Kappa (folklore)

File:Kyoka Hyaku-Monogatari Kappa.jpg

A kappa in ukiyo-e art.

—Kyōka Hyaku Monogatari (1853).

In Japanese folklore the is a familiar type of water monster, considered one of three major yōkaiTemplate:Refn

Kappa are said to be inhabiting the ponds and rivers of Japan.Template:Sfnp It is also known by various local names, including .Template:Sfnp

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 (captured, having its arm severed, etc.), and in exchange of forgiveness, gratefully performed labor, or revealed a secret medicinal recipe (Template:Interlanguage link).Template:Sfnp

Accounts typically depict them as green, slimy (or scaly), 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,Template:Refn 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.Template:Sfnp They are often accused of assaulting humans in water and removing a mythical organ called the (Template:Lit "buttocks-wee-ball") from their victim's anus.Template:Sfnp

Nomenclature

File:MET 10 211 1857 O1 sf.jpg

Netsuke of a kappa

The name kappa is a contraction of the compound from kawa "river" and "child, boy", or of , from (=, "child").Template:Refn 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 eastTemplate:Refn and known rather as in the west (Kyūshū and Kansai regionTemplate:R) from 18th century literature.Template:SfnpTemplate:RefnTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn

The kappa are also known regionally by at least eighty other names. Among older literature, the Template:Interlanguage link (1775) lists several local names such as Template:Transl in Etchū Province (Toyama Prefecture).Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp Ono Ranzan's Honzōkōmoku keimō(1803) also listed about 20 local names.Template:Sfnp

Alternate names close to the standard include:Template:Efn Template:Refn or ; (Kyūshū , Niigata incl. Sado Island); (cf. infra.); kawatarō; ; (Yamanashi); Template:Interlanguage link (Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima incl. Tanegashima);Template:SfnpTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn Template:Transl (Fukui, SW Hyōgo, Kagawa); (Shimane); (Template:Interlanguage link quarters in the city of Ise, Mie); (Template:Interlanguage link quarters in Suzuka, Mie); (Kyūshū, Kansai region, Sado IslandTemplate:Refn); Template:Transl (Fukuoka).

The form occurs widely in the Chūgoku region and perimeter of the Seto Inland Sea (e.g., Kasaoka, Okayama), but it is often heard pronounced as .Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn The form kawako has also been used in Izumo Province (Shimane Prefecture) and recorded by Lafcadio Hearn who was based in that area.

The form Template:Transl used in Fukusaki according to Kunio Yanagita's memory from his birthplace (cf. Template:Section link). He also heard from an acquaintance that the local name was Template:Transl in Akashi not far from hometown, and spent a lifetime trying to corroborate it, but to no avail.

In Tosa Province (Kōchi Prefecture), it has been called gatarō, Template:Transl,Template:EfnTemplate:Refn or Template:Transl.

The alternate name Template:Refn is localized around Kurume, Fukuoka.Template:Sfnp

The kappa was also known by simian-sounding names such as Template:Transl (Kōchi, Ehime, SE Yamaguchi PrefectureTemplate:Efn) or var. Template:Transl (Matsuyama, Ehime with either of these forms found also in (Shimane, Tottori, and W YamaguchiTemplate:Efn),Template:Sfnp 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 Template:Transl with widespread examples from Tōhoku region to Kyūshū. In the local water deity worship found in Aomori Prefecture, the Template:Interlanguage link or "Exalted Water Tiger" is the deified form of the kappa. In the Tsugaru dialect, the pronunciation of this deity is corrupted to Template:Transl. During the Edo Period, it was commonplace to use suiko (literally "water tiger", a semi-aquatic mythical creature in Chinese lore) as a stilted sinitic translation for kappa (cf. Template:Section link below).

In Ehime Prefecture, the kappa is sometimes called (var. ), which is usually the term for 'otter'.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp It is also called kawauso as well as kawako in a version of the tale from Shimane Prefecture.Template:Sfnp

In some areas, the kappa is called by the same name as the soft-shell turtle (which in standard Japanese is called Template:Transl), namely: Template:Transl (Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukuoka);Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Template:Transl (Gifu,Template:Sfnp Hokuriku regionTemplate:Sfnp); Template:TranslTemplate:Sfnp (Okayama).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Thus in these places, the terrapin-based names are a giveaway that the kappa is locally considered to be very turtle-like.Template:Sfnp

The terms Template:Transl, game, and Template:Transl (var. Template:Transl) are used interchangeably in the area of Gifu, Toyama, and Ishikawa Prefectures.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp This dochirobe (etc.) is reputedly a red-bellied creature with lush flowing tail,Template:Sfnp but when it attains 1000 years of age transforms into a full-fledged kappa,Template:Sfnp known locally as Template:Transl,Template:Efn 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.Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp In Gifu Prefecture, their Template:Transl (genuine kappa) is distinguished from the dochi which is considered an almost-kappa.Template:Sfnp Another variant name of this group is the aforementioned dochigame (Cf. also Template:Transl under Template:Section link).

