JINMENJU, JINMENKEN, AND JINMENGYO 人面樹, 人面犬, and 人面魚
Pronunciation: JEEN-men-joo, JEEN-men-ken, and JEEN-men-gyoh
Etymology: The two characters representing jin men mean “human” and “face,” or “human-faced.” The final character in each word means “tree,” “dog,” and “fish,” in that order. So, these mean “human-faced tree,” “human-faced dog,” and “human-faced fish.”
Overview
In Japan, you’ll find some human-faced yōkai that, quite disturbingly, shouldn’t possess human features at all, such as the jinmenju (human-faced tree), the jinmenken (human-faced dog), and the jinmengyo (human-faced fish). These entities exist primarily to give you a fright.
An ill-fated stroll alone at night could very well have you meeting all three. For instance, say you’re walking along an arched stone bridge in a Japanese garden and paused to gaze down at the pond. In the moonlight, which seems to feed your already overactive imagination, you might notice that among the koi swimming near the surface of the water, one looks like it has the face of a man. That would be a jinmengyo.
Startled, you look away, but that tree over there, the one with the branches heavy with fruit, also looks curious. It’s almost as if each piece of fruit has a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth and is smiling at you, giggling! That is a jinmenju.
You hear a noise and jump. You’re relieved to see only a dog trotting your way. It actually feels better knowing you’re not entirely alone. You reach down to give it a pet on the head when suddenly, it looks up at you, and you’re staring into the eyes of an elderly man. Meet the jinmenken.
Background and Popular Stories
Of these three bizarre creatures, the jinmenju is the oldest. Not only was it included in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (今昔百機種位), or Supplement to the Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past (1781), it also goes further back, appearing in an older 105-volume illustrated encyclopedia published in 1712 called the Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才図会), which translates to Illustrated Sino-Japanese Encyclopedia.
Within this expansive tome, encompassing subjects ranging from natural history and astronomy to accounts of strange and different lands, there is a mention of the Daishikoku (大食国), literally “big-eat country,” but referred to as the “Land of Gluttony,” located in a faraway southwestern land. In the descriptions of this mythical place, we find the possible origins of the human-faced tree. There is an entry that mentions flowers with human heads that laugh when asked questions but don’t seem to understand human language. If they laugh too much, though, they wither and drop to the ground. Other stories of the jinmenju assert that depending on the character of the spirit inhabiting the tree, some are actually able to express emotion and speak.
In Toriyama Sekien’s woodblock print, he shows the jinmenju as blossoms that take the form of little bald human heads (Sekien called them ninmenju, using a different pronunciation for the first character). But if you look way back, you’ll find these face fruits actually derive from very old tales and have been traced to Indian and Persian legends.
The jinmenken, or human-faced dog, is a much more recent yōkai or urban legend. It gained attention from 1989–1990 among elementary and junior high school students, with sightings of jinmenken running at incredible speeds, passing cars, then turning to look back at the drivers, revealing their faces and causing accidents. Other urban legends allege that man-faced canines were spotted rummaging through garbage cans. When confronted, they’d mumble, “Hottoite kure!” or “Leave me alone!” For the most part, these blended dogs just want their privacy.
Finally, there is the jinmengyo, the human-faced fish. Similar to the jinmenken, this human-beast hybrid surfaced in the 1990s when the tabloid Friday published a photo of a purported jinmengyo sent in by a reader. It was said to be taken in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, at a small lake near the temple Zenpōji (善法寺). Some people wonder if jinmengyo could have surfaced because some unique koi have markings on the tops of their heads that are eerily similar to human faces, sometimes even with mustaches or beards. Looking down into a koi pond and spotting one can be disconcerting, as at first glance, it looks like there is a face staring up at you from under the water.
A superstition has arisen around jinmengyo too. Reminiscent of yōkai of old—like the mermaids and the amabie—it is said to do some portending. Some old wives’ tales state that if one appears, it means a tsunami is coming. This is echoed in the Studio Ghibli movie Ponyo (2008), in which Ponyo herself is a kind of jinmengyo, with her fish body and little girl head. In the Japanese version of the movie, when the elderly women first see Ponyo, one actually says that when a jinmengyo emerges from the ocean, a tsunami is imminent.
An alternate take on the human-faced animal is another more recent yōkai called the nekomengyo, or cat-faced fish. There’s an interesting legend about this one-off modern yōkai as well.
Once upon a time, on the Gongen Mountain near Ibuki Falls in Gifu Prefecture, there lived a large menacing cat that measured nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. (Perhaps it was a nekomata? See the Bakeneko and Nekomata entry.) Its favorite food were the koi that lived in the bottom of the pond at Ibuki Falls. But this feared feline was so big and slow, it couldn’t catch them very well.
One day, the cat pleaded to the water god (was it a dragon?—see the Ryū entry), “I wish to be able to eat enough koi so that I become full.” Surprisingly, the water god answered, “Okay, but if you wish to eat to your heart’s content, then you must be able to swim. I will grant your wish by leaving your face like that of a cat but changing your body into a fish.”
The cat thought this was a marvelous idea and after the change, immediately jumped into the lake. Only, once it touched the water, its appetite for fish completely vanished. This nekomengyo proved to be very adaptable. Soon it became friends with the other fish, and to this day, it lives peacefully there with its fish buddies.
Some people say, though, that on certain nights, you can see a cat-faced fish walking—yes, walking!—around the area.
In Modern Stories
It’s easy to spot the Pokémon that is based off the human-faced tree—Exeggutor. Yo-kai Watch has a human-faced dog in it, and as for the human-faced fish, there is the 1999 game Seaman, where you raise your own virtual pet, a jinmengyo called the Gillman. One unique feature the Gillman has is a small tube on the top of its head. At some stage in the game, it attacks other human-faced fish and drinks their blood through this tube. It will also talk to you.