Issie, the Lake Ikeda Monster: The Kawaji Family Sighting

Lake Ikeda fills a caldera on the Satsuma Peninsula, in Ibusuki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, at the southern tip of Kyushu. It is the largest caldera lake on the island. About 11 square kilometres of water. A maximum depth of 233 metres. Local legend says a white mare, her foal taken by a samurai, threw herself into the lake and became a monster.

Sunday, September 3, 1978. Around 6 p.m. Relatives had gathered at the Kawaji family house in the Ikeda-Isaki district for a Buddhist memorial service. Down on the shore, 11-year-old Hiroto Kawaji was playing catch with his 17-year-old cousin, Satoshi.

Hiroto saw it first. Two black bumps on the surface of the lake.

The relatives came outside. About twenty people watched. They described two humps, each about 5 metres long and 40 to 50 centimetres high, lined up 5 metres apart. The humps were crossing the lake at furious speed. The water was mirror smooth, with no wind or waves. The only disturbance came from where the creature moved.

Yutaka Kawaji, the head of the family, leapt aboard a motorboat and pursued it. He could not catch it. The humps advanced 400 to 500 metres. Then they submerged. The whole encounter lasted three to four minutes. According to cryptozoology writer John Kirk, Kawaji saw the humps twice, for about 20 seconds each time. Five high school students reported seeing it from another spot.

By October 1978 the Ibusuki City Tourism Association had formed the Issie Countermeasures Committee. An automatic camera watch station followed. A reward was offered for a photograph. The creature's name was modelled on Nessie.

December 16, 1978. About 1:30 p.m. Toshiaki Matsubara, a businessman from Kagoshima City whose name is also read Matsuhara, saw a whirlpool appear in the middle of the lake. He watched it for five minutes through a 50X telescope as it moved northward. Then he took a series of photographs. Kirk described two humps with spinal ridges. The magazine Mu described a whitish mass with three dark bands. The committee accepted it as part of Issie's body and paid him ¥100,000. Yutaka Kawaji reportedly said Matsubara had photographed the same creature he saw, near Couple's Rock. Mu says an American UFO group, GSW, possibly Ground Saucer Watch, found the image not falsified. Four later photographs received no serious scrutiny.

No investigation reached a conclusion. In Japanese sources the leading candidate is the giant mottled eel, which lives in the lake. Kirk objected that these eels reach only about 1.7 metres, far short of the humps described. Others suggested schools of bighead or silver carp released into the lake, or wind-driven waves. A 1990 note raised dolphin pods, though the lake is landlocked. Cryptozoologists have proposed a surviving plesiosaur. Sceptics point to the tourism body itself, which both offered the reward and certified the photograph. No specific hoax accusation has been made against the Kawaji family or Matsubara.

Over 200 more people later reported sightings, and a new run of videos followed between 1990 and 1993. In 1979 the manga artist Leiji Matsumoto visited with about 20 other artists and drew Issie as a red and white dragon. "Dreams are most important," he said. "It's fun just to think that it exists." Two Issie statues stand by the lake. The city prefers a friendlier name. Issie-kun. Some compare it to Kusshii of Lake Kussharo in Hokkaido, only larger.