The kappa is also called Template:Transl, meaning "steed-puller", attested locally around the Matsumae region, from the kappaTemplate:'s 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 (and Saga Prefecture further north), as well as the Template:Interlanguage link of northern Tōhoku region.Template:Sfnp The name Template:Transl and variants (Template:Transl) are grouped together as names derving from mizuchi, a mythical water-serpent or dragon.Template:Refn Of these, the subtype dochi (Gifu Prefecture, etc.、Template:SfnRef) was already discussed above.

There are also the Wakayama Prefecture version called Template:Interlanguage link and the Ibaraki Prefecture version Template:Interlanguage link.Template:Refn

A Template:Interlanguage link 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 (Cf. Template:Section link). The Template:Interlanguage link (Template:Transl) of the Amami IslandsTemplate:Sfnp also exhibits this wintering behavior, and in the illustrated commentary of the creature in the Template:Interlanguage link, it is equated to the Template:Transl and Template:Transl ("mountain boy").Template:EfnTemplate:Refn

In Shimominochi District, Nagano, the local version of kappa is called Template:Transl or Template:Transl which is apparently a corruption of Template:Transl ("water deity").Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Appearance and traits

File:8.Kappa.jpg

Kappa (かはつは) from Bakemono no e (, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

File:Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿の春画 no.944.jpg

Two scaly-skinned kappa violate an ama diver　underwater as her companion looks on from above.

—Unsigned shunga erotic art "Abalone divers (Template:Transl)" (1788) of the Utamakura series, attrib. to Utamaro, pub. Tsutaya Jūzaburō

The currently popularized image of the kappa describes it as roughly humanoid in form and about the size of a child.Template:Refn

They are typically greenish in colorTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp (or yellow-blue/yellow-greenTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Refn or even red in some locales (Tōno, IwateTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp).

They often have a pointedTemplate:Sfnp or beaked mouth.Template:Sfnp They are also usually equipped with webbed hands and feet, and bears a turtle-like carapace on their back.Template:Sfnp

Head dish

They have an indentation (so-called "dish" or "saucer") atop their head to retain waterTemplate:RefnTemplate:Sfnp even when they venture on land, and when the water is full, they exhibit mighty strength (at sumo wrestling, etc.),Template:Refn but if the water spills, the kappa is weakened, or it may even die.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

Sliminess and odor

Kappa are said to be slick or slimy,Template:Sfnp (though possibly scalyTemplate:Refn) and smell gamy or fishy.Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

Their gaminess is referred to in Template:Interlanguage link (pub. 1709), 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 Template:Interlanguage link dictionary (1778–1887).Template:Sfnp Template:Refn

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.Template:Refn

It has been conjectured that this is an introduced piece of lore taken from fabulous Chinese descriptions concerning the gibbon.Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

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 (yamawaro) becoming the river-dwelling kappa, called either Template:Transl or Template:Transl depending on zone (as discussed further under Template:Section link).

Behavior

File:Takagi Toranosuke capturing a kappa underwater in the Tamura river.jpg

Capturing a kappa alive. Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Kappa are regarded as dwelling in some body of water, a river, pond, swamp, pool,Template:Sfnp sometimes even salt water.Template:RefnTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn

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 , 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 (1709),Template:Refn since gradually over the Edo Period, a more comical image of the kappa had developed.Template:SfnpTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn According to these older writings, humans who survived the kappa could still sustain some sort of a mental aftereffect like stupor or insanity.Template:RefnTemplate:Refn

Much of the known modern folklore concerning the kappa involves them bungling in their mischief and being punished,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp e.g., attempting a Template:Section link or stroking the backside of someone in the toilet, and getting its hand chopped off,Template:Sfnp or being captured. In return for forgiveness, they typically disclosed the recipe to the Template:Interlanguage link,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp or make apologetic vows of good behavior,Template:Sfnp submit a letter of apology (written oath),Template:Sfnp bring gifts of fish, or help out with work in the fields (Template:Section link), etc. (See further under Template:Section link below).

Although the cliché is for the kappa to beg the return of its lost hand,Template:Sfnp 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 (cf. Template:Section link).Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

Grateful kappa

Once befriended, kappa may perform any number of tasks for human beings.

Medicine

Typically the kappa has its arm sliced off (by a samurai, etc.) and delivers up a wonder medicine to treat sword injuries.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp It may be some other treatment, e.g. for Template:Illm (debility, etc. after stroke) (Ina, Nagano), or for Template:Illm (baby colic).

Tales about obtaining secret medicine from the kappa is ubiquitous throughout Japan.Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

File:Sayo District Kappa.jpg

The kappa who bleeding from its arm-stump. Seiban Kaidan (1754)

There are old families purporting to have the secret medicine or its recipe learned from a kappa by an ancestor throughout the country,Template:Sfnp e.g., the family of Template:Illm town, Anan, Tokushima.Template:Refn Or tell of bone-setting techniques,Template:Sfnp or other treatment methods learned from the kappa.Template:Sfnp

An old example is found in '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 (wrong arm shown severed in illustration,Template:Sfnp cf. fig. right), 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.Template:Sfnp

Other regional examples are found from Template:Section linkTemplate:Refn or Template:Section link.Template:Refn

Writ of Apology

A captured kappa barters his release by offering a solemn pledge to never cause harm again (to the livestock, etc.), in folk legends all over Japan.Template:Sfnp Typically the creature will submit a letter or writ of apologyTemplate:Sfnp (a Template:Illm or written oath) and a number of such alleged documents as relics are preserved by old families and temples throughout Japan.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

The kappa may also ensure water safety, i.e., protection from drownings (e.g. Template:Section link)Template:Refn Template:Section link.Template:Refn

Fish

The grateful creature may also bring back gifts of fish, often on top of the pledge of good behavior.Template:Sfnp

Template:Section link 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 (kappa also hates antlers) in the Template:Section link exampleTemplate:Refn as well as the tale attached to the Template:Illm in the Wakamiya Shrine of Akehama, Ehime (now part of Seiyo city).

Further examples are from Template:Section link.Template:Refn Gifu Prefecture, Hida Region.Template:Refn

Needless to say it is reputedly highly skilled at catching fish.Template:SfnpTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn

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. Template:Section link.

There is also a tale of the Template:Transl ("becoming bridegroom") theme (Ikeda-Aarne-Thompson motif 312B), 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 Template:Section link.

Sumo-wrestling

File:Print (BM 2008,3037.21220).jpg

Template:Interlanguage link and kappa

―Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Honchō kendō ryakuden: Keyamura Rokusuke(1843–1847). Held by British Museum.

The kappa is especially known for its love of sumo-wrestling.Template:Refn

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.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Refn

Cucumber

Folk beliefs claim the cucumber as their traditional favorite meal.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp At festivals, offerings of cucumber are frequently made to the kappa.Template:Sfnp Sometimes the kappa is said to have other favorite foods, such as eggplant, soba (buckwheat noodles), adzuki bean, or kabocha (Japanese pumpkin). Already in the Wakan sansai zue (1712) it is stated that kawatarō "steals squashes, eggplants, and cereals from the fields",Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp while the Honzō kōmoku shakugi records its favorite foods as cucumberTemplate:Efn and Template:Illm (variety of persimmon).

During the observance of Obon, the [[Obon#Shōryō Uma and Ushi Uma|Template:Transl]] ("spirit horse") and "spirit cattle" crafted from cucumbers and eggplants are placed on altars for appeasing ancestral spirits. In most places (outside of Kantō Region) these vegetable effigies end up being sent afloat on the river or at sea.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

The origin of cucumber preference according to one explanation is that the kappa is a debased form of the water god,Template:Refn and the first harvest of the cucumber was always considered an indispensable offering to the water god.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

Shirikodama

File:Masayoshi(1788)-Yōkai chakutōchō-fol04a-kawataro.jpg

"Kawatarō extracts the shirikodama"

—Illustrated by Template:Interlanguage link, Bakemonno chakutōchō(1788)

The image of the kappa extracting the is a standard motif also.Template:Refn This shirikodama is a fictive organ, though the folklore claims that a person bereft of it becomes Template:Transl (Template:Lit. "organ-less", meaning stupefied or utterly unmotivated)Template:Sfnp and the person may even die.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

It is also said the kappa eats this shirikodama, being its favorite food alongside cucumbers.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

The depicts the scene of "Kawatarō extracts the shirikodama"Template:Efn (Fig. right),Template:Sfnp 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 (Volume 12,), there is an image of "The method of fishing a kappa",Template:Efn 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.Template:Sfnp A similar observation has been made by Minakata Kumagusu.Template:Refn

Horse-pulling

Template:Template other One characteristic is their habit of trying to pull or drag horses and cattle into water.Template:Sfnp The tale from Nishikawatsu, (Template:Section link) was given in an abridged version as a tale from "Kawachi" village in Izumo Province by Lafcadio Hearn (1894).

Legend or folktale exhibiting this motif is ubiquitous and found from the Tōhoku region (Iwashiro Province, Rikuchū Province), Kantō region (Hitachi Province, Musashi Province, Sagami Province), Chūbu region (Echigo Province, Suruga Province, Mikawa Province, Kai Province, Shinano Province, Hida Province, Mino Province, Noto Province）, in Yamashiro Province (Kyoto), Harima Province (Hyōgo Prefecture), Chūbu region (Izumo, Nagato Province), Shikoku (Awa Province, Tosa Province), Hizen Province (Saga and Nagasaki prefectures), etc.Template:Sfnp

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 Template:Section link not to misbehave.Template:Sfnp

Already the Wakan sansai zue (1712) 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.Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp

Weaknesses

The kappa reputedly abhors iron and deer antler. The Template:Illm (compiled from Edo to Meiji) writes that it hates deer antlers and cowpea (sasage). And if bladed weapons do not cut them, hemp stalks can pierce them, as aforementioned.Template:Sfnp The hemp stalk leaned against the door is effective at keeping the kappa away from visiting homes, according to the lore of Template:Section link.

