Yazaimondako

There is a strange Japanese tale from Shikoku Island about a fisherman named Yazaimon and a giant octopus. One day a giant octopus was having a sleep on a rock just off the coast of Kagawa. Yazaimon saw it there and thought how delicious it would be, so he climbed up on the rock and cut off one of the octopus's legs while it was sleeping. He returned the following day to find the octopus still sleeping and so he cut off a second leg.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

This continued for seven days until the octopus only had one remaining leg. On the eighth day Yazaimon planned to kill the octopus and take its remaining leg. But this time the octopus woke up. Obviously it was furious and so with its remaining leg it grabbed the man and dragged him down to the bottom of the sea whereupon it continued his nap. From that time on the one legged octopus was known as Yazaimondako after the man who'd stolen his other seven legs. Tako 蛸 (or dako) is Japanese for octopus.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi