Kappa (folklore)
In Japanese folklore, the ' is a familiar type of water monster, considered one of three major yōkai
Kappa'' are said to be inhabiting the ponds and rivers of Japan. It is also known by various local names, including.
The had been dangerous mankillers that drowned people, also targeting horses and cattle to be dragged into water. Later, they came to be depicted as mischievous beings which get punished, and in exchange of forgiveness, gratefully performed labor, or revealed a secret medicinal recipe.
Accounts typically depict them as green, slimy, human-like beings with webbed hands and feet and turtle-like carapaces on their backs. A depression on the head, called a "dish", retains water, and if this receptacle is damaged or if its liquid is spilled or dried, a becomes severely weakened.
The favor cucumbers and love to engage in sumo-wrestling. They are often accused of assaulting humans in water and removing a mythical organ called the from their victim's anus.
Nomenclature
The name kappa is a contraction of the compound from kawa "river" and "child, boy", or of, from . Another translation of kappa is "water-sprite".In earlier times, there was a clearer demarcation in terminology, where the creature tended to be known as kappa in the east and known rather as ' in the west from 18th century literature.
The kappa are also known regionally by at least eighty other names. Among older literature, the lists several local names such as gawara in Etchū Province. Ono Ranzan's Honzōkōmoku keimō also listed about 20 local names.
Alternate names close to the standard include: or ; ' ; ' ; kawatarō; '; ' ; ; kawara ; ; kawakoboshi ; ; ; kawawarō.
The form occurs widely in the Chūgoku region and perimeter of the Seto Inland Sea, but it is often heard pronounced as '. The form kawako has also been used in Izumo Province and recorded by Lafcadio Hearn who was based in that area.
The form gatarō used in Fukusaki according to Kunio Yanagita's memory from his birthplace. He also heard from an acquaintance that the local name was kamuro, kawakamuro in Akashi not far from hometown, and spent a lifetime trying to corroborate it, but to no avail.
In Tosa Province, it has been called gatarō, kadarō, or kataro.
The alternate name is localized around Kurume, Fukuoka.
The kappa was also known by simian-sounding names such as enkō or var. enko, These name derive from meaning "apes and monkeys", and in the modern age where these names are current, the local lore had reported these creature to be ape-like. Ironically it is also said that the kappa and the ape-kind are mortal enemies.
Some regions employ the term suiko with widespread examples from Tōhoku region to Kyūshū. In the local water deity worship found in Aomori Prefecture, the or "Exalted Water Tiger" is the deified form of the kappa. In the Tsugaru dialect, the pronunciation of this deity is corrupted to Osshiko-sama. During the Edo Period, it was commonplace to use suiko as a stilted sinitic translation for kappa.
In Ehime Prefecture, the kappa is sometimes called, which is usually the term for 'otter'. It is also called kawauso as well as kawako in a version of the tale from Shimane Prefecture.
In some areas, the kappa is called by the same name as the soft-shell turtle, namely: game ; dochigame ; dangame. Thus in these places, the terrapin-based names are a giveaway that the kappa is locally considered to be very turtle-like.
The terms dochirobe, game, and dochi are used interchangeably in the area of Gifu, Toyama, and Ishikawa Prefectures. This dochirobe is reputedly a red-bellied creature with lush flowing tail, but when it attains 1000 years of age transforms into a full-fledged kappa, known locally as Kārabōzu, whose head resembles the reddish apish creature with a shōjō-like face and a saucer atop its head to hold water, but otherwise more or less human-shaped. In Gifu Prefecture, their kawaranbe is distinguished from the dochi which is considered an almost-kappa. Another variant name of this group is the aforementioned dochigame.
The kappa is also called komahiki, meaning "steed-puller", attested locally around the Matsumae region, from the kappas reputed practice of trying to drag horses into water.
Similar creatures
Akin to the kappa are the local versions called the hyōsube in southern Kyūshū, as well as the of northern Tōhoku region. The name medochi and variants are grouped together as names derving from mizuchi, a mythical water-serpent or dragon. Of these, the subtype dochi was already discussed above.There are also the Wakayama Prefecture version called and the Ibaraki Prefecture version.
A is the winter-time transformation of the kappa according to the folklore of Kyūshū, where it is said that the creatures remove themselves into the mountains during the cold climate and returning to the rivers in the spring. The of the Amami Islands also exhibits this wintering behavior, and in the illustrated commentary of the creature in the, it is equated to the kawatarō and yamawaro.
In Shimominochi District, Nagano, the local version of kappa is called sēshin or sējin which is apparently a corruption of suijin.
Appearance and traits
The currently popularized image of the kappa describes it as roughly humanoid in form and about the size of a child.They are typically greenish in color.
They often have a pointed or beaked mouth. They are also usually equipped with webbed hands and feet, and bears a turtle-like carapace on their back.
Head dish
They have an indentation atop their head to retain water even when they venture on land, and when the water is full, they exhibit mighty strength, but if the water spills, the kappa is weakened, or it may even die. From around their bald depression, strands of long hair hang down.is one early work that refers to the strategy of upsetting the water in the dish in order to weaken the kappa to facilitate its capture.