The apes being their mortal enemies was also mentioned above.Template:Sfnp

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" (sara) 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.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp Their river-dwelling forms are referred to as Template:Transl or Template:Transl.Template:Sfnp

The name Template:Interlanguage link is used in the Ōita, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, and Nagasaki prefectures,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp and seko (var. sekoko) supposedly derives from the notion they shout out loud like Template:Interlanguage link, or men who make loud noises to scare the game during the hunt.Template:Sfnp In some parts of Kyūshū the kappa is called Template:Transl, 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 Template:Interlanguage link, according to the lore around Kumamoto Prefecture.Template:Sfnp

In Yoshino District, Nara, it is said that the Template:Transl enters the mountains to become Template:Transl.Template:Sfnp In Wakayama, they become Template:Interlanguage link.Template:Refn

Iconography

Broad classification

The 1820 work Suiko kōryaku, etc., (explained further below) 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 Template:Interlanguage link (2008), 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" (scaly), "Terrapin or turtle type".Template:Refn

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 (Template:Section link). It tended to have hair in the Template:Transl style, i.e., long and loosely hanging around the head.Template:Refn

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.Template:Refn

The progress of how the furry type became supplanted by the smooth turtle-type shall be discussed below under Template:Section link, as well as the introduction of frog-like aspects stressed by scholar Ozawa Hana.Template:Sfnp

Chronology

File:Kappa-Wakan-Sansaizue-cropped.jpg

Kawatarō (aka kappa) from Wakan sansai zue (pub. 1712)

File:WUL-he13 01452 根南志具佐 5-fol04r-kappa.jpg

A standing kappa, from Hiraga Gennai's Nenashi-gusa, Book 5, (pub. Hōreki 13/1763)

The image of the kappa before the 18th century appears to have favored the ape-typeTemplate:Sfnp (furry, mammalian type), and non-herp types.Template:Sfnp For instance in the Kagakushū ("Collection of Low/Mundane Studies", prefaced 1444, with later copies), it is claimed that the otter grown old becomes a Template:Transl (kappa),Template:Sfnp and in the Nippo Jisho (Japanese-Portuguese dictionary by the Jesuits, 1603) the entry for defines it as an ape-like creature.Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp

The Wakan sansai zue (1712) carried a woodcut of the Template:Transl depicted as a furry, apelike creature (cf. fig. left).Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp 's , the sumo-wrestling kappa appears ape-like.Template:Sfnp

In the , the kappa (here referred to as ), which had its arm sliced off, is depicted in the so-called ape type style, its entire body covered with hair (cf. fig in Template:Section link).Template:Sfnp There depression and the dish-like element on its head have already appeared in the artwork by this time.Template:Sfnp

File:Kappa jap myth.jpg

Kappa.—From Gazu Hyakki Yagyō ("The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons") by Toriyama Sekien

The forgoing examples were written in western regions (Nagasaki,Template:Efn Osaka,Template:Efn etc.). However, the ape (Japanese macaque) was relatively unfamiliar to the people of Edo which had few forested mountains,Template:Sfnp and the image of a more turtle-like or frog-like kappa began to be favored, starting in the mid-18th century.Template:Sfnp

An early (c. 1763) example of this (turtle or froglike) depictionTemplate:Sfnp illustrations depicting the kappa as described by informants.}} and from copies made, these were all of the hairy ape-type (as explained below).

When afterwards Template:Interlanguage link ed. appeared,Template:RefnTemplate:Refn it offered a collection of 12 kappa anecdotes, of which 6 were a rehash from the Hita Domain report, so that the 6 accompanying illustrations have been judged to be facsimile copies of the original color-painted drawings. These 6 are all kappa of the ape-type (covered with fur), with a dish on its head, somewhat like a tonsure, but with untidy strands of hair hanging loose on the side.Template:Efn One kappa figure is shown wearing a sumo wrestler's loincloth (mawashi).Template:Sfnp On the page opposite to it, there is a detailed drawing of a webbed foot, so that might count as technically as the 7th drawing copied.Template:Sfnp The other half of the kappa illustrated in Suiko kōryaku are 6 illustrations of the "softshell turtle-type".Template:Sfnp

Another turning point in pictorial representation occurred when naturalist Kurimoto Tanshū (d. 1834) published his depictions of the kappa in his work , which showed the creature with a tapered mouth, probably based on a life drawing from a real softshell turtle.Template:Sfnp Tanshū also authored the (date unknown, a Tenpō 13/1843 copy is extant).

File:Illustrated Guide to 12 Types of Kappa.jpg

Suiko jūnihin no zu illustrating twelve kinds of kappa

The (cf. Fig. right) also contains softshell turtle-like depictions of kappaTemplate:Refn as well as some ape-types. This single-sheet work was authored by Kishū Domain physician and naturalist Template:Interlanguage link and illustrated by his brother Juntaku, also a physician. Being of later vintage, there are some modifications made with additional material, but this is still considered a derivative work descended from the 12-kappa Suiko kōryaku family of codices.Template:Sfnp

File:Hokusai kappa.jpg

A kappa by Katsushika Hokusai

—Hokusai Manga, Volume 3, p. 72

A kappa by Katsushika Hokusai in Hokusai Manga, Volume 3 is posed in a squatting positionTemplate:Refn (cf. Fig. above), depicted with a beak-like mouth and carapace, and may arguably be considered a turtle-type example.Template:Refn There is another depiction of kappa in Hokusai Manga, under Volume 12, which is clearly based on a soft-shell turtle.

