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Monday, February 13, 2023

Kabagon

 Kabagon

By Cole Herrold

The oceans while beautiful are frankly a terrifying place. Since the dawn of time, there have been rumors of all sorts of colossal critters and haunting entities that have allegedly made their home in the dark depths. These entities range in description from the colossal multi-tentacled ship destroyer the Kraken to the long tadpole-like Hook Island Sea Serpent. Yet of all the entities reported in the ocean perhaps one of the eeriest is the ones that bear a strong resemblance to humans or mammals such as the Ningen. On July 18, 1971, the Mainichi Daily News would report a similar eerie humanoid or mammalian-type entity that would peer out from the water.

It was on August 28, 1971, that Captain Miyagi Kimura and 25 other crew members of the 28th Konpira Maru, a 235-ton tuna long-line fishing boat from Onagawa, in the Miyagi prefecture were sailing in the Pacific Ocean near the South Island of New Zealand casting their lines into the ocean. Their exact position based on the ship’s logbook was 44.15 degrees South Latitude and 173.34 East Longitude, 25 miles SE of Lyttelton. The water they traversed reached a depth of about 40 meters. It was 12 o clock, and the day was bright, and the conditions were fine as a sweet northern breeze blew and the water was seemingly placid that was until their attention was drawn to a strange disturbance in the water near them. The crew watched in awe and confusion as a brownish-gray figure started to emerge from the deep. The figure a large mound of folded flesh some 5 ft tall was fitted with a pair of large eyes each about six inches in diameter and two large nostrils (or as some of the other art depictions show another set of eyes) located just below it. They noted that this ball of flesh was clearly the semi-submerged skull of some colossal creature and decided to attempt to capture the creature. The crew stopped their fishing adventures and began to man the harpoons. Some of the crew including the captain continued to stare at the creature which to them seemed very similar to a deformed hippopotamus particularly in the area of the nose yet they knew that this creature could not be one of those since they tend to dwell mostly in fresh water and live exclusively in Africa. The captain proceeded to draw the creature and even decided to coin the beast Kabagon after the Japanese word for hippo ‘Kaba’. The creature however, later on, would also be called the Bug-Eyed Monster or BEM They then altered the course of the boat and as they got within 30 meters of the creature it suddenly possibly sensing the danger it was in proceeded to disappear into the briny deep. The crew was left speechless and disappointed at the elusiveness of their quarry and kept the story to themselves until they returned home to Yaizu Port, Shizuoka prefecture where the crew proceeded to tell their account. However, before the crew returned to tell about their encounter a weekly magazine in New Zealand released that on the Lyttelton Peninsula that a strange series of footprints were found. The Mainichi Daily News would propose that these footprints were caused by the strange creature.

As with almost all Fortean cases, one needs to entertain that there is the chance of hoaxing. Outside of just making up a story, there’s not much to point in this direction. Yet there is an interesting parallel that could point to this being the case. Horror, Sci-Fi, and other Exploitation film fans might be quick to notice that Kabagon bears a strong resemblance outside of just its name to Japanese Kaiju films. The overall appearance of the creature is almost identical to Hedorah the giant smog monster that appeared in Godzilla Vs. Hedorah or as titled here in the US Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster. To add to this the film was theatrically released on July 24, 1971. Four days after the sighting was reported however trailers for the film was certainly released before that day. It is very possible that members of the crew had seen the trailer and proceeded to create an encounter resolving around a beast similar in appearance to Hedorah. Yet this is all speculation.

Another possibility is that this creature could have been misidentified the eyewitness sketch does bear some resemblance to known animals even though it may seem goofy. The closest animal to the Kabagon in appearance would be a female walrus and even the original Pursuit breakdown of the case quickly pointed to this as a possibility. However, the article also says that this would be highly unlikely as walruses in general are found in the arctic and subarctic areas of the planet and not in the warm waters of New Zealand. Another problem is that the creature’s head was 5ft alone and the crew had no way of measuring the rest of the creature which clearly would have been at least 3x bigger than that, so an estimate of about say 20-30 ft, which would be bigger than any currently living walrus or pinniped. As walruses tend to have a max size of about 12 ½ ft and even then the females; which Kabagon is more similar in appearance to, are much smaller. Another thing is if the tracks found on the beach of the peninsula were caused by the creature and it was indeed a kind of pinniped it would not be so much as classic tracks as we would associate with a primate or cervine but that there would also be body drag marks or almost semi-destroyed tracks from the movement of the creature. It's from this that it would seem unlikely that what was seen by the crew was a known pinniped or pinniped at all.

