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The good thing about devils is that they stay in the sea.
It is a popular saying, meant to be used ironically. If you have been wronged by someone, if an individual that you know has done something particularly awful, you say, with noted sarcasm, that ‘It’s a good thing the devils all stay in the sea.” Implying, of course, that the devils do not stay in the sea, and that the person you are irritated with is one of them.
It is not one of the more cryptic idioms of the Japanese language. In fact, the roots of the saying are easy to find. The devils the phrase refers to are the sirens, the sea creatures, the demons that plague ships and coasts and any place where humans make contact with the ocean. In the West, the French word for sea, mer, is used as the prefix for this species, together with man, maid, or person, together giving them a name tying them explicitly to humanity. But in Japan, the connection between these creatures and humankind has always been expressly denied. Demons (悪魔), or more specifically, Seadevils (海悪魔)、are the names they have been historically known by. Acknowledging any sort of humanity within them, of personhood, as is implied with the title ‘merpeople’, has never been something the Japanese have been willing to do.
The insistently negative view is not without reason, as history between Japan and the Seadevils has been consistently and unrelentingly bloody and tragic. Unlike the massive continental nations of the West, Japan is an island completely isolated by ocean, with a much further distance between itself and mainland Asia then exists between the United Kingdom and continental Europe.The fear of being completely surrounded by a species whose sole purpose and goal was the consumption of human flesh ran deep, and was legitimized by frequent attacks, and countless deaths. The history of Japan is saturated with stories of Seadevils raiding towns and villages, harassing and ravaging those trying to make their livelihood off of fishing and pearl diving. Tearing apart boats with their momentous strength, collapsing docks, pulling sailors into the depths by seizing the nets they had cast to catch fish.
And even more terrifying are the tales of deception. Of the Seadevils tricking people, pretending to be human. They would sit on beaches, on rocky shores and coasts, beautiful and elegant, and looking nothing like the monsters that mothers warned their children about. Not until bloodlust changed their eye colour, and caused their razor sharp fins to emerge.
There is no question that the Seadevils had a profound effect on Japan. Not only are horrifying stories of interactions with them pervasive in Japanese history, but several elements of Japanese culture, language, and society can find their origins in the interactions the Japanese have had with these demons. The idiom at the opening of this essay is a key example.
There are several other turns of phrase that can be traced to the Seadevils. “Better to be caught off guard then caught by your ankles,” a saying meant to mollify someone who has been surprised by an unfavourable situation. The meaning is that whatever has happened, it is better than a Seadevil grabbing you off a dock and devouring you beneath the waves. Or more generally, no matter how inconvenient a surprise situation is, it could always be worse. A popular one with younger adults and teenagers is, “I’ll fall in love by the sea.” The usage varies, depending on the situation. “If my girlfriend doesn’t stop nagging me, I’ll fall in love by the sea. It can’t be worse than her.” Or, “My mother was on my case about my grades. I told her at least I haven’t fallen in love by the sea.”
‘Falling in love by the sea’ refers to one of the most feared aspect of the Seadevils. Their ability to look like humans, and their habit of using their beauty and wiles to fool a person into approaching them. Japanese literature is full of tales of lonely sailors or dissatisfied dockworkers ‘falling in love’ with a beautiful woman by the sea, only to be devoured when they move in to consummate their love.
Less popular, but by no means less terrifying, are the tales of young maidens seeking to escape the strict rules of their fathers, or arranged marriages, and running to join a handsome man promising to whisk them away to a land of freedom across the sea. These stories also end in the unfortunate protagonist being tricked and consumed.
Japanese literature is rampant with tales such as these. The poems lamenting the beauty of the sea, and the deadliness of its hidden teeth. The children’s fables warning against leaving home, of being lured by a pretty face or promise of escape from duty. The fear of leaving Japan that was firmly instilled in generation after generation, until travelling out into the ocean was believed to be synonymous with a death sentence. And in this we can see the way the Seadevils also heavily influenced Japanese culture. In particular, the elements that are strictly Isolationist.
The fear that someday, somehow, the Seadevils actually would manage to clamber onto land manifested itself in several different ways. Those who lived in the center of the island instinctively distrusted those who lived near the sea, infected with a deeply sewn suspicion that they could be Seadevils in disguise. This fear evolved and propagated into the widespread fear of foreigners.
Popular theory stated that Seadevils could look entirely human, except for a difference in the colouring of their eyes. As a result, the appearance of foreigners with blue and green eyes caused panic among those forced to interact with them. And in fact, other non-Japanese ethnic markings were believed to be signs of interbreeding with Seadevils. A belief spread that stated that the lands beyond the sea were rampant with half-breeds. That outside of Japan, the Seadevils had learned to walk, and breed with their prey. This fear was key in isolating foreigners to certain ports, to quarantining them away from the central areas of the island. And in fact, can be used to explain the lengths the Japanese government went to, and continues to go to, to encourage the ‘ethnic purity’ of Japan.
