The mummified mermaid is not who she appears to be, according to a group of scientists, and the mystery surrounding her has been solved.

For hundreds of years, people worshipped this strange “mermaid mummy” in a temple in the hope that it would bring them good fortune, happiness, and good health.

“A mermaid trapped in a net off the ocean off of Tosa [one of the conditions of medieval Japan] in the Genbun period [1736-1741 CE]” was the note that was incorporated when it was first found in a paulownia box.

This unusual, embalmed animal has the chest area of a human and the lower body of a fish. Which one is it, everybody asked? Is it a real mermaid like the ones in myths and legends, a creature of a different species, or something else entirely?

The Enjuin Sanctuary in Asaguchi, Okayama Prefecture, is home to the “embalmed mermaid” “mummy.” Last year, scientists decided for the first time to learn the truth about this puzzling being.

Using X-rays, researchers at Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts examined the “mermaid” and “found it did not have a spine, ribs, or other skeletal bones.”

It has fish skin covering its arms, shoulders, neck, and cheeks, and its jaw and teeth were taken from a fish. The New York Post reports that fish bones were also discovered in its lower body.

In any case, further assessment with a CT scanner at a Yokohama dental lab settled the secret: Unseen Japan claims that the “mummy” is actually a model made of cotton, glue, paper, cloth, and other materials.

The adored embalmed mermaid is, in fact, made by humans. It is made of fish parts, paper, material, cotton, and fabric.

From the lower half of the “mermaid’s” body, a fish-like tail with an odd appearance emerges.
“Based on our analysis and the history of mummy creation in Japan, we can only conclude that the mermaid mummy was probably man-made,” Paleontologist Takafumi Kato told Vice World News.

Twelve other mermaid mummies have been found around Japan and are acknowledged to have been made during the country’s evident Edo time span, which stretched out from 1603-1868.

Smallpox and measles were common during that time, and the creatures were thought to bring luck.

Hiroshi Kinoshita, a member of the Okayama Folklore Society, claims that “Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality.” If you eat the flesh of a mermaid, it is said that you will never die.