Sliminess and odor
Kappa are said to be slick or slimy, and smell gamy or fishy.Their gaminess is referred to in, which states that "the gaminess saturates the nose, and trying to stab it with a wakizashi fails to hit, and since the body is covered in slime, it is difficult to capture". But even though sword cuts fail to deliver wounds to it, a sharpened hemp-shaft will penetrate it, according to the dictionary.
Joined arms
According to some accounts, a kappa's arms are connected to each other through the torso and can slide from one side to the other. That is to say, if one tugs on one arm, the other arm begins to shrink, and even come loose and fall straight out.It has been conjectured that this is an introduced piece of lore taken from fabulous Chinese descriptions concerning the gibbon.
Apish subtypes
As aforementioned, the ape-like form has survived in folklore into the modern age in the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions where the enkō nickname has remained current. The enkō-type kappa is based on ape, but endowed with river-dwelling characteristics; this relationship is somewhat analogous to the Kyūshū region lore of the mountain spirit becoming the river-dwelling kappa, called either kawawaro or hyōsubo depending on zone.Behavior
Kappa are regarded as dwelling in some body of water, a river, pond, swamp, pool, sometimes even salt water.Though sometimes menacing, they may also behave amicably towards humans. Their actions range from comparatively minor misdemeanors, such as looking up women's kimono if they venture too near to water, to outright malevolence, such as drowning people and animals, kidnapping children, raping women and at times eating human flesh.
As for the menacing part, kappa have been go-to monster to be blamed for any drownings, and were often said to try to lure people into water and pull them in with their great skill at wrestling. They are sometimes said to take their victims for the purpose of drinking their blood, eating their livers, or gaining power by taking their shirikodama, a mythical ball said to contain the soul, which is located inside the anus. Kappa have been used to warn children of the dangers lurking in rivers and lakes.
The more sinister view of them tended to be found in older literature, e.g. Kaibara Ekken, since gradually over the Edo Period, a more comical image of the kappa had developed. According to these older writings, humans who survived the kappa could still sustain some sort of a mental aftereffect like stupor or insanity.
Much of the known modern folklore concerning the kappa involves them bungling in their mischief and being punished, e.g., attempting a or stroking the backside of someone in the toilet, and getting its hand chopped off, or being captured. In return for forgiveness, they typically disclosed the recipe to the, or make apologetic vows of good behavior, submit a letter of apology, bring gifts of fish, or help out with work in the fields, etc..
Although the cliché is for the kappa to beg the return of its lost hand, there are "specimens" everywhere in Japan purporting to be the mummified hands of the kappa, including those said to have been cut off by someone long ago.
Grateful ''kappa''
Once befriended, kappa may perform any number of tasks for human beings.Medicine
Typically the kappa has its arm sliced off and delivers up a wonder medicine to treat sword injuries. It may be some other treatment, e.g. for, or for .Tales about obtaining secret medicine from the kappa is ubiquitous throughout Japan.
There are old families purporting to have the secret medicine or its recipe learned from a kappa by an ancestor throughout the country, e.g., the Kashima family of town, Anan, Tokushima. Or tell of bone-setting techniques, or other treatment methods learned from the kappa.
An old example is found in Haruna Tadanari's, which relates that in Sayō District in western Harima Province, the kappa, here called a, fails his attempt at horse-pulling, receives a sword-cut losing his right arm from a samurai, begs forgiveness, promises to cease with his misdeeds, and relinquishes the secret craft of the special bone-setting medicine, in ordered to have its severed arm restored.
Other regional examples are found from or.
Writ of Apology
A captured kappa barters his release by offering a solemn pledge to never cause harm again, in folk legends all over Japan. Typically the creature will submit a letter or writ of apology and a number of such alleged documents as relics are preserved by old families and temples throughout Japan.The kappa may also ensure water safety, i.e., protection from drownings .
Fish
The grateful creature may also bring back gifts of fish, often on top of the pledge of good behavior.offers a tale from Hakata Bay, as well as an old literary example from Hakata saiken where the kappa brings catfish. Foster gives an example from Ōita Prefecture where the kappa ceases to bring his fish gifts after the boy forgetfully leaves an iron knife around. Similarly the fish-giving stops after a fish is left on a deer antler hook in the example as well as the tale attached to the in the Wakamiya Shrine of Akehama, Ehime.
Further examples are from. Gifu Prefecture, Hida Region.
Needless to say it is reputedly highly skilled at catching fish.
Providing labor
In other legends, the kappa has helped out with public works, e.g., with the swampland reclamation project around Sōgen-ji temple, cf..There is also a tale of the kappa muko-iri theme, where a farmer offers his daughter's hand in marriage to whoever successfully irrigates his dried up fields. And the kappa also helps out with more general chores in the fields, as in the tale in.
Sumo-wrestling
The kappa is especially known for its love of sumo-wrestling.One tactic for defeating the kappa at wrestling is to trick it into taking a bow, making its head dish water spill, in order to weaken it before the bout.
Another tactic told locally in certain places is that the kappa can be beat in sumo wrestling if the opponent prepares himself by eating rice offered to the Buddhist altar.
