宮城県七ヶ浜町に江戸時代から伝わる オウムガイ（軟体動物門：頭足綱）の漂着個体

抄録

Empty shells of a tropical cephalopod Nautilus pompilius Linnaeus, 1758 （Nautilida: Nautilidae） are known to be drifted to the coasts of the Japanese Archipelago, but it has been believed that no record was present on the Pacific coasts of the Tohoku District, northern Honshu, where is distant from the Kuroshio and the Tsushima Current. However, a drifted shell of the species has been handed down since 1812 （Bunka 9 in the Edo Period） in the Suzuki Family, Shichigahama-machi, Miyagi-gun, Miyagi Prefecture. According to a tradition in the Suzukis, the shell appeared as attached to a sea turtle from off Shichigahama, and the history of the drift and preservation was recorded in old literature. Sincethen, the Suzukis have called the shell " Fuketsu-no-kai " and carefully preserved it as their heirloom. The name Fuketsu-no-kai is a probable corruption of " Kuketsu-no-kai " that is one of the Japanese synonyms of the species in the Edo Period. In Niigata Prefecture, the drifted shells of the present species are called Kuketsu-nokai and revered. Therefore, this folklore is assumed to have been introduced into the Pacifi ccoast of Miyagi Prefecture by religious people. The present shell is thought to be a highly important specimen in the contexts of natural history, historiography and folkloristics: the present shell is a very rare case of the drift of the species into the Pacific coast of the Tohoku District; the detailed story of the drift can be documented by old literature; the present shell is a good example showing an old Japanese folklore of worship of the species.