The first recorded account of mermaids (Ningyo) in Japan dates back to the year 619 during the reign of Empress Suiko. Although they were often described as having full heads of hair, Ningyo were typically depicted as more bestial and grotesque looking than the European variety, with an appearance more like a cross between a fish and a monkey than that of a beautiful woman.

Mermaid stories exist throughout the world, but perhaps nowhere as strongly embedded in contemporary culture as the Inuit mythologies of Sedna the Sea Goddess. The Inuit saga claims all large northern sea mammals were created from her bloody fingers, after they were cut off and cast into the waters by her angry father.