Cucumber
Folk beliefs claim the cucumber as their traditional favorite meal. At festivals, offerings of cucumber are frequently made to the kappa. Sometimes the kappa is said to have other favorite foods, such as eggplant, soba, adzuki bean, or kabocha. Already in the Wakan sansai zue it is stated that kawatarō "steals squashes, eggplants, and cereals from the fields", while the Honzō kōmoku shakugi records its favorite foods as cucumber and .During the observance of Obon, the shōryō uma and "spirit cattle" crafted from cucumbers and eggplants are placed on altars for appeasing ancestral spirits. In most places these vegetable effigies end up being sent afloat on the river or at sea. Whereas in Edo, superstitious folk used to send buy cucumbers and send them down the river in order to appease the kappa, so as to avoid drownings or water accidents. Within Tokyo, there still remained in some places the custom of writing names of family members on the cucumbers being floated to beg especially their children from getting their shirikodama extracted.
In some regions, it was customary to eat cucumbers before swimming as protection, but in others it was believed that this act would guarantee an attack.
The origin of cucumber preference according to one explanation is that the kappa is a debased form of the water god, and the first harvest of the cucumber was always considered an indispensable offering to the water god. The tradition has continued into the modern day that the first harvest must first be offered on 1 June or 15 June at the altars and coves for the kappa before humans are allowed to eat it, and some regions consider it as a gift to the Suijin water god.
Shirikodama
The image of the kappa extracting the is a standard motif also. This shirikodama is a fictive organ, though the folklore claims that a person bereft of it becomes funuke and the person may even die.It is also said the kappa eats this shirikodama, being its favorite food alongside cucumbers.
The depicts the scene of "Kawatarō extracts the shirikodama", and according to the accompanying text, the kappa drags humans into water and devour their innards, and the victims are unable to ascend to heaven, becoming wandering ghosts that cannibalize each other. It is unusual to find such explicit depiction of the extraction scene.
In Hokusai manga, there is an image of "The method of fishing a kappa", where a man is squatting atop something like a swing sticking out his butt to lure out the kappa which is seen emerging from water.
This superstition of a butt-ball organ may derive from the fact that drowned cadavers often have an "open anus" due to distended sphincter muscles. A similar observation has been made by Minakata Kumagusu.
Horse-pulling
One characteristic is their habit of trying to pull or drag horses and cattle into water. The tale from Nishikawatsu, was given in an abridged version as a tale from "Kawachi" village in Izumo Province by Lafcadio Hearn.Legend or folktale exhibiting this motif is ubiquitous and found from the Tōhoku region, Kantō region, Chūbu region, Harima Province, Chūbu region, Shikoku, Hizen Province, etc.
As in the Izumo version, many versions call for the kappa to be dragged by the horse to the stable where it is most vulnerable, and it is there it is forced to submit a not to misbehave.
Already the Wakan sansai zue has recorded the folklore that the kawatarō makes use of his stretchable arm to draw in cattle and horses, sucking all blood from the rumps.
Weaknesses
The kappa reputedly abhors iron and deer antler. The writes that it hates deer antlers and cowpea. And if bladed weapons do not cut them, hemp stalks can pierce them, as aforementioned. The hemp stalk leaned against the door is effective at keeping the kappa away from visiting homes, according to the lore of.The apes being their mortal enemies was also mentioned above.
Defeating the kappa
It was believed that there were a few means of escape if one was confronted with a kappa. Kappa are obsessed with politeness, so if a person makes a deep bow, it will return the gesture. This results in the kappa spilling the water held in the "dish" on its head, rendering it unable to leave the bowing position until the plate is refilled with water from the river in which it lives. If a person refills it, the kappa will serve that person for all eternity. A similar weakness of the kappa involves its arms, which can easily be pulled from its body. If an arm is detached, the kappa will perform favors or share knowledge in exchange for its return.Another method involves shogi or sumo wrestling: a kappa sometimes challenges a human being to wrestle or engage in other tests of skill. This tendency is easily used to encourage the kappa to spill the water from its sara. One notable example of this method is the folktale of a farmer who promises his daughter's hand in marriage to a kappa in return for the creature irrigating his land. The farmer's daughter challenges the kappa to submerge several gourds in water. When the kappa fails in its task, it retreats, saving the farmer's daughter from the marriage. Kappa have also been driven away by their aversion to iron, sesame, or ginger.
Wintering in the mountains
In certain parts of the Japan, the appearance of the kappa in rivers is considered seasonal, as they are partly mountain-dwelling. In late autumn or winter, they travel up the mountain and confine themselves there until later spring or early summer when they descend to the rivers. Their river-dwelling forms are referred to as seko/sekoko, sekonbo, karuko, kari/kariru or kobo.The name is used in the Ōita, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, and Nagasaki prefectures, and seko supposedly derives from the notion they shout out loud like, or men who make loud noises to scare the game during the hunt. In some parts of Kyūshū the kappa is called hyōsubo, and here also, the creature is said to become a yamawaro upon entering the mountain. Great hordes of these yamawaro are said to come down from the mountains, walking from rooftop to rooftop above the village homes to reach their rivers and become, according to the lore around Kumamoto Prefecture.
In Yoshino District, Nara, it is said that the gantaro enters the mountains to become yamataro. In Wakayama, they become.
Iconography
Broad classification
The 1820 work Suiko kōryaku, etc., contain illustrated explanation of kappa broadly categorizable into two types: the types carrying a turtle-like shell which are hairless, and the furry types that are shell-less.Kyōgoku and, writing that a single standard image of the kappa was formative during the Edo Period, similarly divides the pictorial representations of the period into 3 categories, namely the "Ape or manlike type", "Suiko type", "Terrapin or turtle type".