Eyewitness Sketch of Kabagon as it appeared in Pursuit

A possibility most people like to go with when discussing this creature is the cryptid possibility. Obviously, there are animals slightly similar in appearance to the creature except that the form seems to be more pinniped or humanoid-like, yet none are an exact match. In cryptozoological circles, there are several entities and theories that could explain what we are seeing or are very similar to what was reported. Unsurprisingly most of these creatures were reported by Japanese sailors. The most famous of which would be the Ningen a colossal humanoid type creature that is human-like in its face and arms, but the rest of its form is like a white whale. Now a lot of the reports and images of this creature are hoaxes so there is some debate if this is a real cryptid or if this is some creepypasta-style creation. The other similar creature is a colossal critter reportedly seen in Antarctica and dubbed by the ship's captain Matsumoto in 1958 as “Antarctic Godzilla”. The creature appeared in his book Antarctic Transportation and was described as again a hippopotamus-type creature but again with other features as it was described as having a cow-like face, monkey-like head, large ears, large shoulders, dark brown hair, and a noticeable dorsal fin. The creature was noticeably colossal in size and originally was mistaken for a large barrel by some of the crew before they noticed its face. So large mammalian sea cryptids are not exactly unheard of and could be the same type or similar type of creatures.

A popular theory and one that I personally subscribe to in some reports is the Seal Serpent Hypothesis. This is a theory put out there as a more plausible answer to reports of cryptids that seem to be living plesiosaurs. In the theory, it is proposed that over time a group of seals developed a longer neck to basically fill in the niche that was left open after the plesiosaurs went extinct and therefore through convergent evolution developed a similar form. It’s from this I propose that Kabagon may have been some variation of this built for the warmer waters. It would have the hairless build of say a sea lion or elephant seal and could still have the large eyes and nostrils one would expect from a marine mammal but would simply be colossal in build. There are countless photos of seals and sea lions doing similar behavior as Kabagon and we can extend this as well to members of Sirenia like manatees and dugongs. Of course, this theory has never been proven and is more of a kind of thought experiment and therefore speculation.

Something that is not discussed usually with this case is the idea that this creature bears some resemblance to a particular Yokai the Umibozu. These entities are described as the spirits or ghosts of drowned Buddhist monks or manifestations of the ocean itself they often manifest as giant heads either human-like or monstrous most of the time bald or with some hair to the side, yet other forms and sizes are reported. Most of the depictions of them in art are of a giant dark-colored form with large eyes. This is almost exactly what the crew was witnessing. I am not here to claim that all Umibozu are actually misidentified Kabagon however I offer the counterargument. When immigrants from other countries enter a new location we often see in a short period of time that the faeries and creatures from their native countries start appearing in the countries where they now reside. The Trolls of Sorenson’s Woods are a prime example and the same goes for family banshees now seen in West Virginia or the Tommyknockers of Pennsylvania. Perhaps there’s something about these entities that will cause them to follow people to other countries and manifest only to them or there’s something about the people themselves and their beliefs that can result in these entities appearing whether any of the crew were Shinto believers is however unconfirmed and again this is all speculation.

Another possibility for this creature could be that it is an Undine or some other aquatic fae the image of the Kabagon is also very similar to a painting of the Nokken an aquatic faerie and aggressive water spirit from Scandinavia. The world has countless areas known for such spirit-like beings or paranormal entities that perhaps what the crew was seeing was not something from their own country or something that followed them but instead something that was an elemental for that specific area. Whether the area of New Zealand has folklore of something similar to Kabagon however or tales of something lurking in the area, however, I currently am unaware of any.

Just what Kabagon is we can only guess as currently, no one else has reported a sighting similar or in the area since 71’. Yet that does not mean that this is the last of it. Our ocean’s are colossal and are filled with tons of places to hide and are full of creatures we know we haven’t discovered yet. We are certain that there are more undiscovered creatures in our oceans than what are on land. Most will certainly be small and strange, yet some will be colossal, and perhaps if Kabagon is real, even stranger.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammalian Sea creature (probably a Pinniped or member of Sirenia)

Location: Pacific Ocean, 44.15 degrees South Latitude and 173.34 East Longitude, 25 miles SE Lyttelton, South Island, New Zealand

Sighted: April 28, 1971

Works Cited Page:

Pursuit No. 18 April 1972

“A Bug Eyed Monster Off New Zealand” Malcolm’s Cryptid Blogspot. malcolmscryptids.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-bug-eyed-monster-off-new-zealand.html. Accessed 2/12/2023

 

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