TAMABIE - “The ‘Oddball’ of Bingo.” - [Yokai]

•About this yokai•

This unnamed 3 legged youkai reportedly appeared only 2 months before the Yokai: Amabie made their debut!! – According to the account on February 19th 1846. – [Recorded in Nagoya City Housa Library.] – A “shiny object” had been appearing every night on the beach in Bingo Prefecture. (present-day eastern Hiroshima Prefecture.)  – This yokai was descovered & authenticated this year (2020) by Hidetoshi Nagano, an official at Fukui Prefectural Archives who studies Amabie (and other prophetic beasts) who confirmed the news...

Unlike Amabie, This one did not give a name: so its proper name is actually entirely unknown. The Yokai community (in both Japan and English) seems generally unsure of what to call him other than “Amabies friend with the Orbs”, “Uncle holding the glowing balls” to “...that guy” or the fan favourite is "Tamabie" so for the purpose of this art piece, I’ve decided to affectionately dub this sticker: “The ‘Oddball’ of Bingo.” Because of his bizarre appearance and because of the glowing balls he’s holding, which are pretty unique to any other Amabie/Amabiko variants that I’ve seen: Usually when these youkai glow, its coming from its body, shell or scales rather than a held item.

It definitely has the feeling of a Cartoon Villain because of its moustache, horns & goatee: the neck fin & hula-esc seaweed skirt reminded me of a Jester or a harlequin: so i made it look like a bit of a maniac or like it’s maybe trying too hard to hypnotize you... Continuing with the yokai theme of 3’s he has 3 scaled legs with 3 toes & seemingly 3 fingers on each hand. (His other feet are submerged in the picture so i did my best guess.) – Uncle-Amabie what do you do!?! –

My theory: This is just a shot in the dark theory: but something that the glowing orbs also bring to mind are the Tide Jewels normally belonging to the Sea Dragon: Ryujin of Ryūgū-jō? – (Ones a spiral and the other appears to be crying? Ebb and Flow!! - (Though: The jewels are usually drawn like plain gigantic white pearls.) - Perhaps the original artist was trying to work a connection to the earlier prophetic beast, Jinja-hime??? though with so little information its hard to say for sure.

Sticker Art by @Samkalensky (yo, thats me!) - Part of my Night parade of 100 Demons - Yokai & Japanese folklore sticker collection, weather resistant 4" sticker. Check my shop & follow @samkalensky for many more!

• [ last pics Img/info source Mainichi news: August 21, 2020. – https://mainichi.jp/articles/20200821/k00/00m/040/061000c ]