The "Ape or manlike type" had its whole body covered in dense fur, said to be ape-like or even otter-like, and included wildcat-like examples as well. It tended to have hair in the zanbara style, i.e., long and loosely hanging around the head.
The "Terrapin or turtle type" consisted of kappa depicted with "a pointed-mouthed face, bearing a turtle-shell on its back".
The "Suiko type" was the name the two authors use to categorized the hairless but scale-covered type kappa.
The progress of how the furry type became supplanted by the smooth turtle-type shall be discussed below under, as well as the introduction of frog-like aspects stressed by scholar Ozawa Hana.
Chronology
The image of the kappa before the 18th century appears to have favored the ape-type, and non-herp types. For instance in the Kagakushū, it is claimed that the otter grown old becomes a kawarō, and in the Nippo Jisho the entry for Cauarǒ defines it as an ape-like creature.The Wakan sansai zue carried a woodcut of the kawatarō depicted as a furry, apelike creature. Hirase Tessai's, the sumo-wrestling kappa appears ape-like.
In the, the kappa, which had its arm sliced off, is depicted in the so-called ape type style, its entire body covered with hair. There depression and the dish-like element on its head have already appeared in the artwork by this time.
The forgoing examples were written in western regions. However, the ape was relatively unfamiliar to the people of Edo which had few forested mountains, and the image of a more turtle-like or frog-like kappa began to be favored, starting in the mid-18th century.
An early example of this depiction illustrations depicting the kappa as described by informants.interlanguage link|Koga Dōan|ja|古賀侗庵nihongo||水虎考略|Suiko kōryaku|extra= "A brief consideration of kappa", Bunsei 3/1820Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Regarding the confusing practice of referring to the kappa by the Chinese-imported term suiko, cf. subsection below.Refn|Though technically, even before this earliest 1820 version of Suiko kōryaku, the had already appeared. The Suiko kōryaku represents a whole family of codices, with copies dated to Tenpō 7/1836, etc.efn|The hairdo term used here by Ozawa is.sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=37sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=37sfnp|Ozawa|2011|pp=37–38nihongo||千蟲譜|Senchūfu|extra= "Album of a thousand vermin", preface dated 1811sfnp|Ozawa|2011|pp=36–37nihongo||水虎考|Suiko kō|extra="Consideration on the kappa"nihongo||水虎十二品之図|Suiko jūnihin no zu|extra="Illustration of 12 types of suiko ", first pub. c. 1850?Refn|name="harada-on-hita"|Novelist complains of the discussion in Suiko kōryaku, but further can be quoted as writing: "especially the illustration of the kappa captured at Hita, Bungo, in the Kan'ei era, in the Illustration of 12 types of suiko is completely devoid of realism in its depiction, and is but a cartoon".interlanguage link|Sakamoto Hōnen|ja|坂本浩然sfnp|Nakamura|1996|pp=374–375Anchor|hokusai_picright|Refn|taiiku-suwari position, to use a Japanese termRefn|group="lower-alpha"|Though being covered with fine scales is not exactly like a lifelike turtle.interlanguage link|Katsushika Hokuga|ja|葛飾北雅transl\|ja|Kappa zuRefn|In the collection of Yumoto, Kōichi, right|'nihongo||大日本六十余州之内・上総 白藤源太|Dai-Nihon rokujū yoshū no uchi Kazusa: Shirafuji Genta|extra="Sixty-odd provinces of great Japan, of which Kazusa Province: Shirafuji Genta", Tenpō 14/1843–Kōka 4/1847nihongo||本朝剣道略伝|Honchō kendō ryakuden |extra="Abridged Stories of Our Countrys Swordsmanship", c. 1843–1847interlanguage link|Keyamura Rokusuke|ja|毛谷村六助sfnp|Ozawa|2011|pp=38–39sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=40nihongo\|Tōkyō kaika kyōga meisho: Fukagawa Kiba. Kappa shūki ni hekieki|東京開化狂画名所・深川木場川童臭気に辟易|extra="kappa flabbergasted by stench"sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=40interlanguage link|Ogawa Usen|ja|小川芋銭transl\|ja|Kappa no Usensfnp|Tsutsumi|2024|p=34sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=40sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=40interlanguage link|Kon Shimizu|ja|清水崑interlanguage link|Kappa Tengoku|ja|かっぱ天国|lt=Kappa Tengokusfnp|Foster|1998|pp=13–14sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=40sfnp|Foster|1998|p=13sfnp|Ozawa|2011|p=41–42
Local legends
The kappa is among the best-known yōkai in Japan. It is known by various names according to region and local folklore.All over Japan there remains the practice of making offerings at shrines to placate the kappa. There are places that identify and enshrine the kappa as suijin. In fact, the kappa may have descended from the worship of such suijin deity.
While it is by no means unusual for harvest rituals to occur in the spring and autumnal equinoxes, scholars have tied the timing to the welcoming back and ushering out of the kappa that spends half the year in the rivers but goes away into the mountains for the remainder.
The tendency to identify the kappa as the principal enshrined being at suijin festivals appears more prevalent in Western Japan, while at the Kahaku Shrine of Nankoku, Kōchi enshrines a kappa by the name of enkō. In such Shintō framework, the kappa may be considered to be an avatar of the water deity.
