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. 2020 Oct 1;36(5):6–10. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12602

A chimeric being from Kyushu, Japan: Amabie's revival during Covid‐19

CLAUDIA MERLI
PMCID: PMC7537237  PMID: 33041422

Abstract

This article explores how the resurgence of a forgotten chimeric figure from the Japanese history of disasters and epidemics intersects with some central ecological and political discourses in the context of the Covid‐19 pandemic, especially those associated with culinary practices, human rights and relations with other historical epidemics. Presented as a mascot but viewed as an icon of protection, this uncanny little yōkai from southern Japan in the pre‐modern Edo period addresses our lives as they are caught in a suspension of our usual temporal and spatial dimensions. A monster, a hyperobject and an art effigy of our pandemic present.

 

Biography

Claudia Merli is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala University. Her research focuses on medical anthropology, bodily practices and disaster anthropology, primarily in Thailand. Since 2016, she has also carried out research in southern Japan's Kyushu region, on local cosmologies, volcanic ash and protective practices in the area of Sakurajima volcano (Kagoshima prefecture). Her email is: claudia.merli@antro.uu.se.

The copyright line for this article was changed on 1 October 2020 after original online publication.

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