In the 1970s, reports of the tsuchinoko, a snake-like cryptid from Japanese folklore, surged in Western Japan, particularly in Kansai and Shikoku. Described as a pudgy snake with a triangular head and the ability to jump, the tsuchinoko became a media sensation, with numerous alleged sightings and expeditions to find it. The creature remains a cultural phenomenon in Japan.

The tsuchinoko has inspired Japanese poetry, manga, and literature, becoming a symbol of the mysterious and the elusive in the modern world. Poets of the Showa and Heisei periods have used the tsuchinoko as a metaphor for the search for meaning and the persistence of folklore in an industrialized society.