Shuihu
A labels=no, is a legendary creature said to have inhabited river systems in what is now Hubei Province, China.
Overview
The name shuihu derives from the creature possessing physical characteristics reminiscent of a tiger.The water tiger is described as similar to a 3 or 4-year old human child, with tiger-like head and lower limb, and covered with tough scales resisting arrows. It basks on sandbars, while keeping their claws submerged in water. If a human tries to tamper with he may be killed.
Japanese books during the Tokugawa Period read the Chinese text rather differently. Wakan Sansai Zue, an influential encyclopedia of the early 18th-century, gave a considerably divergent reading and stated that the suiko possessed kneecaps like tiger-claws. This odd feature was replicated in its woodcut illustration, and propagated in Toriyama Sekien's drawing of the suiko in his yōkai anthology.
Though the Wakan Sansai Zue considered the shuihu / suiko to be a creature similar to, but distinguished from the kawatarō in native folklore, even though Wakan Sansai Zue had distinguished these as two separate beings.
General description
The shuihu or shui hu is described as being "about the size of a three- or four-year old child", with a head like a tiger's, and a shell like that of the pangolin. Their knees, which are also tiger-like, may be visible above water, but their claws always remain submerged, despite their habit of lying on sandy riverbanks and basking in the sun in autumn.Information about the Suiko became widely known through its inclusion in the Ming Dynasty pharmacopoeia, the Bencao gangmu. The description quotes the original source . A similar description can be found in the 6th-century Commentary [on the Water Classic] as quoted in the 17th century Ming Period dictionary,, where it is stated that the shuihu is also known as or ; however, the form may be unique to the Tongya.
Alternative reading
The description of the suiko in the Bencao Gangmu has been interpreted quite differently in Japan. In the past, a dissident reading was given for the passage in the Chinese source Bencao Gangmu, particularly among Japanese sources. The Osaka physician, in his Wakan Sansai Zue, interpreted the text to read "its knee-cap resembles that of a tiger's forepaw claws", and this reading has persisted in Japanese literature on the suiko into the present-day.The accompanying woodcut in the Wakan Sansai Zue illustrated this as well. The artist Toriyama Sekien, who consulted Terashima's encyclopedia, also drew the creature with the claws on the knees, with the caption: "..its kneecaps are sharp like tiger claws".
Geography
According to the quote from the, the shuihu inhabits the confluence where the river Shu meets the river Mian in, in today's Xiangzhou District, Hubei Province.Pharmacological use
The original text found in the Bencao Gangmu states that, if the shuihu is caught alive, then the harvested nose can be "used for some trifles". The part of the anatomy in question is not referred to as the nose but as the in the Tongya text, further explained to be the [yin and yang|] or the "force" of the beast. In reference to the shuihu, the harvest of this body part has been glossed as "castration", namely, the removal of its genitals, as one newspaper has more bluntly put it. It is also stated that the part can be applied as an aphrodisiac.Trifle use
The term , which has been literally rendered as "used for some trifles" in translation, actually refers to some aspect of sexuality or reproduction, according to sources. More specifically, this term is glossed as a synonym of in the Zhengzitong dictionary, among other sources, and one instance of the usage of "small avenue" occurs in a poem in the Han shi waizhuan, where it is sung that the male's "small avenue" reaches sexual maturity at age 16, and the female's at age 14.Taming
There are alternative interpretations, where instead of pharmacological use, the live specimen becomes a tamed or trained beast with the removal or manipulation of the body part.One interpretation of the statement is that, when the genitals are removed from the beast, it becomes tame or docile, much like the spaying or neutering of dogs and cats. The Wakan Sansai Zue interpreted this passage of Chinese text to mean that if a person pinches the nose, the beast turns into a servant.
Suiko in Japan
The Japanese interpretation of the suiko according to their reading of the Chinese pharmacopeia was already discussed above.Distinguished from ''kappa''
in his 18th century Wakan Sansai Zue stated that the suiko was similar to the kawatarō, but differing from it. Thus thus Ryōan demarcated the suiko and kawatarō entries as separate.The artist Sekien, who followed after this encyclopedia, also illustrated the two creatures separately.
Earlier, Kaibara Ekken in his had distinguished the kappa/kawatarō and the suiko as "mutually similar but not the same", and the Wakan Sansai Zue followed that path.
An awareness of the differences is also demonstrated by Ono Ranzan in his Honzō Kōmoku Keimō. Ranzan primarily describes the Japanese kappa in the main text, while relegating quoted information about the Chinese Suiko to footnotes.
As synonym for ''kappa''
But in Japan, the word suiko was frequently also used as synonym for kappa. even though it is far from clear if the shuihu of China and the kappa of Japan can be regarded as sharing a common origin.Examples of synonymous treatment can be found in the physician 's or Yamazaki Yoshinari's.
A number of literature on the kappa bearing suiko in the title also appeared that included paintings of allegedly captured kappa such as:
- .
- .
This usage can even be found in the folklore collected in the modern day from various regions, including Tōhoku and Kyushu. The Suijin worship known as ) found in Aomori Prefecture is another example of the term's repurposed usage.
In parts of Aomori Prefecture, the kappa have been deified and enshrined by the name of suiko-sama.