That Hong Kong cat is the only cryptid from that area that I know of, so it will be interesting to see what others you will discuss. Japan has a rich history of cryptids that I will also be exploring in a book if I ever get it finished.

I am not aware of any reports of flying snakes in Japan as cryptids, although there are yokai that are reminiscent are similar to what one might consider flying snakes. If you are not aware, yokai is a blanket term that refers to various supernatural or mythical Japanese creatures, as well as various “boogie men” and what not.

Some yokai have occasional connections to cryptozoology, but generally I consider them to be more folkloric references rather than descriptions of real creatures. There are some yokai that are reminiscent of flying snakes, but the heavy supernatural overtones of these makes it unlikely that they have any relation to a real biological creature.

Strange flying cryptids abound in Japan, but I am not aware of any sightings of alleged real flying snakes. If I come across any such reports in my research, I will be sure to let you know about it.

If anyone knows about this particular mystery Hong Kong cat it would be Jon Downes of the Centre for Fortean Zoology U.K. He is a friend of mine and we are compiling information for a future book – The Mystery Animals of Hong Kong.

The snake from c. 1922 I told you about in Japan wasn`t a flying snake.It looked like a snake,but had a horn and 2 legs towards the back of its body. Hence my interest in your own blog.

About 18 months ago I found a story of a flying snake in Manchuria c. 1905. Have you found any stories of flying snakes in China or Japan,other than dragons?

For some reason 1989 is the year that is stuck in my head on that one. I actually first knew about that one from Shuker’s book and I have the feeling I may have read the same article on it that you did, so maybe I made the same mistake. I just sort of gave you an answer based on what was in my head at the time, so yes I may be mistaken. I will look into it.

Nevertheless, if I do cover it in a piece here on Cryptomundo, you can rest assured that the content will be correct, as I am a meticulous and thorough researcher on my articles.

I have not heard of your magazine, but it sounds interesting. I must say that I know of many Japanese cryptids both well known and obscure, and have written extensively on them here at Cryptomundo. Many of them are hardly mentioned, if at all, in the English literature on the subject. I thought I knew pretty much all of them. However, I have not heard of the flying snake you mention, so you have my interest on that one!

Thanks for your reply, I’m not suggesting you are making a mistake regarding the Hong Kong mystery cat, but I looked into this case myself once. It is quite possible that the event took place in the 1960s or 1970s as I believe the author of the website where I read about it mixed up the date of publication of Karl Shuker’s book Mystery Cats of the World which was published in 1989 and which mentions this cat with the date it was actually seen. Which according to Shuker and others was about 20 years before 1989.

Nevertheless I think that whatever it was, remains a mystery.

Are you familar with my magazine Flying Snake? I mention a 2 legged “snake” seen in Japan in the early 1920s which I detail in issue 4 which comes out in November.

As for Hong Kong cryptids, there is one very intriguing case. In 1989, there was a large, tiger-like mystery cat that was sighted in the area and was reported to have killed over 20 dogs. It was reportedly a grayish color, about 3 feet high, and 4 feet long.

Now that you have brought it up here, I think I will write up a full article on this particular Hong Kong cryptid and post it here on Cryptomundo. I do hope you will check it out when I do.

Have you found out any more about the Notzuchitokage in the aprox 4 years since you wrote this? Also, are you aware of any cryptids in Hong Kong over the last 100 years or so or present day?

Thanks
Richard

Doesn’t it bug you that in so many cryptid encounters no one is carrying a gun or a camera, and if they are by chance carrying said gun or camera they are usually a lousey shot with both (apart form the Shunka Warak’in!)?

It could be an unidentified snake or lizard, but I think that the reports throughout the ages cannot all be put down to misidentification or imagination. Too many times we presume observers ignorant or stupid because what they relay seems to fantastical. Not sure about a metre long skink though!

I am of the mind that the claws on the back end of boas and pythons have always been used for mating, and were never co-opted from legs. What mechansim would turn back legs into ‘gripping’ claws could only be described out of the bounds of empirical science. That would seem to me to require some sort of reasoning or intelligence beyond chance driven by environment, mutations or punctuated equilibria nonsense.

Flame821- If you mean creatures or yokai(Japanese folkloric entities) that are considered to be possibly real creatures, then I can certainly think of one that might resemble a “devil.” The winged Tengu could possibly be seen as possessing attributes that could be considered devil-like, or similar in some respects to the oni of Japanese lore. “Oni” directly translates to “devil” or “demon,” although they are variously described as being sort of the Japanese equivalent of trolls, ogres, or goblins.

Ceroill- Yes, I was actually going to mention the Tatzelwurm in this article. The Notzuchitokage is very similar in many respects to the European Tatzelwurm. It makes me wonder if a similarly evolved animal could be behind both of these far flung cryptids. I know, for example, that Loren has put up an article on the Tatzelwurm here on Cryptomundo that also mentioned the possibility of something like two legged worm lizards, the Bipedidae being at the core of those stories. Similar traditions to the Hoop snakes are definitely present in Tsuchinoko reports as well. I agree that it is fascinating to consider the similarities between creatures from completely separate cultures across the globe.

Alligator- Thank you for your kind words. It means a lot coming from another commenter who I also to be very logical and rational in their approach to these things, in your case especially reptile related ones.

A general comment to no one in particular I’d like to make in order to clarify what I meant about the skinks I mentioned here. I am not sure if these animals were ever traded here in Japan in medieval times. As a matter of fact, I find it perhaps unlikely and actually meant my mention of it in this article as a reason I find the skink explanation questionable. I find it somewhat hard to swallow that blue tongued skinks would have been traded and managed to find their way into the wild in those ancient times. Since tales of the Tsuchinoko are present in even Japan’s oldest written texts, it seems doubtful that any sort of pet trade could have started this folklore to begin with.

I think more likely is that modern day witnesses have maybe seen these skinks and likened the strange (to them) sight to a well known fantastic animal that most resembles it, the Tsuchinoko. This cryptid is so well known in Japanese society that it is entirely plausible for someone to make that jump. However, those ancient stories of Tsuchinoko had to have started from something, and I think that blue tongued skinks were perhaps not it.

Maybe the skinks were traded back in those days, but not that I am aware of. I suppose that it could have be a type of native lizard similar to a skink that is either now extinct or is still out there undiscovered.