under the name "Guilty" had seen a fast-moving, legged Tsuchinoko in the Chubu region. He analyzed it as a shingleback skink as well.[8]
Tsuchinoko sketch of the Yamagata Prefecture sighting.
Yamaguchi obtained other eyewitness accounts from people in Yamagata Prefecture who saw a Tsuchinoko-like creature with a broad, square body attached to a cedar tree. This was moving from top to bottom, and when it landed on the ground it looked no different from an ordinary snake.[7]
According to a September 18, 2023 web article, Keigo Toda saw what appeared to be a Tsuchinoko, about 20 years ago in Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture, when he picking mushrooms in the mountains. He said the creature was as thick as a bottle, had no limbs, was distinctly different from a snake, and had a creepy color that looked like moss was growing on it.[9]
Sometime between 1955 and 1964, while charcoal burners were cutting down trees, Tsuchinoko was crushed to death by a cut down tree. The tsuchinoko was buried, and in the 1980s it was dug up and the soil from this site was dedicated and enshrined in a shrine.[10]
Although the timing is unknown, the father of an actor and singer-songwriter named Ken'ichi Nagira testified that he saw Tsuchinoko lying on her back, snoring and sleeping. He also stated that tsuchinoko can blink.[10]
Joumon period[]
Doubutsu Soushoku Tsuki Tsurite Doki was excavated from Nagano Prefecture.
The Tsuchinoko may have been seen since the earliest times in Japanese civilization. A clay artifact from this period with creatures that match the description of the Tsuchinoko was found, potentially suggesting this. The official name of this artifact is Doubutsu Soushoku Tsuki Tsurite Doki (meaning "earthenware with handles decorated with animals").
Meiji period[]
Head of Tsuchinoko in the collection of Bintaro Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi Bintaro possesses a dried head of Tsuchinoko, said to be the head of a Tsuchinoko captured by a samurai in Aizu (now western Fukushima Prefecture) during the Meiji period (1868-1912). [11]The head is covered with gray and brown scales, and a cervical vertebrae can be clearly seen on the cut surface, so it is certain that it is the head of a creature. An occult writer working under the name Amimoto Melonpan analyzes that it is most likely the head of a tokay gecko and that it was used as a freak show in the 1970s.[12]
1930s[]
Illustrations based on testimony by Ken'ichi Ohmae.
In May, around 1932, in Kouchi, Chikusa Town, Hyogo Prefecture, Ken'ichi Ohmae saw a large black snake-like creature roll down a slope with its body curled up like a tire.[13]
1940s[]
During the Second World War many Tsuchinoko sightings took place in Japan, and a single confirmed sighting from Papua New Guinea.[1] In the book 山棲みまんだら (Yamasumi Mandara) Soseki Yamamoto wrote about the encounter:
| “ | Mr. Umehara, during the war, was a war doctor deployed in New Guinea, and met a crushing defeat of the Japanese. When the war was nearly finished, by that point the Japanese soldiers didn’t even have weapons, and were wandering around for food desperately so they could survive. The soldier’s daily lives were mainly looking for food. One day, Mr. Umehara and a sergeant were wandering around in a jungle, and ended up in a swampy area with a small river flowing, and they drank water from it. Then, the sergeant that was with Umehara said, “Doc, there’s something weird over there, what is it?” in a small voice. When Mr. Umehara looked in the direction of the sergeant’s pointing fingers, a bloated lizard-like creature was crawling on the sand nearby the river. The identity set aside, it could become food, so they both agreed to capture it and kill it. The sergeant told to leave it to himself, and got his wooden geta and put it in his hands, and started to stalk the creature very carefully. He was able to get behind it. Mr. Umehara got his Army Katana (Guntō or military sword) ready, behind the sergeant. When the two got very close, the creature started to ‘wiggle’. When it changed directions, they noticed it wasn’t a lizard at all, because it didn’t have any legs, and was a fat snake. The sergeant was cautioning because it could’ve been venomous. He got closer to it and then, in a very swift speed, he lifted his wooden geta and then smashed it on the creature’s “neck”. It was moving like it was choked and hitted the body on the ground 2 to 3 times, and it stopped moving. It was most likely struck on its weak point. The short, fat snake was about 90cm long, and was about the width of a single beer bottle. The two then skinned off the scales and skin of the snake, and then cut it in chunks and cooked it with fire, and ate it over the course of two days. He said it tasted like the thighs of a chicken. Mr. Umehara told this story to Soseki Yamamoto after watching a show on tv which then showed a model replica of the tsuchinoko. When Mr. Umehara saw the model on screen, he shouted “IT’S THAT!”. He was very surprised that these snakes were in Japan. He said to a tv show that featured him and his story, “There are many tools being developed to catch the creature, but I believe a Geta is the best tool to catch one.