A disciple named Template:Interlanguage link also drew Template:Transl depicting a kappa riding a giant cucumber, and it is of the tapered-mouth type. It wears a mino cape around its waist.Template:Refn

File:Kuniyoshi-HonchoKendoRyakuden-Keyamura no Rokusuke(Waseda).jpg

Keyamura no Rokusuke and kappa.

―Utagwa Kuniyoshi, Honchō kendō ryakuden series (c. 18431–1847). Held by Waseda University.

File:YoshitoshiKappaControl.jpg

Counterattacking a kappa with flatulence. By Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

By the mid-19th century, frog-like features started to creep in more on the kappaTemplate:'s image. In Utagawa Toyokuni III's , the kappa has the turtle's shell and rather turtle-like sharp claws, but has a mouth-shape and patterning rather like a frog. And in the contemporaneous series by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, , the album on Template:Interlanguage link features a kappa without even a turtle-shell, furthering its likeness to a frog (cf. fig. left and fig. above).Template:Sfnp

Then a more "comical and affectionate" image of the kappa was formed by ukiyo-e artists.Template:Sfnp A prime example of this was a piece by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi called (Meiji 14/1881, cf. Fig. right), showing two kappa being farted on by a human, and one kappa turning yellow.Template:Sfnp

Later in the modern age, Nihonga artist Template:Interlanguage link (1868-1938) favored the kappa theme and drew many, earning him the moniker Template:Transl. Late in his life he published the collection Kappa hyakuzu (1938),Template:Sfnp developing a vivacious image of the kappa.Template:Sfnp

The humorous kappa given birth in the Edo Period was carried on by later generations.Template:Sfnp In the Shōwa era, manga artist Template:Interlanguage link serialized Kappa kawatarō which ran in Shōgakusei Asahi magazine, 1951–1952, and Template:Interlanguage link that ran in the Shūkan Asahi weekly, 1953–1958,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp through which a cute and comical image of the kappa penetrated to the masses. At the same time Usen's work is seen to have humanized the image of the kappa, as he drew them engaging in a whole array of human activities.Template:Sfnp

Thus, while the turtle-shell persists, the heavily frog-like form has established itself as the standard kappa image.Template:Sfnp

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 (often cucumbers) at shrines to placate the kappa.Template:Sfnp There are places that identify and enshrine the kappa as suijin ("water deity").Template:Sfnp In fact, the kappa may have descended from the worship of such suijin deityTemplate:Sfnp (as already discussed under Template:Section link).

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 remainde r (as already discussed under Template:Section link).

The tendency to identify the kappa as the principal enshrined being at suijin festivals appears more prevalent in Western Japan, while at the 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 , the name of a kappa boss. Kusenbō (whose name means "Nine-thousand fellow") had 9000 underling kappa, and was based in the Kuma and Chikugo River holding dominion over all of Saikaidō (Kyūshū). 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.Template:RefnTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Another legend has it that the gang lost the war over the Tone River against the local gang under neneko.Template:Sfnp

For the Kumamoto Prefecture lore about the kappa descending in hordes after winter cf. also Template:Section link 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 (the historical Template:Illm).

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 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 Template:Illm, while it is said that the Heike who defeated by Ogata Koreyoshi transformed into kahaku river spirits of the Kose RiverTemplate:Efn (accord. ), thus providing rich material for kappa studies.Template:Sfnp

Template:Transl is the document explaining the origins of Template:Transl, commonly called Template:Transl,Template:SfnpTemplate:Efn explains that the ghosts of the dead and fugitives attached to the losing Heike clan turned into kappa (or kahaku), and the music was devised in order to assuage these hapless spirits.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Refn{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Within the origin documents are liturgical texts by such titles as while the place of origin of the music was a (fictiveTemplate:Sfnp) village called in Chikugo.Template:Sfnp

Even though Kappa-gaku is still performed at certain spots within Chikugo (Fukuoka Prefecture), e.g. at the Template:Illm,Template:Efn there are far more places where Kappa-gaku is kept alive in Buzen or Bungo (Eastern Fukuoka and Ōita Prefecture).Template:Sfnp (cf. Template:Section link below).

A water festival is held each year in August at the Suitengū in Kurume. While suitengū is a local name for kappa, used by residents of Chikugo Province according to a 19th century text, it appears that Suitengū came to be regarded as a higher-tiered water deity, with kappa reduced to the god's minion servant.Template:Sfnp According to one tale, a kappa in mortal fear of the Suitengū god came drifting down to Template:Illm,Template:Efn Chanting "Suitengū's Template:Transl ("sworn blessed child of the god")" is supposed to fend against the kappa trying to drag a person into water.Template:Refn

The Takahashi-jinja of Yoshii-machi in Ukiha city (formerly Yoshii town), which is situated by the Kose River, holds an annual kappa sumo tournament in September.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Refn

One legend dating to the time of Chikugo Province, Tenmei 3/1783, at Template:Illm (now in Sawara-ku, Fukuoka), a vassal samurai was getting the fish he caught on his fishing pole stolen. Three teenage sons kept watch and saw what looked like a dark-skinned boy about 7, 8 years of age making off with the fish basket. After spilling its dish water, it was subdued, when the parent appeared and in exchange of the child kappaTemplate:'s release, submitted a written oath that no drownings shall occur along Momochi's shore for the next 80 years, which was entrusted to (extant temple at Fujisaki, Sawara-ku).

