Takeshi Yamada with his 4-feet long Fiji Mermaid and other circus sideshow gaffs at the opening

reception of the spring fine art group exhibition at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition Gallery

in Red Hook area of Brooklyn, New York on May 13, 2006.            (photograph by Eriko N. Bond)

This article features subject matter such as Loro Kidul, P.T. Barnum�s Fiji mermaid, mermaids in circus sideshow banners, circus sideshow gaffs artists, and manatee in New York City.

In Japan, most of the Ningyo are female human-size humanoid-fish with attractive face and long black hairs. Nigyo has been featured in many reputable ancient documents including Nihonshoki (Historical Record of Japan, which is an equivalent to Old Testament to Shintoism (Japanese government-supported national religion). This animal is believed to bring good and happiness to people. The statures of Ningyo can be found and worshiped by people at Shinto Shrines and Buddhist temples throughout Japan. It is called Ningyo Shinko (Mermaid religion).

Japan is not an only country who considered the mermaid as religious deity. Nyai Loro Kidul ("Queen of the South," also known as Kangjeng Ratu Kidul) is a Javanese goddess of the South Sea, often illustrated as a mermaid. She has many different names, which reflect the diverse stories of origin. Her figure is also featured in varieties of forms. The country of Java is also known for a large production of this divine humanoid sea creature. In fact, production of quality mummified mermaid (in regular bases) was absolute necessity among people there for many centuries to conduct their religious rituals. For them, the mummified humanoid sea monster figure is not an artwork for displaying their personal wealth or an item of luxury which serves no practical purposes. For them, this half-human, half-fish creature composed of monkey and fish elements is a dignified, spiritual, and powerful embodiment of their religious faith. It was used in serious religious rituals with deep reverence and intended to bring large catches to Javanese fishermen. Pelabuhan Ratu, a city in West Java, celebrates an annual holiday in her honor on April 6 (1 Suro in the Javanese calendar) even today. She is also associated with Parangtritis and Pangandaran. Their humanoid fish is sometimes rendered as mummified ugly aged monstrous creature with all white hairs on its head and shoulders with well-defined rib cage and long sharp nails.

I have no information regarding whether P.T. Barnum obtained the cultural significance of the humanoid-fish when he purchased it from Asia. If he knew about it, his sales pitch and newspaper advertisements might have become quite different as we know today. (Who knows he might have done the exactly same to just make money, just like the art dealer of renowned 20th century artist, Jasper Jones who sold a replica of an aluminum beer can by the artist with outrageous price and sales pitch by declaring it is a great art.)

P.T. Barnum and his advertisement of show of curiosities including �Fejee Mermaid� in 1842.

What people saw in another newspaper advertisement (Charleston Courier, January 1843)

and the drawing of what they actually saw at the circus sideshow of P.T. Barnum in 1842.

Technically speaking, in Indonesia, the Fiji mermaid resembles the ones collected by P.T. Barnum were traditionally created by sawing monkey head, baby orangutan torso, and tail of a fish together. They are made of 100% pure animals (except man-made materials stuffed inside), so, it is 100% pure taxidermy. Nevertheless, as they do not represent any �real� creatures, they have NO scientific value at all. For this reason, some professional taxidermists even refer the Fiji mermaid made of 100% animals as �artwork� and NOT �real taxidermy�. (Many gift shops categorized them as �novelty taxidermies�.)  In this case, as I explained before, what it is made of is not the vital matter in today�s taxidermy. I would personally consider such specimen/artifact as �creative taxidermy�, �artistic taxidermy� or �circus sideshow taxidermy�, although there are no official names to call it in any taxidermy books written by the hands of seasoned professional taxidermists. 

Examples of circus sideshow banners featuring the Fiji mermaid. The mermaid in the circus

sideshow banner is always featured as a alive (often very attractive-looking) humanoid female

creature with a large pair of breasts posing at the beautiful tropical seashore. They were never 

featured as ugly, mummified carcass often encased in the old wooden or glass display case.

