800 join search party for legendary 'tsuchinoko' creature in Japan village
(Mainichi Japan)
HIGASHISHIRAKAWA, Gifu -- Hundreds of curious-minded people joined an annual event here to look for the legendary "tsuchinoko" snakelike creature, but to no avail, again, with no one being able to claim the 1.32-million-yen (roughly $8,540) prize money.
The 32nd Tsuchinoko Festa was held in the central Japan village on May 3, during the "Golden Week" holiday period, with some 800 people from inside and outside Gifu Prefecture joining to search for tsuchinoko.
According to the tsuchinoko museum in the village, the creature resembles a snake with a triangular head, a body length of 30 to 80 centimeters and a torso as thick as a beer bottle. It moves quickly in a straight line, and is said to jump and roll.
The village prides itself as a location with multiple tsuchinoko sightings, and has held the search operation event since 1989. The prize money started out at 1 million yen (about $6,500), and 10,000 yen (roughly $65) has been added each year when no one could find the creature, bringing the total to 1.32 million yen this year.
The search area was on a mountainside that used to be a tea plantation, which was narrowed down based on the tsuchinoko's presumed habitat such as being "near the water and 'warabi' bracken fern which they feed on."
The participants were divided into groups of four and looked for the mystical animal through the grass for around half an hour, using poles and insect nets. A 52-year-old man from Nagano who joined the event for the first time with his family told the Mainichi Shimbun, "While we couldn't find any, maybe tsuchinoko should stay legendary."
Tsuchinoko sightings have been reported in the village from the early Showa period (1926-1989). The tsuchinoko legend pamphlet that the village created includes testimonies such as, "I thought it was an issho-bin sake bottle (which holds 1.8 liters of liquid)," "It was silver and shining," and, "It sounded like a tire when I threw a stone at it."
(Japanese original by Yosuke Inagaki, Gifu Bureau)
