Bake-kujira

General about Bake-kujira
The Bake-kujira is a mythical Japanese ghost (yōkai), that has the appearance of a skeleton whale. It is immortal and usually accompanied by many strange fishes or birds. Its natural habitat is the Sea of Japan. In some places he's also known as hone kujira (bone whale).

Legends
One rainy night, something massive and white appeared off the coast of Okino Island, Shimane prefecture. Fishermen from the village watched it get closer and closer, and finally decided to take a rowboat out and see what it was. From its size, they knew it must be some sort of whale, but no one had seen a whale like that before. As they rowed out their boat, they saw the waters of the ocean glimmer with thousands upon thousands of fish, the likes of which they had never seen.

As they neared the white whale, one of the fisherman threw his harpoon and it passed through the mass of white unnoticed. Their vision obscured by the pounding rain, the fishermen finally got a good look at the monster—it was the skeleton of a great baleen whale, without an ounce of skin nor meat on it. But it was moving and alive.

The men were terrified, even more so because the ocean was writhing with unknown fish, and the skies were filled with strange birds. In the distance they saw an island that hadn’t been there before, as if they had rowed into some mysterious country. Then suddenly the vision ended, and the massive Bake-kujira—for that is what they called it—retreated back to the open sea as quickly as it had come.

When the fishermen went back to shore, they speculated that it might have been the ghost of a whale killed in a hunt or some strange god. Whatever it was, the Bake-kujira was never seen again.



Origin of this Legend
When a whale appeared a cost of Japan, it was always a real pleasure for the people. They could live weeks from his meat and could make some clothes and tents. From the oil you can make some candles and soaps. But some of the old fishermen believed, that the souls of the whales would always be there and that they would s´come back one day and that they would take revenge. After the legends, the ghost whale brought horrible diseases over them like the plague. It was only seen a few times and there are not many documents about the existing or not-existing of this creaure.