I saw numerous Fiji Mermaids (all mummified ones) in person before I created my own version of this monstrous creature. I saw a series of high quality Fiji mermaids hung from the ceiling � some are quite large (about 4 feet long) and others are smaller - for public display at a large gift shop which also host free museum of curiosities by the waterfront of downtown Seattle, Washington. It is �Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe�.  Those Fiji mermaids had very dark dried and wrinkled skins and very long black hairs. One of them was about 4 feet long. It is so unusual to see such a large size Fiji mermaids (with such an excellent craftsmanship) even among the discriminating collectors of curiosities. Those magnificent Fiji mermaids were not what they had. In addition to those masterfully created gaffs, they also had life-size breath-taking Egyptian mummies, shrunken human heads. These were displayed inside of a large display glass cases in such a dignified and inspirational manner. How you display is also very important to what you display. Good artworks/artifacts deserve good display. I was also deeply inspired by variety of pickled deformed animals (pigs and cats). They also had variety of artifacts of unknown origins. For example, they had an elegant bone with beautiful lace-pattern, which had a tag saying �what is this?� These displays are in large glass cases all around the store and I spent over 2 hours just adored them. For me, these are much better artworks than any pieces which are proudly displayed at modern art museums sponsored by the government by using tax payers� blood money today. I felt those mysterious artifacts, specimens and gaffs are shinning even more today � just like those sublime marble statures of Greek Goddess created by the humble hands of nameless ancient artists/craftsmen. I was truly impressed, delighted and felt honored to see them. This is a place I highly recommend for anyone to go to see these magnificent collections.

(left) One of the banners of the Bobby Reynolds�s circus sideshow. Several very impressive Fiji Mermaids were on display at his traveling show.           (photograph by Takeshi Yamada, 2001)

Other very impressive Fiji mermaids, which I remember well were on display at the traveling circus sideshow tent of the Bobby Reynolds. Reynolds� tent show was truly gigantic and palace-like one with a series of vividly colored masterfully painted giant circus sideshow banners in front of it. His circus sideshow used to come to Coney Island every summer. It is our culture�s greatest loss that he retired recently. Reynolds was also a great outside talker. Reynolds not only knew what he had but also knew how to sell them to marks with such artistry. He was a masterpiece and genius. Reynolds had two Fiji mermaids on display. Each was about 18 inch. Apparently, they all used dried fish for their lower bodies and mummified monkey body for their upper bodies. They were all constructed with impeccable craftsmanship. One of them (the darker one) was especially impressive and proudly displayed in a glass display case, and I felt as if it was radiating the aura of mystery of life. Great artworks, whether it was created by the nature or humans, has high spirituality to move human soul. This monster�s face was that of an agony and pain yet full of nobility and pureness. It was the genius of the artist who created it. This gorgeous mummified Fiji mermaid was almost identical-looking to the one owned and shown by P.T. Barnum.

Naturally, not all the Fiji mermaids I saw in person were in good quality. I also saw very poorly made Fiji mermaid on display at a small Ten-in-one circus sideshow place in Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York in 2001. The very poorly made 6th-grade-level doll was formed with wrinkled brown shopping bag. This is a government-funded very poorly operated company, which was evicted for its rent delinquency by the judge�s order at the New York Civil Court for long time ago. They are completely financially broke sideshow company. I know great deal about the criminal and illegal operations of this sideshow company in Coney Island told by the lawyers who actually handled the court case. The despicable criminal owner of this sideshow store, even today, dares to call himself �Mayor of Coney Island�. Poorly made Fiji mermaid at the poorly run sideshow company. Birds of a feather flock together.

In America, there are many noteworthy gaff artists who have been creating Fiji mermaids (or humanoid monsters) for circus sideshow companies and collectors of curiosities for many decades. Due to the nature of this business of circus sideshow, there are many remarkable and ingenious gaffs created by unknown artists. For me, in many ways, they are the true heroes and heroines worked so hard behind the stage to make this business keep alive and even successful. The artists I feature in this portion of my manuscript are ones who worked in the world of circus sideshow business consistently at least for a few decades as paid workers (professionals). I intentionally did not choose artists who has been creating Fiji mermaids who simply sell them at commercial galleries and internet � there are many artists doing that today, and I will write about them in another occasion. Personally, speaking, I, Takeshi Yamada, have been professionally making circus sideshow gaffs and banners for circus sideshow companies and amusement parks since 1985. I, personally, also produced numerous tent shows and store shows in addition to gallery shows at commercial galleries, museums, and nature centers. This will be featured in the article in Part 3.

