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Your Pop Culture Cryptozoology Moment for the Day…

Raiju

So there I was, minding my own business, reading Pink Tentacle’s article on “Monster Mummies of Japan”…perhaps initially disappointed in the fact it’s not a Roger Corman film or a kaiju spectacular…but still, reading along and came across our friend there, a “raijÅ«”.

With a limited scientific understanding of the sky above, the common person in Edo-period Japan looked upward with great awe and mystery. Supernatural creatures called raijÅ« (雷獣) — lit. “thunder beast” — were believed to inhabit rain clouds and occasionally fall to earth during lightning strikes.

Now although appearances vary, check out this description:

One document depicts the raijū as being the size of a cat or weasel, with one big bulging eye and a single long horn, like that of a bull or rhino, projecting forward from the top of its head.

Now what do we know that quite nearly fits this description? We reveal all after the break.

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The two major discrepancies are the coloration (although that depiction is almost two centuries old and who knows what happens to that color ink on that sort of medium over time) and the failure to mention a proclivity for short shorts. More research is obviously required. In the meantime, the producers for Coast to Coast AM can reach me through the website.

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