Editing Mermaid (section)

== Japanese folklore ==
{{Main|Ningyo}}
[[File:Ningyo-no-zu-Bunka02-05.jpg|thumb|"Ningyo no zu": A flier of a mermaid, dated fifth month of Bunka 2 (1805).]]

The Japanese equivalent is {{nihongo|ningyo|人魚|extra=literally "human-fish"<ref name="hayward2018-ch03"/>}}<!--despite the literal sense of its appellation-->. According to one dictionary, ''ningyo'' oftentimes refers to a "half-woman and half-fish fabulous creature", i.e., mermaid, though not necessarily female, i.e., includes mermen.<ref name=nakamaru-citing-kojien/>

Despite the dictionary stating it has the appearance of half-woman half-fish, the creature has been pictorialized rather as a being with a human female head sitting on a body which is entirely fish-like (see fig. right).<ref name="hayward2018-ch03"/>

=== Ningyo flesh ===
The ''ningyo'''s flesh was purported to be an elixir, and consuming its flesh said to bestow remarkable longevity.

A famous ''ningyo'' legend concerns the {{interlanguage link|Yao bikuni|ja|八百比丘尼}} who is said to have partaken of the flesh of a merfolk and attained miraculous longevity and lived for centuries. It is not discernible whether the flesh was a female; a pair of translators call it "flesh of a mermaid" in one book,<ref name=yoda&alt2013/> but merely a "strange fish with a human face" in another.<ref>{{harvp|Toriyama|2017|p=120}}, notes by Yoda and Alt.</ref>

=== As yōkai ===
A ''ningyo'' might be counted as a ''[[yōkai]]'' since it is included in [[Toriyama Sekien]]'s ''[[Hyakki Yagyō]]'' series.<ref name=toriyama-eng/> Gender is unclear, as it is only described as a being with "a human face, a fish body". However, Sekien's ''ningyo'' picture actually represents a "human-fish" that lives in Western China, also known as the Di people {{interlanguage link|Diren (merfolk){{!}}Diren|zh|氐人族}}, according to the inscription printed alongside.<ref name=toriyama-eng/> They are described in the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' and translated as the "Low People"<ref name=shanhaijing10regions-within-sea-south/>{{sfnp|Birrell tr.|2000|p=136}} or the "Di People".<ref name="shanhaijing-strassberg-diren-dipeople"/>