At this point, I want to feature three giants of traditional circus sideshow gaff builders - Mark Frierson, Homer Tate, and Doug Higley. Frierson is truly a giant in circus sideshow business, and he once even owned the circus sideshow of his own. He is a very prolific and excellent gaff builder with wide range of subject matters. He also created many taxidermy monsters by using body parts of real animals. I consider that he is quite gifted and inspirational. He is also knows for his fabulous circus sideshow banners commissioned by many circus sideshow companies. Tate is an artist who created his signature gaff called �Pygmy Mud People� and reached his creative peak in 1940�s and 50�s. His creations are primitive, mysterious and more �artistic� � they look like crude cult dolls created by primitive humans in the ancient civilizations. He did not create any taxidermy gaffs. I saw his �Pygmy Mud Person� in a shadow box at Museum of World Oddities in 2004. Higley calls himself �prop artist�. He began creating gaffs for circus sideshow companies after being inspired by the creations of Tate. He also has a signature style of creatures with slug-like texture and deformed soft body whether they are Fiji mermaids, Atomic Fish (deformed fish create by nuclear radiation), Shrunken Human Heads, or monkeys� paws.

According to my internet google image search, it appeared that people are more interested in mermaid than merman as I expected. Nevertheless, what stroke me was the numbers of search result by each word. Specifically, I found 8,470 images of �merman� but 286,000 images of �mermaid�. I consider this fact may reflect unique and distinctive aspect of human psychology, which needs to be investigated. Needless to say, in the ancient time, fishermen on the boats/ships were all males.

Manatee

It is widely believed that mermaids which ancient mariners and sailors claimed to have seen were actually manatees. Manatees (Trichechus manatus) are large aquatic mammals sometimes known as sea cows because they eat most of the day (they eat 10 to 15 percent of their body weight every day). Biologically, speaking, this animal�s closest cousin in the animal kingdom is actually the elephant. They can weigh anywhere from 500 to 1000 kg. They are slow moving, non-aggressive, and generally curious creatures. They are herbivores, may spend up to ten hours a day eating. They pig out on aquatic plants like turtle grass, water lettuce, shoal grass and water hyacinth. Manatees inhabit the shallow, marshy coastal areas and rivers of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (T. manatus, West Indian manatee), the Amazon basin (T. inunguis, Amazonian manatee), and West Africa (T. senegalensis, African manatee). About 61% of the reported dead manatees are due to natural causes. The number one killer of this creature is the exposure to cold waters; if the water temperature drops below 68 degrees for a prolonged time the manatees cannot survive. Manatees are an endangered marine mammal. Florida wildlife experts counted 3,116 in their annual survey in February.

I am very happy to inform readers at this point that many sighting of manatees in Hudson River here in New York City were reported this month, August of 2006. Specifically, the monstrous giant sea animal has been spotted at 23rd Street near Chelsea Piers, West 125th Street in New York City, and later in Westchester County. Manatees have been reported along the shores of Long Island and even as far north as Rhode Island. However, It is extremely unusual, for a manatee to be spotted inland in a river this far north. According to the news reports, internet searches of "Manatee" climbed up over 7,000% after news stories began spotlighting the aquatic beast's summer vacation to the Big Apple. Numerous stories on this magnificent creature were published in this city but nobody has claimed seeing mermaids yet.

I, Takeshi Yamada, am happy to add manatee as new monster to my long list of monstrous animals of this monstrous city, New York City. Examples of them are the horseshoe crab (living fossil outlived dinosaurs. The most valuable creature on this planet to save human life with its blue color blood), colonies of wild green parrots with spectacular woven nests in Brooklyn (free public tour availableevery month), Asian Longhorned Beetle (discovered in Greenpoint area of Brooklyn New York. Spreading New York state Quarantine Zone for its terror and destruction), the gigantic corpse flower at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (revolting smell of putrefying meat - real smell of death) etc.

(Continue to Part 3)

All rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada, Museum of World Wonders, Brooklyn, New York, September 2006.

Special thanks to Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, and Diane M. Taros.