Kyūshū region
In Kyūshū there is a legend concerning Kusenbō, the name of a kappa boss. Kusenbō had 9000 underling kappa, and was based in the Kuma and Chikugo River holding dominion over all of Saikaidō. Legend has it that the warlord Katō Kiyomasa angered by the Kusenbō gang's misdeeds gathered all the apes he could from Kyūshū to help subdue them. Another legend has it that the gang lost the war over the Tone River against the local gang under neneko.For the Kumamoto Prefecture lore about the kappa descending in hordes after winter cf. also above.
Fukuoka Prefecture
The decisive sea battle in the War between the Genji and Heike was the Battle of Dan-no-ura that took place in the straight between today's Yamaguchi Prefecture and Fukuoka Prefecture. There is legend in Yamaguchi about that the Heike men turned into Heike crabs while the women-folk escaped to Fukuoka. One such legendary escapee is the Amagozen.Chiyo Amagozen allegedly survived and came to Chikugo Province, or so claims writings such as the and ; she is supposedly enshrined at the Amagozen-sha shrine in Senoshita-machi town in Kurume, Fukuoka, which has been argued to be the origin of the Suitengū worship. She is also said to have become the wife of the water deity of the, while it is said that the Heike who defeated by Ogata Koreyoshi transformed into kahaku river spirits of the Kose River, thus providing rich material for kappa studies.
Chikugogaku yurai is the document explaining the origins of Chikugo-gaku, commonly called Kappa-gaku, explains that the ghosts of the dead and fugitives attached to the losing Heike clan turned into kappa, and the music was devised in order to assuage these hapless spirits.
Ōita Prefecture
A kappa allegedly caught in Hita, Bungo Province A copy of also exists on the Suiko jūnihin no zu, but the quality of the illustration has been lambasted by.At the Kumo Hachimangū shrine in what was formerly Yabakei-machi town, the involves music and playacting: four children are selected to portray the ghosts of the Heike turned kappa, while four youths are assigned to wave a great, in an act of appeasing the kappa spirits.
There are schools of performance which differ for the kappa festivals held at other shrines, so that Kumo Hachimangū uses the, while the Iseyama Dai-jingū shrine of Ōkubo, in the same Yabakei-machi, employs the style, and the at the former Yamakuni-machi town employs the style and the Kitsuki-jinja in Kusu town employed the .
As aforementioned, Ōita is more of the epicenter of nowadays, even thought the repertoire is also called as it had originated in Chikugo. The Chikugo-gaku yurai admits that the music has its roots in the village called. And while not definitive, a source claims the music originated in Jōkyō 3/1686.
Nagasaki Prefecture
In one narrative collected from Iki Island, a woman whose true identity was a female kappa leaves her wealthy husband, and dives into the well to escape to sea. At the bottom of the well there remained remnants of a wan bowl. Orikuchi likens this episode to the "Shinoda wife" story.In a cognate tale localized in Hirado Domain, the female kappa is not the wife but a maidservant, and after dropping a plate and cracking it, she gets slashed by the sword by her master who is a samurai. She transforms back into a kappa and escapes to sea.
From Fukue Island in the southern part of the Gotō Islands chain, is a story about a sumo-loving man breaking off a kappas arm in victory, but gave the arm back after a few days, and the creature as a token of gratitude brought a huge "green stone" that required ten men to carry.
Another such stone at a Suijin water deity shrine occurs at the water source of the Hongōchi quarters of Nagasaki city, and the shrine boasts a kappa ishi or kappa stone. Years past, a Shibue family member serving as head priest welcomed the May festival and pretended to entertain the prankish kappa with a meal of bamboo shoots. In actuality, only his fare were tender shoots, and the kappa were served hardened bamboo rings that confounded them, thus serving them deserved punishment.
Saga Prefecture
At Shiomi-jinja in former village, Kishima District, the Shibue clan is enshrined as a kappa-tamer serving the water god. Within its grounds once stood the, commemorating an alleged event that a kappa was caught and bound up by a Shibue family ancestor and made to swear never to take another human until a flower blooms on this very stone. The Shibue clan used to bring bamboo shoots as food gift every May festival, so it is told, later leading to the custom of offering bamboo shoots to the water god..Kumamoto Prefecture
The legend of Katō Kiyomasa gathering an army of monkeys to subdue the kappa is localized in Kumamoto.The village of Ishiwara in Hōtaku District, Kumamoto has passed on a legend that when one of the village boys was taken by a kappa, the village lord named Ishiwara Kanainosuke stormed out to its den in Shirakawa River and battled it, wrenching off its arm, which turned out to be straw stalks. When the kappa asked for the return of its arm, Ishiwara complied after the kappa gave strict promise never to resort to such mischief at the village again.