Another legend attached to the old place name Template:Illm (now in Chuo-ku, Fukuoka) concerns a sake-drinking kappa. It was drunken and asleep leaning on a pine tree under a moonlit sky. A boatman named Kahei oared out doing some fishing while drinking at the same time, the kappa approached but was refused sharing the sake and got shooed away, so it later stole back and drank all the sake, the kappa was forgiven after offering to bring fish to the man on days of a bad catch. The pine was a known monument by the mouth of the Template:Illm and stood until modern times.

Ōita Prefecture

File:Kappa-caught-hita-kawasaki museum.jpg

A copy of the kappa allegedly captured in Hita,（Template:Interlanguage link

A kappa allegedly caught in Hita, Bungo Province (now Hita, Ōita during the Kan'ei era is depicted as a colored painting held by the Template:Interlanguage link (cf. Fig. right). Another copy dates the event to Kan'ei 3 or year 1626, namely the one made by an Osaka physician in Bunka 2/1805, and given the title , now held by the ) A copy of also exists on the Suiko jūnihin no zu ("Illustration of 12 types"), but the quality of the illustration has been lambasted by Template:Interlanguage link.Template:Refn

At the Kumo Hachimangū shrine in what was formerly Yabakei-machi town (now merged into Nakatsu), the (colloquially called Template:Transl or festival)Template:Sfnp involves music (flute, bell, and drum) 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 Template:Illm at the former Yamakuni-machi town employs the styleTemplate:Sfnp and the in Kusu town employed the (currently discontinued).

As aforementioned, Ōita is more of the epicenter of nowadays, even thought the repertoire is also called as it had originated in Chikugo (Fukuoka Prefecture).Template:Sfnp The Chikugo-gaku yurai ("Derivation of the Chikugo music")Template:Refn admits that the music has its roots in the village called .Template:Sfnp And while not definitive, a source claims the music originated in Jōkyō 3/1686.Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp

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 (where the vixen Kuzunoha leaves a poem as she leaves her family).Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp

From Fukue Island in the southern part of the Gotō Islands chain, is a story about a sumo-loving man breaking off a kappaTemplate:'s 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" (Template:Transl) that required ten men to carry.Template:Refn

Another such stone at a Suijin water deity shrine occurs at the water source of the HongōchiTemplate:Efn quarters of Nagasaki city, and the shrine boasts a Template:Transl or kappa stone. Years past, a Shibue family member serving as head priest welcomed the May festival (lunar Double Fifth)Template:Efn 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 in former Template:Illm village, Kishima District (now part of Takeo city), the Shibue clan (branch of Tachibana 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 (lunar Double Fifth), so it is told, later leading to the custom of (everyone) offering bamboo shoots to the water god.Template:Sfnp (The Shibue family of shrine-keepers, the kappa, and bamboo shoots also appears in the legends of Template:Section link).

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 (now Ishiwara machi in Kumamoto City) has passed on a legend that when one of the village boys was taken by a kappa, the village lord named 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.Template:Sfnp

Local folklore claims that the kappa can only submerge in water for 12 hours, but the ape (Japanese macaque) can stay underwater for 24 hours, and is able to defeat the kappa(former Template:Interlanguage link village, Yatsushiro District, collected in 1952)

Shikoku region

Kōchi Prefecture

A legend written down claims that in the autumnTemplate:Efn Bunsei 3/1820, a strange creature (perhaps enkō or kappa) was trapped in the mullet-catching net in Shimanto RiverTemplate:Efn by Kanematsu TasukeTemplate:Efn of Nabeshima village in Hata District (now in Shimanto city). It measured 2.5 shaku (about ) 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 's (An'ei 9–Ansei 3).Template:Refn

Chūgoku region

Shimane Prefecture

In Izumo Province, the Yakushi temple pavilion in Template:Illm (now in Yatsuka District, Shimane) boasted of holding in its possession a . The (Template:Lit "otter") is a local name for the kappa, which the villagers also called 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.Template:RefnTemplate:Refn Thus if a child chants "Unshū [Izumo Province] Nishikawachi-mura" this is said to fend against drownings in parts of Izumo.

The same story (lacking the details of the levied field chores and the kappaTemplate:'s anus-attacking mischief) was given by Izumo resident Lafcadio Hearn (1894), though the place name "Kawachi" which Hearn gave has been pointed out to be erroneous for Kawatsu.Template:Refn

Tōhoku region

Shrines are dedicated to the worship of kappa as water deity in Aomori Prefecture as Suiko-sama (Osshiko-sama). In Miyagi Prefecture also, at the Template:Illm, etc., the creature is venerated as water god and given venerated names such as or .Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Iwate Prefecture

The best known place where it has been claimed the kappa resides is in the Template:Interlanguage link, a river pool in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture. The pool occurs in the Ashiarai River which flows behind the nearby Template:Interlanguage link temple. In Tōno, the Template:Illm 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

's , illustrated by Hokusai (preface dated Bunka 4/1807), relates the tale that a kappa was captured by villagers near the castle town of Dewa Province (Shōnai Domain), and handed over to the physician 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 Template:Transl (1793–1797), its entry on the kappa lore of Ōmi Province (now Shiga Prefecture) records that the creature was known colloquially as Template:Transl. 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 (or burning) hemp stalks, and wearing Template:Transl (cowpeas) 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 (butt organ) 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.Template:Sfnp

Kanto region

Ibaraki Prefecture

The vicinity of Template:Interlanguage link (in Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki and near Ushiku)Template:Refn 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 Template:Interlanguage linkTemplate:Sfnp is found here also. A physician named from Ōmiya or Kamiiwase in Naka District, IbarakiTemplate:Efn 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" ().

