The Japanese giant salamander, and the shrine that was built for one. A folklore record places the killing in the Genroku era, in a village in the old province of Mimasaka: a boy killed a great salamander, his entire household died of the curse, and the creature was enshrined as a god. It is still called Hanzaki Daimyōjin. The animal is real, protected, and can be photographed; the measurements given in the record are about seven times the size the species reaches. A zoologist published a report on it in 1903 and is said to have appended photographs of the shrine.