|
” |
In August 1940, Ken'ichi Ohmae, who had seen what appeared to be Tsuchinoko around 1932, witnessed a thick, short snake moving in a straight line at the same location.[13]
One book mentions that the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research kept and observed Tsuchinoko for a year beginning in 1942. However, the publisher is no longer extant and the author is not known what he is doing now, so information on this is a mystery.[14]
Illustration created based on Hanaji Fukumoto's testimony.
In October 1949, a person named Fukumoto saw a creature that looked like tsuchinoko in Misasa Town, Tottori Prefecture. He testified that the creature made a straight line with its body like a stick and rotated its body vertically to go down the slope.[14][15]
1950s[]
In the 1950s, a carcass that appeared to be Tsuchinoko was discovered at the foot of Mount Ibuki in Shiga Prefecture, and was covered by the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.[16]
Illustration created based on Hanaji Morii's testimony.
Around 1955, Hanaji Morii was rabbit hunting with his dog in Chikusa Town, Hyogo Prefecture, when he heard a shaking in the grass and turned to see a snake he had never seen before. It was 50 centimeters long, and its body, which looked like a beer bottle, was spinning and moving. His dog liked to hunt snakes, he said, but on this occasion he did not attack the snake and was afraid of it. The snake disappeared into the grass, spinning as it did.[13]
1960s[]
In the fall of 1961, a Tsuchinoko-like creature was found in an old charcoal kiln in Eigenji Town, Shiga Prefecture. It was captured and sold to a snake dealer in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. The creature did not eat any of the food it was given and starved to death several months later.[16]
Vertically rolling tuchinoko, ilustlated based on Tomiko Ohkubo's testimony.
Vertically rolling tuchinoko, ilustlated based on Tomiko Ohkubo's testimony.
Around 1962, Tomiko Ohkubo saw a strange snake in the grass near Iwagami Shrine in Yamasaki Town, Hyogo Prefecture. The snake had a black body with a white pattern that looked like basting yarn. It was moving "like rolling a standing log vertically”. She threw a stone at the snake, which in turn came up the hill. This time the snake lifted its upper body and glared at Tomiko. When climbing up the hill, the snake was said to be moving around its head, swinging its body from side to side.[13]
Around 1965, in Chikusa Town, Hyogo Prefecture, Masayoshi Yamada was descending to the bottom of a valley overgrown with thatch when he saw a 40-centimeter-long, beer-bottle-thick snake rolling vertically and moving at high speed (as described by Tomiko Ohkubo in 1962). He got scared and went home at noon, even though he had just entered the mountain in the morning.[13]
1970s[]
In mid-June 1971, Yukue Oh'ue, a housewife from Kouchi, Chikusa Town, Hyogo Prefecture, was walking with firewood on her back when she encountered a strange creature. It was about 33 cm long, similar in color and shape to a beer bottle, had black stripes on its back, a small triangular head, and a small tail. This thing looked like a snake, but it had short limbs, and it climbed up the hill in a leaping motion.[13]
On June 10, 1973, in the area of Koshidawa, Chikusa Town, Hyogo Prefecture, Ryosuke Ogawa, an eighth grader, Shin'ichi Ogawa, a seventh grader, and Hiroshi, Shin'ichi's younger brother and a sixth grader, saw Tsuchinoko. While they were eating hirsute raspberries on a forest road, Ryosuke and Hiroshi discovered the second half of the snake's body peeking out from the grass. When they called for Shin'ichi, the snake was startled and disappeared into a pile of stones.[13]
Around June 13, 1973, a carpenter who came to renovate a farmhouse in Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture, saw a strange snake in the grass. He struck the snake 5-6 times with a wooden stick, killed it, and buried it in the soil nearby. However, when he saw a TV program about Tsuchinoko broadcast that night, he thought that the snake he had killed might have been Tsuchinoko, and the next day he and his friend, a science teacher at an elementary school, dug up the carcass. They processed it into a liquid immersion specimen. When the science teacher showed the specimen at the school where he worked, not only children but also adults flocked to the school to see Tsuchinoko. The snake had what appeared to be limbs. When the researchers investigated, they found that the snake was a tiger keelback that had been struck with a stick while trying to swallow a toad, causing parts of the toad's body to break through the snake's body and give it the appearance of limbs.[17]
In September 1974, Tsuchinoko was spotted in Ohnejime Town, Kagoshima Prefecture. It had a body like a beer bottle and a thin tail. Interestingly, there is a local legend of a snake named "Waraggoro" which looks like an agricultural hammer used to beat straw.[18]
Sketch drawn by Toru Wada.