Local folklore claims that the kappa can only submerge in water for 12 hours, but the ape can stay underwater for 24 hours, and is able to defeat the ''kappa''
Shikoku region
Kōchi Prefecture
A legend written down claims that in the autumn Bunsei 3/1820, a strange creature was trapped in the mullet-catching net in Shimanto River by Kanematsu Tasuke of Nabeshima village in Hata District. It measured 2.5 shaku and was blackish, entirely furry including the arms and legs, but not the face which was pale, ape-like, but smooth. It was slippery like the feel of an eel when stroked. And emitting a gamy odor. This was documented in Okamoto Mafuru's .Chūgoku region
Shimane Prefecture
In Izumo Province, the Yakushi temple pavilion in boasted of holding in its possession a. The kawauso is a local name for the kappa, which the villagers also called kawako in slang, within the narrative that is told. The kawako attempted to draw away a horse, but was dragged towards the village instead and captured. For a while it agreed to help out with work in the fields, but it could not check its old habit of targeting the buttocks, and the villagers had to fend it off with a roof tiles. Eventually, it was made to ink-stamp a written promise to do no more harm, and released. Thus if a child chants "Unshū Nishikawachi-mura" this is said to fend against drownings in parts of Izumo.The same story was given by Izumo resident Lafcadio Hearn, though the place name "Kawachi" which Hearn gave has been pointed out to be erroneous for Kawatsu.
Tōhoku region
Shrines are dedicated to the worship of kappa as water deity in Aomori Prefecture as Suiko-sama. In Miyagi Prefecture also, at the, etc., the creature is venerated as water god and given venerated names such as Kappa-gami-san or Okappa-sama.Iwate Prefecture
The best known place where it has been claimed the kappa resides is in the, a river pool in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture. The pool occurs in the Ashiarai River which flows behind the nearby temple. In Tōno, the Buddhist temple has a komainu dog statue with a depression on its head reminiscent of the water-retaining dish on the kappa, said to be dedicated to the kappa which according to legend helped extinguish a fire at the temple. In his Tōno Monogatari, Kunio Yanagita records a number of beliefs from the Tōno area about women being accosted and even impregnated by kappa. Their offspring were said to be repulsive to behold, and were generally buried.Yamagata Prefecture
Mantei Sōba's, illustrated by Hokusai, relates the tale that a kappa was captured by villagers near the castle town of Dewa Province, and handed over to the physician Essai perhaps to be ground up as medicine. The physician treated and released it, and subsequently received regular gifts of fish.Kansai region
Shiga Prefecture
In the Kansō jigo, its entry on the kappa lore of Ōmi Province records that the creature was known colloquially as kawara. Large number of this creature supposedly inhabited the Lake Biwa system, hunting or abducting people, or even visiting people's homes at night and calling out to the residents. Charms for avoiding their harassment included propping up hemp stalks, and wearing sasage on your person.Chūbu region
Fukui Prefecture
In what was Wakasa Province, at Sata in Mihama town in Mikata District, Fukui, comes a story that an ancestor leading a cow/ox at a beach called Oda-hama, when the beast appeared to be pulled away by something. Reciting the sutra caused a kappa to appear, and it confessed that it was obliged to make an offering of shirikodama of human or beast at the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, but as he had none he was resorting to theft. Begging to be spared its life, it promised to surrender a written promise never to harm man or beast at this beach again. The next day, the writ of promise arrived, and gifts of fish kept arriving for some days, until someone left a fish hanging on an antler used as hook, and the gifts ceased to arrive.Kanto region
Ibaraki Prefecture
The vicinity of is rich with kappa lore. A story tells of a mischievous kappa that was captured and tied to a pine, but after mending its ways and earning its release promised to offer protection from water disasters. The commonplace tale of the kappa who was reunited with his severed hand giving out the secret recipe of the is found here also. A physician named Maki Ryōhon from Ōmiya or Kamiiwase in Naka District, Ibaraki found what looked like some fingers or toes, and reunited these with the kappa, from which the family learned the recipe for the "Iwase panacea balm".A capture of the creature was claimed to have happened during the Edo Period in Mito Bay in the year Kyōwa 1/1801. The report of it together with the painting of a turtle-like kappa can be found in 's Zen'an zuihitsu, and it also shows a lateral pose of it crawling on all fours. According to the text, its anatomical structure was such that the head could retract about 80% of the way inside the carapace, and it seemed boneless. It had three anuses, allegedly, and its flatulence sounded like.
Tokyo
The kappa has been venerated at the Sōgen-ji temple at Asakusa, Tokyo since the Bunka era, when the temple's legendary records say the creature helped with the drainage of marshes and land reclamation in the surrounding marshland that was unfit for habitation. The temple also houses a mummified hand of an alleged kappa. The origin tale around Kappabashi also speaks of kappas involvement in the building of the bridge. The historical fact that was the germ behind this legend was that a philanthropist named Kappaya Kihachi contributed to the water management effort and was interred at the Kappa-dō pavilion of this temple.Parallels
Similar folklore can be found in Asia and Europe. In Chinese and in Scandinavian lore, there is a comparable river monster that, like the kappa, likes to draw horses into water, or demands horse as sacrifice. The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue quotes Wu Zixu recounting a man named Jiao Qiusu losing his horse to such a river spirit.The Slavic waterman, which demands horses as sacrifice has also been compared to the kappa. In the folklore of the Western Slavic Wends, the nix "draws cows into the water each day at midday".
Origins
An oft-cited hypothesis attributed to Kunio Yanagita is that the kappa is a debased end-product of what used to be a venerated water deity.Using this hypothesis as a linchpin, Eiichirō Ishida's sought to establish that the kappas horse-tugging nature had its roots in some sort of cattle or horse sacrifice ritual to the water deities. But as attestation of such was wanting in Japan, he expanded his search to the Eurasian continent. Noting that in China there was an ancient practice of submerging cattle or horse as offering to the "Lord of Rivers", Ishida conjectured that kappa may be traced back to an importation of lore from China.
