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Ningyo in Japanese Prints

Ningyo in Japanese prints are not simply Japanese versions of the Western mermaid. In Edo and Meiji visual culture, the ningyo could appear as omen, curiosity, talisman, hybrid specimen, comic figure, or feminized sea-being. Print culture gave the human-fish unusual reach: cheap broadsides spread alarming sightings quickly, while more elaborate popular illustration helped transform the ningyo from monstrous portent into a more varied and visually flexible creature.