The question that remains, however, is whether there were any truth to these beliefs. Not that all foreigners were half-breeds, but that it was possible for Seadevils to transform enough to survive on land, and if they were ‘human’ enough to interbreed with their favoured prey.
Again, we return to the Western name for Seadevils. Mermaids, mermen, merpeople. There is no true divide between them and humans, other than the fact that they were from the sea. It may speak for Japan, and the inherently exclusionary nature of its culture, that the nation seeks to so decisively other beings that are clearly very similar to humans. It may be that the assertions that Seadevils will always reveal their true nature, that there is nothing human about them, has significantly limited any understanding of them.
Is it possible for Seadevils to live among us? No, not as they are seen in Japan. Not the creatures that live only to trick, lie, deceive, and eat. With fearsome fins and discoloured eyes. No, not they.
But merpeople, denoted as a subset of humanity hailing from the sea, monsters only for their diet, that is an entirely other possibility.
Not to suggest that the West readily accepts and believes there to be merpeople living freely among them. No such claim has ever been made by Western governments. And in Japan, hysterical accusations of Seadevils living among us have died down to nothing.
With the advent of huge, steel ships, the prominence of air travel over sea travel, and the weapons and technological advancements that the modern age has brought, fear of Seadevils has been left to small villages on distant, secluded islands. Those few areas not quite touched by modernization. Everywhere else, humans have moved forward in such a way that has left us far from the easy prey we once were. Stories of Seadevil attacks on the ocean or coast are rare. Stories of youth and dissatisfied husbands being lured out to sea are practically non-existent.
Can it be assumed that they have died out? That the advancement of their principal prey, humans, to a place beyond their reach, have left them to vanish into the bowels of the sea from whence they first came? Have they given up on hunting humanity, and learned to survive on fish, on turtles, on seals?
Or is it foolish, presumptuous, to assume that they have not evolved alongside us?
There have been no announcements by any major government on the subject of Seadevils for nearly a century, and the silence itself is suspect. The Japanese government used to be a key preacher of vigilance against strangers, against trusting those who travelled in from the coast. To go from a vocal, public stance against Seadevils, cannot be explained by a presumed extinction in their population.
Conspiracy theories surrounding the government and Seadevils have existed as long as the printed word has. The most popular one centers on the mysterious Commission of Counter-Gangs, the specialized offset of the police that specializes in identifying and eliminating unusual gang activity. It has long been acknowledged that the jurisdiction of the CCG extended beyond typical Yakuza activities. In fact, every time a bizarre, unexplainable, or downright alarming homicide is reported, all news outlets are quick to report that the CCG are on the case.
It is easy to accept the explanation that these strange, often horrific and unsettling murders are the work of cultish gangs, of disturbed, degenerate members of society. It is harder to suspect that this is an elaborate cover up, and that the CCG is an organization founded for the discovery and extermination of those Seadevils that have made their way on to land, and hunt humans in secret. Harder still to suspect that these gangs exist, but consist entirely of Seadevils. Organized, factionalized, with leadership, with regional divisions, with unity and strength in numbers. An internal Seadevil society growing subversively within Japanese society.
The Seadevils that are well known to the Japanese people are monsters, incapable of faking humanity for longer than it takes to seduce and trick. They could not possibly live among us, with their miscoloured eyes, and sharpened fins, made for rending flesh.
The merpeople of the West, however, have always been acknowledged as being near to human. America is rampant with claims of interactions with mermaids, of contact as far inland as Arizona. The radio silence of the governments there have stretched much longer than in Japan. In the majority of Western countries, there has always been a disturbing and suspicious lack of commentary on the potential of these man-eating creatures existing inland. In addition, organizations mirroring the CCG exist worldwide. Shadowy agencies, with stringent hiring practices, only called upon for the most gruesome of murders, and for the most unusual of disappearances.
To suggest such a thing seems impossible, but it can be argued that Japan’s cultural history with Seadevils, the pervasive fear, the constant othering, is what leads to this utter denial that they could live among us. That they could appear and act as we do, differing only in diet, and potentially, the value placed on life.
The purpose of this essay is not to raise hysteria, or to join the ranks of the conspiracy theorists. Rather, it seeks to analyze and assess the effect that language and cultural stories can have on public opinion centuries later, and the way in which the political landscapes of nations can be shaped by literature, legend, and popular culture.
Dissertation Proposal by Japanese Literature student Ken Kaneki
Professor’s Note: this Proposal was not returned to the student upon assessment due to prolonged absence from class.
***File to remain in CCG custody, reference code 01213. Under Files, “Eyepatch” and “Binge Eater”. Not to be accessed by anyone below Rank 2.
Part of the “Eyepatch” and “Antieku” Investigations – please see Investigator Akira Mado for details.