Regardless of whether the Japanese veneration of the water deity owes its origin to China, there are enshrinements, festivals, or rituals associated with the kappa''suijin in various places in Japan
If the primordial kappa was a Shinto deity, it would fit well with the model that the Yama-no-Kami can turn into a river god by shifting his spot of residence, as local kappa are purported to exhibit this mountain-to-river seasonal migration behavior, as already discussed in.
It has also been speculated that the hitogata employed as yorishiro may have influenced the iconography of the kappa.
It is also considered possible that kappa may have originated from a or a scarecrow, which squares with the kappas attributed notion that pulling its right arm shrinks its left.
And according to the local lore of Tōno, Iwate, the redness of the kappa'' of this northerly region is ascribable to the creature being a metaphor of economically induced infanticide.
Bowl or hat origins of dish
Regarding the head dish, folklorist Shinobu Orikuchi's monograph Kappa no hanashi delves into the possibility that the kappas head-dish may have its origins in the Ta-no-Kami wearing a conical kasa type hat. Scholar extrapolated that if the head covering was the god's umbrella-hat, then the kappas shell must also represent the otherworldly god's mino-type straw cape.Orikuchi's exposition in attempting to argue this point, which is rather a train of thought, is as follows: He first makes comparison with the kappas head-dish and the folklore about "bowl-lending", where leaving a note at a certain river-pool or mound causes the necessary number of bowls to be produced on a loan, and since the pool or mound in question is often said to be connected to the Ryūgū, this must be water deity related lore. A motif within the bowl-lending is that the correct number must be returned, or the blessing will ceased to be given. Orikuchi relates this to dish-counting in children's songs, and the episode of a woman's voice counting of dishes at the well in the famous Sarayashiki ghost story. Orikuchi relates this well with the tradition of steeping virgins in mud to propitiate a bountiful rice harvest, which some have believed must have once been human sacrifice rituals, but Orikuchi believed rather to have been a ritual of giving away a woman as bride to the water deity, possibly to be some sort of shrine servant.
Orikuchi also brings up the example of the Hachikazuki which is part of the Otogi-zōshi repertoire, opining that such a bowl when expanded into a wider-brimmed hat, can conceivably be like the water deities kasa-hat, or so summarized by Takahashi, as above. Takahashi in another piece of writing writes that if one were to pose the question 'What is the kappas head-dish?' the answer must lie with the or "Pot-Wearing/Crowning Festival" of Maibara, Shiga, and with the "bowl-lending pool" folklore.
Elsewhere, sociologist Muriel Jolivet has suggested that since the kappa may be connected to population-control infanticide, the water-retaining depression on its head may have been inspired by the soft fontanelle spot on a newborn's head.
Wildcat type as migratory legend
Kyōgoku and observes some kappa fall into the wildcat-type category. They note that in the lore of Tsushima Island kappa is known either as kawatora or which do not have the looks of the local Tsushima leopard cat, but shares the wildcat's behavior. The authors also note that in the Korean language "river tiger" would sound just like kaōra.Conflation with ''kasha''
Kyōgoku and Tada's older collaboration also discusses the "kasha type", where they discuss the possible conflation between the kasha, which was a dead body-snatching cat-type yōkai, and therefore comparable to some types of kappa. The comparison is already made by Orikuchi, who cited Minakata Kumagusu's observation even earlier, that Wakayama Prefecture's local alias for kappa, the kashanbo, probably derives from some sort of association with the kasha yōkai.''Suiko'' as Chinese name
During the Edo period in Japan, numerous treatises appeared which referred to the kappa as, a mythical semi-aquatic called shuihu by the Chinese in their older natural history literature. Equating these creatures effectively means they are seen as having a common origin, though there have been notable dissenting opinions on this.An early example is the physician 's, which glossed the water-tiger as kawatarō.
Dissident opinion was given in the encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue which decided the two creatures were different and discussed the Japanese kawatarō and the Chinese suiko/''shuihu as separate entries. However the that appeared only a few years after came to the conclusion that the Chinese suiko and the Japanese kappa were one and the same, even though like the Wakan sansai zue it was built largely on the work of the Chinese pharmacopeia, Bencao gangmu.
There is a whole family of illustrated treatise on the kappa that bears the name suiko in their titles, which drew from early versions and built on them. They bear such titles as,,, and the single-sheet print. Their chronology and content will be discussed below under.
In another example, 's, gives the headline as "Talk on the Ōmi Province suiko, Talk on the Hizen Province suiko" but the word suiko is not actually used in the underlying passages. In the Ōmi Province anecdote, the lake monster's name is kawara, and in the Hizen Province episode from Kyūshū, the creature is kawatarō. Yet another example is the antiquary Yamazaki Yoshishige's
As aforementioned, suiko remains in colloquial usage as an alias of kappa in certain areas of the Tōhoku region and Kyūshū.
The kappa has also been equated with another mythical amphibian from Chinese literature, called the, mentioned in such works as the . In Naomi Ryū's Kō yamato honzō, equates this suiin with the Japanese kawaro or gawatarō, while further down also equates the suiin'' with the water tiger.