On June 16, 1975, in Chikusa City, Hyogo Prefecture, Chikusa Elementary School teacher Toru Wada was headed to a fallow field to mow when he saw a strange creature in an area full of stones. It was a snake-like creature shaped like a severed log, dark brown in color with no pattern. It was 45 centimeters long, and its tail and head were one-fifth of its total length. The scales on its body were small, but the scales on its head were large. The creature was trying to climb the stone wall, but it slipped twice and finally managed to do so on the third attempt. Toru wanted to catch it, but thought it might be dangerous. Just then, a neighbor came by with a hoe, so he borrowed it and held the creature down. They observed this for about 10 minutes. There was no container to capture it, but they thought it would be pitiful to kill it, so they let the snake go. The snake moved to the grass without wiggling its body and disappeared.[13]
On the same day as Toru Wada's sighting (June 16, 1975), two housewives saw a similar creature in Kouchi, Chikusa Town. Kimiko Ohmae and Yoshie Hayashi had finished mowing and were drinking water from a nearby spring when Kimiko turned around and saw a thick snake she had never seen before at a distance of one meter. Yoshie doubted it, but Kimiko insisted she had definitely seen it. About three hours later, Kimiko saw a similar creature and told Yoshie, and this time they both saw it.They saw the second half of a snake's body, about 30 centimeters long and as thick as a beer bottle, sticking out of the grass. This one had a bluish gray color, like when a concrete block gets wet with water, and there were black lines on its back.[13]
1980s[]
On June 30, 1989, in Katsuura Town, Tokushima Prefecture, a person with the initials "S" found a snake curled up in a mandarin plantation as if in a circle. When he tried to capture it, the snake became as thick as a beer bottle and tried to escape, but he succeeded in capturing it. S confirmed that the captured snake was a male.[19]
1990s[]
In 1990, S, who had captured a Tsuchinoko-like snake the previous year in Katsuura Town, Tokushima Prefecture, captured a similar snake a few hundred meters from the previous capture site. This one had a head similar to that of a horse. He kept it for 9 months, during which time the snake laid eggs twice, for a total of 30 eggs. After the creature died, S processed it into a liquid immersion specimen and preserved it. The size of the creature in its preserved state is about 80 cm in length, with the head to the narrow part of the body measuring 20 cm, the thick body 40 cm long and 6-7 cm in diameter, and a thin tail extending from it. This was analyzed based on photographs and was considered to be probably a mutant of tiger keelback. [19]
On June 16, 1991, a thick snake about 60 cm in length was seen holding a Japanese striped snake in its mouth on a forest road in Mt. Fuka, Haga town, Hyogo prefecture. The head and tail could not be observed in detail because they were hidden by leaves. The witness managed to take several photographs before the snake entered the hole and disappeared.[13]
Around 1991-1992 , Tomoki Imai in the sixth grade at Higashi shirakawa village in Gifu Prefecture saw a strange creature on his way back from mountain climbing. He was playing with peeling stones on a slope when he spotted a short, thick, black, shiny, snake-like creature. Imai poked it with a stick, and the snake curled up and rolled away. Seeing this, he became frightened and ran away.[20] On the other hand, he said in another interview that this event happened when he was in the fifth grade. He also testified that the creature was 20 centimeters long.[10]
2000s[]
The carcass of Tsuchinoko, once buried and dug up.
