Ningen (folklore)


In Japanese folklore, the Ningen is an aquatic humanoid creature reported to inhabit the subantarctic oceans. The word in Japanese ニンゲン means "human". It is commonly considered to be a cryptid, a mysterious animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated.

History

The legend surrounding the Ningen began on a forum post on the Japanese online forum website, 2Channel, which claims that the members of a whale research ship witnessed the creature as it surfaced near their ship off the Antarctic coast.
Since then, there have been numerous sightings of the Ningen, with supposed photographs which have not been confirmed to be true.

Description

The ningen is described as whale creature, but has anatomical similarities to humans. The creature has a face, and in some stories it is said to have extremely large limbs and/or arms and hands, about 20-30 meters long. The pigmentation of the creature is said to be pale white.