Mummies
Purported mummies and bones of kappa as yōkai relics are held by various possessors.Writer Naoki Yamaguchi knows of three whole-bodied mummies purported to be owned in Japan, and which still exist: one is the mummy passed down the family of the Matsuuraichi sake brewery in Imari, Saga. Another piece was obtained by a misemono traveling show that operated around the Tokyo area, another held by temple in Osaka. Besides these, Myōden-ji temple in Mashiko possesses an alleged kappa mummy.
The reclining kappa mummy owned by the Tajiri family of the Matsuuraichi brewery in Imari has been examined by a primatologist who counted 16 thoracic vertebrae, which didn't match humans or apes, so even supposing this was made from mammalian skeleton, it would be difficult to pin down what animal.
The traveling show mummy was considered prime exhibit material by a previous impresario who handed it down to the present owner. The attached story was that the kappa haunted around what has now become developed as Ayameike Station in Nara, Nara city. It allegedly was caught by villagers after assaulting horses and children, bound by the hands and feet and left to dry in the sun, and thus mummified. The local temple housed it, the story goes, but the temple became derelict, and the item was stolen and trafficked after World War II. There is some wear and tear since it was used in exhibit for 60 years, and currently kept out of public viewing for conservation purposes.
While there were mermaid mummy and kappa mummy craftsmen during the Edo Period, not much about them is known beyond their existence.
At the Kitano Tenmangū of Kurume, Fukuoka, there is a mummified piece alleged to be the hand of a kahaku. The attached story is that in the year 901 when Sugawara no Michizane was nearly assassinated by Chikugo River, a kappa boss tried to help him and got his hand cut off. According to a variant, Michizane himself cut off the hand from the kappa that tried to drag Michizane's horse.
In popular culture
The kappa is a popular creature of the Japanese folk imagination; its manifestations cut across genre lines, appearing in folk religion, beliefs, legends, folktales and folk metaphors.Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's 1927 novella Kappa centers on a man who got lost and ended up in the land of the kappa near Mount Hotakadake. The story heavily focuses on the subject of suicide and Akutagawa killed himself the year the work was published.
The 1950s cartoon series such as Kappa tengoku by Kon Shimizu was already discussed above.
In Japan, the character Sagojō is conventionally depicted as a kappa, he being a comrade of the magic monkey Son Gokū in the Chinese story Journey to the West.
Kappas are a recurring image in David Peace's 2018 novel Patient X, itself about the life and work of Akutagawa.
Nitori Kawashiro, a character of the Touhou Project is a Kappa.
Kappa also feature in the Harry Potter series, and are mentioned in the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Public installations
Mizuki Shgeru Road
The in Sakaiminato, Tottori is lined with bronzes of yōkai after the character designs of manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, including the kappa.Gatarō of Fukusaki
The township of Fukusaki, Hyōgo (birthplace of folklorist Yanagita Kunio has installed a number of yōkai statures or figures all over town. including several kappa. Drawing from Yangita's writings, the town has developed as mascot two fictional brothers named Kawatarō and Kawajirō. The Kawajirō is installed both near the station and submerged in the pond at Tsujikawayama Park alongside two baby kappa, and they emerge out of water periodically. The figures were designed by who was a staff at the town's Regional Promotional Division.Iconic uses
Even today, warning signs about the kappa appearing near bodies of water are seen in some Japanese towns and villages. However, such signs often merely serve as scary warnings to dissuade young children from playing too close to rivers, ponds, etc.Commercial advertising
Major sake brewery 's mascot has been the kappa and its family, the first version undertaken by Kon Shimizu, and the second version taken over by Kō Kojima, which were viewed widely as TV commercials from around 1955.Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's DC Card uses the DC Card Kappa, a cuddly cartoon character, as mascot.
Anime and games
- In the anime show Inuyasha, a kappa, Sha Gojyo's descendant said to be a descendant of the legendary character from Journey of the West and together with Son Gokū's descendant, the servant of Chokyūkai to find a bride.
- Kagome's grandfather gave her an alleged mummified foot of a kappa for her early 15th birthday, but she does not accept and gives to Buyo.
- In episode 4 of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, Grandpa Higurashi gifted to his great-granddaughter, Moroha, a mummified kappa's foot as a gift, which she accepts and keeps.
- In the Touhou Project video game Mountain of Faith, the stage 3 boss is a kappa named Nitori Kawashiro.
- * Kappas appear several times in official manga works of the Touhou Project. They are depicted as technologically advanced inventors.
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the titular Turtles accidentally activate the Time Scepter, a mystical artifact, and end up travelling back in time, to Japan of the Edo period. As a running gag, some of the villagers who interact with them feel frightened by their appearance and refer to them as the legendary "kappa" throughout the film. Notably, the Turtles quickly befriend children in the village, and Leonardo demonstrates for them the modern medical technique of CPR to save a boy's life.
Eponymy
A cucumber-filled makizushi is known as a kappamaki.It is said that the company president of Calbee liked kappa, so he wanted the name "Kappa" to be included in one of his products. That brought about Kappa Ebisen, a popular shrimp-flavored snack in Japan.
The kappa tick is a native Japanese arachnid which occurs in the southern Ryukyu Islands and was named due to its association with reptilian hosts, particularly turtles.