Recent reports of an unidentified passenger of the Yamanote subway line in Tokyo including this recent picture has every one asking: “Who is Cornman?” and more importantly, “What the hell is he doing?”

The first known photo (below) was tweeted back in May and showed a seemingly normal fellow towing what appeared to be a single unhusked ear of corn attached by a bright red dog leash heading towards the station exit.

Since then Cornman sightings have been pouring in on Twitter, with witnesses in Yoyogi and Ikebukuro Stations among others. Although it’s a little hard to discern the ear of corn in this initial photo, eyewitness reports corroborate that it is indeed, corn.

And now with this new photo seen above we can be sure that this guy is indeed dragging maize with him everywhere he goes. “Why” is still a mystery though.

This photo tweeted on 11 October also deepens the mystery of Cornman’s identity. In both photos his face is hidden. This means that these could be different people. Dare I say a counterfeit copycat Cornman conman?

The leash certainly seems the same.

Also, the fact that the face is conveniently hidden in both photos suggests that this might be an inside job. Perhaps someone is trying to generate buzz, make Cornman a household name and then rake in the merchandising perhaps?

Or as some commenters have suggested, it could be a part of a batsu game often filmed in Tokyo. These games often involve comedians having to do outlandish penalties for failing a challenge like… say, pull an ear of corn behind them on a leash in public.

This theory seems quite plausible since Cornman seems rather well dressed for your typical mentally ill subway commuter.

Whatever the case may be, we probably haven’t seen the last of Cornman. So tune in next tweet, same corn-time, same corn-channel.

Source: Byokan Sunday (Japanese)

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