Sketch drawn based on a tsuchinoko carcass found in an irrigation channel.
Skeleton of a carcass that was dug up.
On May 21, 2000, in Kurosawa, Yoshii Town (now Akaiwa City), Okayama Prefecture, a farmer with the initials N, who was mowing his rice field, saw a strange snake-like creature. It was 70 to 80 cm long, grayish black, with a large head and round eyes, and looked just like the cartoon character Doraemon. N attacked the snake with a mower and it ran away into an irrigation channel near a rice field.[21][22][23] Four days later, Hideko Takashima was with another person (said to be a sister or friend) when they found an object curled up like a wheelbarrow's wheel in an irrigation canal, and when they pulled it up, they found it was the carcass of a strange snake-like creature with a thick body. She was fond of snakes, so she took pity on the creature and gave it a burial. [23][24] This discovery occurred 200 meters from where N attacked the snake-like creature. [22] Believing that this may have been a Tsuchinoko sighting, town hall officials dug up the carcass on June 5 and requested an expert opinion from Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare. The results showed that it was a kind of snake, specifically a tiger keelback. [22][23][24] It was named Tsuchinaro, meaning "the snake that could not become Tsuchinoko."[22] Meanwhile, on the morning of June 15, Mitsuko Arima spotted Tsuchinoko swimming in a river in the Yoshii area. [23]According to the Akaiwa City, the Tsuchinoko sighted in the Yoshii case was Type A.[6]
A dead Tsuchinoko, said to have been captured in Chikusa Town in 2001.
In February 2001, a person driving through Chikusa Town, Hyogo Prefecture discovered a creature with its head protruding from a collapsed slope of earth. He or she pulled the creature out of the soil with a rope and brought it home in a bag. The person placed the creature he or she had caught on a tatami mat at home, and when he or she looked over a short time later, the creature was stuck to the window. The captor did not observe the creature moving, but assumed that it had leapt. He or she took several photographs of the creature, but the creature then died. To confirm the creature's identity, the captor went to the town hall to have the photos reviewed. The town clerk analyzed that the creature was nothing more than a lizard that had lost its limbs. On the other hand, paranormal writer Naoki Yamaguchi, who was allowed to observe this carcass on site, found that no evidence of limb loss existed.[13]
In 2003, just before the Athletics Championships in Paris, France, Mizuki Noguchi, a Japanese marathoner who was training, saw a Tsuchinoko-like creature with its head sticking out of the grass. Bintaro Yamaguchi suggested a connection to tatzelwurm.[4]
Carcass found in 2007. Back and front.
On April 4, 2007, at Yunodai Ranch in Ohkura Village, Mogami County, Yamagata Prefecture, employee Kato found the carcass of a strange creature in the hay of his cattle feed bins. It was 20 cm long and had no limbs, and when it was turned over, its belly had snake-like scales.Deciding to give the carcass to a man named Sasaki, Kato put it in a bag and stored it in the barn, but the next morning the bag was gone. He assumed that it had been blown away by the wind or carried away by crows. The Japan Snake Center analyzed the carcass from photographs and found that the carcass had been mutilated ,and based on the pattern and head features, it was possible that death adder, an Australian viper, had been carried in among the grass.[25]
A dead snake found by Maekawa at the end of 2007.
In late 2007, a person named Maekawa in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, found a dead Tsuchinoko-like creature on a mountain trail and reported it to the Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo, a nearby museum. The creature was thick, 75 cm long, longer than the mamushi, a common venomous snake in Japan. Museum employee Yuki Taguchi went to Maekawa's home to examine the carcass. Taguchi determined that it could be a viper boa from New Guinea, and since the snake was dead with its skull crushed, he suspected that a keeper who could no longer manage it had killed the snake and dumped it outdoors.[26]
In 2009, Bintaro Yamaguchi and Tokyo Sports Newspaper obtained information that Tsuchinoko had been captured in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, along with images. The images showed a Tsuchinoko-like creature, albeit out of focus. They visited the captor's home, but the captured creature was nothing more than a hawkmoth larva.[7][27]
Photos taken by Katsumi Inuzuka
Article in the Itonishi Times, October 24, 2009.