File:Kappa water imp 1836.jpg

The Template:Transl allegedly caught off the eastern shore of the Mito Domain in 1801

—Copied from Koga Tōan's Suiko Kōryaku ( "A brief consideration of kappa", 1820).Template:Sfnp

A capture of the creature was claimed to have happened during the Edo Period in Mito BayTemplate:Refn in the year Kyōwa 1/1801. The report of it together with the painting of a turtle-like kappa can be found in Template:Interlanguage link's Zen'an zuihitsu (pub. 1850), and it also shows a lateral pose of it crawling on all fours (cf. Fig. right). 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 .Template:Sfnp

Tokyo

File:Kappastatues.JPG

Paired male and female kappa statues at the Sogenji Buddhist shrine at the Asakusa district in Tokyo

The kappa has been venerated at the Sōgen-ji temple at Asakusa, Tokyo since the Bunka era (1804–1818), 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 kappaTemplate:'s involvement in the building of the bridge.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

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 Wu Yue Chunqiu ("Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue") quotes Wu ZixuTemplate:Efn recounting a man named Jiao Qiusu losing his horse to such a river spirit.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfnp

The Slavic waterman (vodyanoy of Russia, vodník or hastrmann of Czechia, Wassermann of Bohemian Germans, etc.), which demands horses as sacrifice (though cattle, sheep, etc. is used as well) has also been compared to the kappa.Template:Sfnp In the folklore of the Western Slavic Wends (Sorbs), 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 (suijin).Template:Refn

Using this hypothesis as a linchpin, Eiichirō Ishida's sought to establish that the kappaTemplate:'s 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.Template:Sfnp Noting that in China there was an ancient practice of submerging cattle or horse as offering to the "Lord of Rivers" (Hebo, ), Ishida conjectured that kappa may be traced back to an importation of lore from China.Template:Sfnp

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 (water god) in various places in Japan (as discussed below in Template:Section link) If the primordial kappaTemplate:' was a Shinto deity, it would fit well with the model that the Yama-no-Kami (mountain god) can turn into a river god by shifting his spot of residence, as local kappa (such as hyōsubo) are purported to exhibit this mountain-to-river seasonal migration behavior, as already discussed in Template:Section link.

It has also been speculated that the Template:Transl ("man-shape", cutout paper dolls, etc.) employed as yorishiro (medium for spiritual possession) may have influenced the iconography of the kappa.

It is also considered possible that kappa may have originated from a Template:Interlanguage link or a scarecrow, which squares with the kappas attributed notion that pulling its right arm shrinks its left.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

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 (Template:Transl, Template:Lit "thinning").Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

Bowl or hat origins of dish

Regarding the head dish, folklorist Shinobu Orikuchi's monograph Kappa no hanashi (1930) delves into the possibility that the kappaTemplate:'s head-dish may have its origins in the Ta-no-Kami ("rice paddy deity") wearing a conical kasa type hat. Scholar Template:Interlanguage link (1962) (who was mentored by Orikuchi) extrapolated that if the head covering was the god's umbrella-hat, then the kappaTemplate:'s shell (carapace) 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 kappaTemplate:'s head-dish and the folklore about "bowl-lending" (Template:Interlanguage link-gashi), 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 ("Dragon Palace" of the sea god), this must be water deity related lore.Template:Refn 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 ("Dish mansion") 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.Template:Refn

Orikuchi also brings up the example of the Hachikazuki ("Bowl-bearer princess") 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 (1939) writes that if one were to pose the question 'What is the kappaTemplate:'s head-dish?' the answer must lie with the Template:Interlanguage link or "Pot-Wearing/Crowning Festival" of Maibara, Shiga, and with the "bowl-lending pool" folklore.

Elsewhere, sociologist Muriel Jolivet (2000) 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 Template:Interlanguage link (2000) observes some kappa fall into the wildcat-type category. They note that in the lore of Tsushima Island kappa is known either as Template:Transl ('"river tiger") 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 Template:Transl (possibly Template:Transl[?], McCune–Reischauer: Template:Transl, ).Template:Refn

Conflation with kasha

Kyōgoku and Tada's older collaboration (2000) 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 (which also abducted humans). The comparison is already made by Orikuchi (1930), who cited Minakata Kumagusu's observation even earlier, that Wakayama Prefecture's local alias for kappa, the Template:Transl, probably derives from some sort of association with the kasha yōkai.Template:Refn

Suiko as Chinese name

During the Edo period in Japan, numerous treatises appeared which referred to the kappa as , a mythical semi-aquatic called Template:Transl 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 Template:Interlanguage link's , which glossed the water-tiger as Template:Transl.

