Takeshi Yamada with his 6-feet long Fiji Mermaid at the opening reception of the 9th Annual Mermaid Show at Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn, New York on July 22, 2006. (photograph by Eriko N. Bond)   This article features subject matter such as Dasoku, spirit of taxidermy vs. art, ancient humanoid sea monsters, Japanese Ningyo, the Fiji mermaid, circus sideshow gaffs, and circus sideshow gaffs.   According the book entitled Sengokusaku (Strategy of Country at War), there was an old story in ancient China when the country was called So.  A master of a big house hosted a painting competition, and declared to award the winner a cup of rice wine. The subject was a picture of a snake. The competition started and one of them finished earlier and he still had plenty of time. So, he laughed at his competitors and said that he is so great that he could even add legs to his snake and transform it into a Chinese dragon – mythological divine creature and the symbol of vitality and life force in China. When the time came and people circled around their artworks, the one who finished first did not get the prize because he added legs to his snake; the one who won the prize was a person who finished the second but he did not add legs to his snake. This became one of the most famous proverbs. In Japan, it is called Dasoku (pronounced Da so kuu), and it literally means “snakes’ legs”. Dasoku is additional things, which serve no purpose or worse yet negate the original purpose. In English, the similar proverb would be “Putting a fifth wheel to the coach.” In traditional main stream taxidermy, artist’s unique and distinctive indivisual visions are Dasoku.   In strict sense, in my personal opinion, the work of traditional taxidermist is closer to the scientist than artists. Essence of traditional taxidermy is fact, and the essense of art is lie. “We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”, Pablo Picasso wrote. “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them”, was also said by him. I, Takeshi Yamada would say, “All the art is lie. The job of artists is telling a lie for showing the truth.”                                     Taxidermy is a general term describing the many methods of reproducing a LIFE-LIKE LIFE-SIZE THREE-DIMENSIONAL representation of an animal for PERMANENT DISPLAY. What materials you use is not important in today's professional taxidermy as long as you achieve the final objective among professionals. Many taxidermy classes today teach how to build fiberglass fish body blank and how to use airbrush spray guns to spit out misty paints from the stainless steel nozzle on it instead of gutting a real fish. Science and technology changed the way of things in taxidermy productions dramatically in the last few decades. I, Takeshi Yamada call today's professional animal taxidermy the LIFE-SIZE LIFE-LIKE ABSOLUTELY BELIEVABLE SUPER ULTRA REALISM PERMANENT SCULPTURE. Taxidermy with low quality is called "artworks". Taxidermy with very low quality is called street fair crafts. The traditional mainstream taxidermy is NOT about expressing the ARTIST’S FEELING, NEW CONCEPT, NEW IDEAS, ORIGINALITY or even CREATIVITY at all. You do not express yourself in traditional mainstream taxidermy. The star is the specimen, and NOT the taxidermist.   Having said that, some “progressive/outrageous/creative/crazy” taxidermists have been pushing the envelope of the “traditional” taxidermy and creating taxidermies of monsters, which never existed in the nature. They may be enthusiastic and creative amateurs (rather than professional career taxidermists) using the techniques of taxidermy for their own craft. This is not something new. Both intentionally and unintentionally, this form of “creativity” against the principle of traditional mainstream taxidermy has been practiced from the dawn of the time by human hands all over the world.   Seeing is believing, and the invention of printing machine changed the people’s way of seeing and understanding the world. Historically, even the most unusual and odd-looking creatures, once published with illustrations were accepted as “fact”. The images of monsters in books were spread quite quickly throughout the world and “accepted”, even among the highly intellectual academic communities.   This illustration was featured in a book “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” by A. Ortelius published in 1570. This excerpt of a map of Iceland shows varieties of sea monsters that many people (including the scientists) believed inhabited the surrounding waters.   In the Book On Monsters and Marvels by Ambrose Paré, mermaids are featured as “real” among real monstrous animals such as the elephant, alligator, giraffe, flying fish, ostrich, chameleon, and hermit crab. Paré was the chief surgeon to both Charles IX and Henri III, and is considered as the best physician and true Renaissance man in the 16th century. This famous book is an illustrated encyclopedia of curiosities including of monstrous humans, birth defects, bizarre beasts, and super natural (or magical-looking) phenomena. In the book, illustrations of two-headed babies, conjoined twins, baby with extra arms and legs, and varieties of half-human and half-animal creatures are featured. In addition, he gave varieties of reasons why these monsters (baby with serious birth defects) are born. Humans with physical deformity were called monsters rather than freaks then.      (right) “Picture of a Triton and Siren, seen on the Nile” in the book On Monsters and Marvels by Ambroise Paré (left) published during 1573 and 1585. Note their webbed feet like a duck.             (left) Sea Monk from Historia Monstrorum, 1642     (middle) Siren from Le Balet Comique de la Reyne by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, 1581.      (right) Sea Bishop from Historia Monstrorum, 1642     (right) Sea Monster (right) Sea Queen appeared in the 17th century science books.   Mermaid featured in a science book in 1550.      (left) Benjamin Franklin made this chart of the Gulf Stream to show mariners how to save two weeks sailing westward. (right) The detail of this map shows Neptune at the lower right corner.   Traditionally, a mermaid is a legendary/mythological creature with a female human head and torso and the tail of a fish, which inhabits the water. If it's male, it's called a merman. From the dawn of the humanity, across the world, sightings of mermaids are reported and documented.   In Japan, Ningyo (人魚, human-fish) is an animal with top-half is human and bottom-half is a fish. Ningyo can be male or female. They live both fresh and salt water in Japan. There are many stories, legends, and mythologies of mermaids associated with Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan. There are many stories of mermaids helping or saving people. Some of the mummified mermaids are also enshrined at Buddhism temples as divine deity. Ningyo shinko (religion of mermaid) can be found many cities in Japan. The oldest record of mermaid in Japan is dated 619 AD in Nihonshoki (Historical Record of Japan) at the time of Suiko Emperor. Kuinji Temple in Fukui Prefecture is said to be the place of death of a woman (Buddhist nun called Yaobikuni, in her later life) who lived 800 years after eating the flesh of a mermaid, which was thought to have wondrous properties that could bring about immortality. Incidentally, a Japanese anime about this magical power of mermaid’s flesh was recently released in America (bi-lingual format). It is entitled “Mermaid Forest: Quest for Death”. It is a story of a boy who ate the flesh of mermaid became immortal, and lost because people around him grow old and die one after another. He started his journey to find another mermaid, hoping to get her help to become mortal again.  There are so many interesting old stories of Ningyo in Japan, and I hope to translate and introduce them to American readers in the future.    An ancient encyclopedia created and published in Japan featuring the illustration and detail description of the mermaid. The manuscript is written in Chinese pictograms, supplemented with Japanese signs, symbols and sounds. (Before written language was invented in Japan, the Chinese pictograms were by government officials as the official written language of Japan. (Collection from the Library of the Takeshi Yamada’s Museum of World Wonders)   An old photograph of mummified Ningyo (human-fish) actually created in Japan in the 19th century. A mummified monkey and a dried fish were sawed together to produce this animal. Due to the materials used to create this artwork, it is quite small (only about a foot long).  (Collection from the Library of the Takeshi Yamada’s Museum of World Wonders)   Incidentally, there is another sea monster in Japan, which sometimes mixed up with Ningyo. It is  Iso-onna (磯女, rocky beach woman). This sea monster is a species of the vampire. The Iso-onna appears on the Goto-retto of Nagasaki prefecture is a monster which lives at rocky beach. Above its breasts, it is a woman with long hairs. The bottom half is translucent (like a western ghost). The bottom can be that of a giant snake, depending on the local stories. This creature is said to attack people sleeping in the boat/ship at night. Variety of cities in Kyushu prefecture has Iso-onna. A city in Kumamoto prefecture of Kyushu island (one of the 4 major islands of Japan) reports that Iso-onna comes into the boat/ship by the tomozuna (hawser) and use her long hairs to suck the blood of sleeping fishermen to kill them.        Ningyo (humanoid-fish, old male?), hand-copy in watercolor on paper by Mototoshi Mori, 1877 collection of Tokyo University in Tokyo, Japan. Some of Ningyo like this were sold at curiosity stores in the 19th century in Japan.   The ones sold at such stores are not quite elegant and well-made like ones enshrined at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines according to resources.     (Continue to Part 2)   All rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada, Museum of World Wonders, August 2006 Special thanks to Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, and Diane M. Taros.