On September 5, 2009, in Konoura, Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture, Katsumi Inuzuka, who was considering moving to Niigata Prefecture from Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, photographed a Tsuchinoko-like creature during a preliminary visit to Niigata Prefecture. The photographed creature was blackish, had distinct scales, and had an extremely bulging body part. He witnessed this on two occasions. This photo was also published in the regional newspaper Itonishi Times on October 24, 2009.[28][29]
2010s[]
Skeleton found in 2014.
On October 14, 2014, in Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture, pest exterminator Shoichi Kimura went under the floor of a house to work and discovered a strange skeleton. It was 35 cm long, moldy, and had a triangular head. Kimura has been doing this work for a long time and is familiar with snake and weasel skeletons from his experience, but he had never seen this skeleton, so he thought it might be a valuable creature and carefully transported it on a cardboard box. Based on the skeletal features and the location where it was found, Yamaguchi Bintaro rejected the theory that it was a salamander or catfish, and thought it might be a new species of organism or a mutation of some kind. [16]
2020s[]
In July 2022, a Tsuchinoko-like creature was discovered in Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture, but was soon discovered by researchers to be a hawkmoth larva.[30]
Captured image of the water monitor video introduced as possibly Tsuchinoko on "news every.”
On July 12, 2023, the NTV news program "news every." featured a video of a Tsuchinoko-like creature that was filmed in a lotus root field in Ohzu City, Ehime Prefecture, as a submission from a viewer. When asked to identify the creature in the program, a zoo employee analyzed it as a water monitor. [31]It later turned out that the video was provided by a source who falsely claimed that it was taken in Ohzu City, but was filmed outside of Japan. Meanwhile, occult writer Okayuu interviewed people in Ohzu City and obtained information from a man in the area that "a few days before the news broadcast, elementary school students and others saw something in a lotus root field and made a big fuss."[32]
Similar cryptids[]
Nozuchi[]
Nozuchi, depicted in "Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki" (1779), a collection of paintings by Sekien Toriyama (1712-1788).
Nozuchi is a creature of Japanese folklore that lives in the mountains and has a similar head and tail morphology.[33] This is often equated with Tsuchinoko, but is considered different.[34]
Sketch of a nozuchi-like creature seen by a man in the 2010s.
This Nozuchi also has a recent sighting: in the early 2010s, a surveyor was surveying in the mountains south of Mt. Sobo in Kyushu when he encountered a strange creature. Once this man took a break and was about to turn to work when he saw a strange creature in an open area a couple of meters away from him. It looked like a long black worm or caterpillar, with no eyes or nose, only a mouth.The creature's torso was about 4 cm in diameter, and its body protruded 40 cm from the ground, which the witness estimated to be 1.5 meters long.There were three other identical ones about 10 meters further away. The creature turned its mouth, which was lined with a myriad of teeth, toward him in a threatening manner. When the man poked this with his pole, it moved like a snake does when it attacks. The creature made a gesture as if it was going to spit or something in its mouth, so the man thought the creature might be trying to fire something and left in a hurry. When Bintaro Yamaguchi asked the witness if this looked like Nozuchi, he replied that it looked a lot like it.[34][35]
See also[]
- Tatzelwurm
