Japanese marten created a column of fire, and one fear about them was that if martens that have gathered together in this form appear next to a house, the house would catch on fire.。 Japanese marten The Japanese marten ("Martes melampus") is a mammal in the marten genus most closely related to the sable. It is 0.5 m (1.5 ft) in length typically, not counting a 20-cm-long tail (7.9 in), and between 1,000 and 1,500 grams (2.2 and 3.3 lb) in weight. Males are generally larger than females. The pelage varies in color from dark brown to dull yellow with a cream-colored
5026 Martes well-defined rotation period of 4.4243 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.69 magnitude (). According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, "Martes" measures 8.967 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.066, which is typical for carbonaceous asteroids. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link", however, assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and consequently calculates a much smaller diameter of 4.93 kilometers, due to the higher albedo. This minor planet was named for the two species of the family Mustelidae, the pine marten and beech marten.