Dissident opinion was given in the encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue (pub. 1712) which decided the two creatures were different and discussed the Japanese kawatarō (i.e. kappa) 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,Template:Efn even though like the Wakan sansai zue it was built largely on the work of the Chinese pharmacopeia, Bencao gangmu.Template:Sfnp

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 ,,Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn , and the single-sheet print .Template:RefnTemplate:RefnTemplate:Sfnp Their chronologyTemplate:Refn and content will be discussed below under Template:Section link.

In another example, Template:Interlanguage link's , gives the headline as "Talk on the Ōmi Province suiko, Talk on the Hizen Province suiko"Template:Efn but the word suiko is not actually used in the underlying passages. In the Ōmi Province (Lake Biwa) anecdote, the lake monster's name is Template:Transl,Template:Efn and in the Hizen Province episode from Kyūshū, the creature is Template:Transl. Yet another example is the antiquary Yamazaki Yoshishige's Template:Refn

As aforementioned, suiko remains in colloquial usage as an alias of kappa in certain areas of the Tōhoku region and Kyūshū (e.g., the of Aomori Prefecture).

The kappa has also been equated with another mythical amphibian from Chinese literature, called the , mentioned in such works as the Template:Interlanguage link ("Records of the Dead and the Living"). In 's (pub. Hōreki 9/1759), equates this suiin with the Japanese Template:Transl or Template:Transl, while further down also equates the suiin with the water tiger (suiko).Template:Sfnp

Mummies

Purported mummies and bones of kappa as yōkai relics are held by various possessors.Template:Refn

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 Template:Illm temple in Osaka.Template:Sfnp Besides these, temple in Mashiko possesses an alleged kappa mummy.Template:SfnpTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn

The reclining kappa mummy owned by the family of the Matsuuraichi brewery in ImariTemplate:Sfnp has been examined by a primatologistTemplate:Efn who counted 16 thoracic vertebrae, which didn't match humans or apes (with 12), so even supposing this was made from mammalian skeleton, it would be difficult to pin down what animal.Template:Sfnp

The traveling show mummy was considered prime exhibit material (Template:Transl) by a previous impresario who handed it down to the present owner. The attached story was that the kappa haunted Template:Illm 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.Template:Sfnp

While there were mermaid mummy and kappa mummy craftsmen during the Edo Period, not much about them is known beyond their existence.Template:Refn

At the Kitano TenmangūTemplate:Refn 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 (Sha Wujing) is conventionally depicted as a kappa, he being a comrade of the magic monkey Son Gokū (Sun Wukong) 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.

Public installations

Mizuki Shgeru Road

Template:Template other The Template:Illm 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 Template:Illm who was a staff at the town's Regional Promotional Division.

Iconic uses

File:Kappa Warning Sign Fukuoka 2018-Oct-7.jpg

"DANGER!! Do not swim or play around here." A kappa is depicted as a metaphor of drowning on a sign near a pond in Fukuoka.

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 Template:Interlanguage link'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,Template:Refn which were viewed widely as TV commercials from around 1955.Template:Sfnp

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's DC Card (a credit card) uses the DC Card Kappa, a cuddly cartoon character, as mascot.

Anime and games

• In the anime show Inuyasha, a kappa, Sha Gojyo(Sagojō)'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.

Kappa, and creatures based on them, are recurring characters in Japanese tokusatsu films and television shows. Examples include the kappas in the Daiei/Kadokawa series Yokai Monsters, the 2010 kaiju film Death Kappa,Template:Sfnp and "King Kappa", a kaiju from the 1972 Tsuburaya Productions series Ultraman Ace.

• Summer Days with Coo is a 2007 Japanese animated film about a kappa and its impact on an ordinary family, written for the screen and directed by Keiichi Hara based on two novels by Template:Illm.

• 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 (more specifically 1603). 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 (sushi roll) is known as a kappamaki.Template:Sfnp

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 (Amblyomma kappa) is a native Japanese arachnid which occurs in the southern Ryukyu Islands and was named due to its association with reptilian hosts, particularly turtles (which share some physical similarities with the kappa).

See also

• Kappa, a novel by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
• Kappabashi-dori, a Tokyo street named after the kappa
• Kijimuna, a spirit creature from Okinawa
• Kuzenbo, the king of kappa in Japanese mythology
• Mintuci, a water spirit from Ainu mythology
• Neck, a shapeshifting water spirit in Germanic mythology and folklore
• Template:Annotated link

References

Bibliography

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[Thoughts on kappa: Seeking the true form behind the distortion]. Kyoto: Jinbun Sh

• National Museum of Japanese History; Tōru Tokumitsu edd. (2014)

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• (English abstract)

External links

• Mark Schumacher (2004). Kappa – River Imp or Sprite. Retrieved 23 March 2006.
• Garth Haslam (2000). Kappa Quest 2000. Retrieved 14 December 2006.
• Kirainet (2007). For a look at Kappa in popular culture Kirainet. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
• Hyakumonogatari.com Translated kappa stories from Hyakumonogatari.com
• Kappa Unknown Explorers
• Underwater Love (2011)
• The Great Yokai War (2005)
• Summer Days with Coo (2009), an animated film featuring a kappa as the main character.