- Potato Snake
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ Dethier, Michel & Dethier-Sakamoto, Ayako "The Tzuchinoko, an Unidentified Snake from Japan," Cryptozoology 6 (1987)
- ↑ Heuvelmans, Bernard "Tzuchinoko, a 'Tatzelwurm' from Japan," INFO Journal 49 (June 1986)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 ATLAS【五輪都市伝説】 オリンピック選手は奇妙なモノを見る！？（前編） https://mnsatlas.com/?p=9567
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Yamamoto,Soseki 逃げろツチノコ,(1973,2016)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 赤磐市 つちのこ情報 つちのこって？ https://www.city.akaiwa.lg.jp/annai/yoshii/shiminseikatsu/shisei/tutinoko/2248.html
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 東スポWEB 目撃多数「ツチノコ」の正体と原型となる妖怪【ＵＭＡ図鑑＃１７】 https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/88534?page=1
- ↑ ATLAS 東京駅に猿が生息！茨城にカンガルー、千葉のキョン、和歌山にはライオン？ https://mnsatlas.com/?p=16624
- ↑ AREA dot. 海外がネッシーなら日本には「つちのこ」がいる！ 懸賞金1億円をかけ20年間つちのこを探し続ける、76歳隊長の“本気” https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/201541?page=1
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 ASAGEI plus 俺たちがワクワクした「ニッポン未確認生物」の世界（1）ツチノコは神の使い https://www.asagei.com/323431#goog_rewarded
- ↑ ATLAS 【山口敏太郎の呪物コレクション】ツチノコの干し首 https://mnsatlas.com/?p=55091
- ↑ ATLAS 日本古来のUMA「ツチノコ」の干し首が存在していた！？ https://mnsatlas.com/?p=2758
- ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 webムー 捕獲時には生きていた！ 衝撃の「ツチノコのミイラ」発見現場へ突撃／山口直樹 https://web-mu.jp/paranormal/10484/
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 webムー 未確認動物「ツチノコ」を捕獲せよ！ 賞金の歴史と生き物としての基礎知識 https://web-mu.jp/paranormal/18444/
- ↑ Materials on display at the Tsuchinoko Pavilion in Higashi shirakawa Village
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 東スポWEB ツチノコミイラか 聖地で発見 https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/99500?page=1
- ↑ ATLAS 【新事実】ツチノコは1973年に埼玉県飯能市で発見されていた！？ https://mnsatlas.com/?p=34556
- ↑ 南日本新聞 ツチノコを売っている？…「目撃」から50年、80人の集落に販売所と女子会が誕生 https://373news.com/_news/economy/topic_economy.php?storyid=194269&topicid=363
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 東スポWEB 徳島県勝浦郡勝浦町で捕獲された「トックリヘビ」はツチノコなのか【ＵＭＡ図鑑#３８】 https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/11095?page=1
- ↑ 朝日新聞DIGITAL ツチノコの「正体」ドキュメンタリーに 監督の不思議な原体験 https://www.asahi.com/sp/articles/ASP977WBZP97UJHB00V.html
- ↑ 赤磐市 つちのこ情報 はじめに https://www.city.akaiwa.lg.jp/shisei/tutinoko/3229.html
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 東スポWEB 【７８】ツチノコになれなかった「ツチナロ」 https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/28503?page=1
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Loren Coleman CRYPTOMUNDO Tsuchinoko https://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/tsuchinoko/#google_vignette
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 TBS NEWS DIG 「これ、ツチノコの死骸？」骨・皮・内臓は24年経った今も保管中「ツチノコ騒動」その正体は何だったのか https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/-/1175085?display=1
- ↑ Magazine “Mu ”June 2009
- ↑ 兵庫県立人と自然の博物館 ツチノコ発見か？？ https://www.hitohaku.jp/blog_old/2008/01/post_92/
- ↑ 東スポWEB 仰天→ガッカリ…正体が確認できたＵＦＯ＆ＵＭＡ https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/153887?page=1
- ↑ 新潟県糸魚川市つちのこ探検隊 https://www.nunagawa.ne.jp/tsuchinoko/
- ↑ Itonishi Times October 24, 2009
- ↑ 神戸新聞NEXT これってツチノコ？幻の正体に「新発見」！勘違いでも研究員驚き「人間の想像力たくましい」 https://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sougou/202209/sp/0015628702.shtml#google_vignette
- ↑ news every. broadcast July 12, 2023.
- ↑ ATLAS 愛媛県大洲市『ツチノコ目撃騒動！』顛末記 https://mnsatlas.com/?p=42143#google_vignette
- ↑ 中山太郎 ,“郷土趣味”,1921
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 東スポWEB 九州山中で発見されていた妖怪？ＵＭＡ？謎の怪生物の正体 https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/174325?page=1
- ↑ 東スポWEB 【山口敏太郎オカルト評論家のＵＭＡ図鑑３３９】野槌か？モンゴリアン・デスワームか？熊本の山の中に出現した謎の生物 https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/173817?page=1