Kappa (folklore)

A — also known as , , with a boss called or – is a reptiloid ''kami'' with similarities to ''yōkai'' found in traditional Japanese folklore. '' Kappa'' can become harmful when they are not respected as gods. They are typically depicted as green, human-like beings with webbed hands and feet and a turtle-like carapace on their back.

The ''kappa'' are known to favor cucumbers. They are often accused of assaulting humans in water and removing a mythical organ called the ''shirikodama'' from their victim's anus.

Terminology

The name ''kappa'' is a contraction of the words ''kawa'' (river) and ''wappa'', a variant form of 童 ''warawa'' (also ''warabe'') "child". Another translation of kappa is "water sprites". The ''kappa'' are also known regionally by at least eighty other names such as ''kawappa'', ''kawako'', ''kawatarō'', ''gawappa'', ''kōgo'', ''suitengu''., citing Ōno (1994), p. 14

It is also called ''kawauso'' 'otter', ''dangame'' 'soft-shelled turtle', and ''enkō'' 'monkey', suggesting it outwardly resembles these animals. The name ''komahiki'' or "steed-puller" alludes to its reputed penchant to drag away horses.

The kappa has been known as ''kawako'' in Izumo ( Shimane Prefecture) where Lafcadio Hearn was based, and ''gatarō'' was the familiar name of it to folklorist Kunio Yanagita from Hyōgo Prefecture.

Appearance

''Kappa'' are said to be roughly humanoid in form and about the size of a child, inhabiting the ponds and rivers of Japan. Clumsy on land, they are at home in the water, and thrive during the warm months. They are typically greenish in color (or yellow-blue), and either scaly or slimy skinned, with webbed hands and feet, and a turtle-like carapace on their back. Inhuman traits include three anuses that allow them to pass three times as much gas as humans. Despite their small stature they are physically stronger than a grown man.

The ''kappa'' are sometimes said to smell like fish, and they can swim like them.

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. While they are primarily water creatures, they do on occasion venture onto land. When they do, the "dish" on their head can be covered with a metal cap for protection.

A hairy ''kappa'' is called a ''hyōsube''.

File:Illustrated Guide to 12 Types of Kappa.jpg, A book illustrating twelve kinds of kappa.
File:Hokusai kappa.jpg, A kappa by Katsushika Hokusai
File:Utamaro (1788) Utamakura print No. 01 (BM, cropped).jpg, A ''kappa'' has sex at a river underwater, while a woman is watching and smiling in a print from Utamaro's ''Utamakura''
File:Kappastatues.JPG, A paired male and female ''kappa'' statues at the Sogenji Buddhist shrine at the Asakusa district in Tokyo.

Behavior

''Kappa'' are usually seen as kami of the water. 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. Though sometimes menacing, they may also behave amicably towards humans. While younger kappa are frequently found in family groups, adult kappa live solitary lives. However, it is common for kappa to befriend other yōkai and sometimes even people.

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 the Japanese eggplant, '' soba'' (buckwheat noodles), ''nattō'' (fermented soybeans), or ''kabocha''(Japanese pumpkin).

In Edo (old Tokyo), there used to be a tradition where people would write the names of their family members on cucumbers and send them afloat into the streams to mollify the ''kappa'' and prevent the family from coming to harm in the streams. 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.

A cucumber-filled sushi roll is known as a ''kappamaki''.

As a menace

As water monsters, ''kappa'' have been blamed for drownings, and are 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, as ''kappa'' have been often said to try to lure people to water and pull them in. Even today, signs warning about ''kappa'' appear by bodies of water in some Japanese towns and villages.

''Kappa'' are also said to victimize animals, especially horses and cows. The motif of the ''kappa'' trying to drown a horse is found all over Japan.

Lafcadio Hearn wrote of a story in Kawachimura near Matsue where a horse-stealing kappa was captured and made to write a sworn statement vowing never to harm people again.

In many versions the ''kappa'' is dragged by the horse to the stable where it is most vulnerable, and it is there it is forced to submit a writ of promise not to misbehave.

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.

Another method of defeat 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.

Good deeds

''Kappa'' are not entirely antagonistic to human beings.

Once befriended, ''kappa'' may perform any number of tasks for human beings, such as helping farmers irrigate their land. Sometimes, they bring fresh fish, which is regarded as a mark of good fortune for the family receiving it. They are also highly knowledgeable about medicine, and legend states that they taught the art of bone setting to human beings. There are also legends that Kappa will save a friendly human from drowning.

Regional variations

Along with the ''oni'' and the ''tengu'', the ''kappa'' is among the best-known ''yōkai'' in Japan.

The kappa is known by various names of the creature vary by region and local folklore. In Shintō, they are often considered to be an avatar (''keshin'') of the Water Deity or '' suijin''.

Shrines are dedicated to the worship of ''kappa'' as water deity in such places as Aomori Prefecture or Miyagi Prefecture. There were also festivals meant to placate the ''kappa'' in order to obtain a good harvest, some of which still take place today. These festivals generally took place during the two equinoxes of the year, when the ''kappa'' are said to travel from the rivers to the mountains and vice versa.

The best known place where it has been claimed Kappa reside is in the waters of '' Tōno '' in the Iwate Prefecture. The nearby In Tōno, there is a Buddhist temple that has komainu dog statues with depressions on their heads reminiscent of the water-retaining dish on the kappa's heads, said to be dedicated to the ''kappa'' which according to legend helped extinguish a fire at the temple. The Kappa is also venerated at the '' Sogenji'' Buddhist temple in the Asakusa district of Tokyo where according to tradition, a mummified arm of a Kappa is enshrined within the chapel hall since 1818.

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.

Cross culture lore

Similar folklore can be found in Asia and Europe. The Japanese folklore creature ''Kappa'' is known in Chinese folklore as 神水 ''shuǐguǐ'' "water-ghost", or water monkey and may also be related to the kelpie of Scotland and the nixie of Scandinavia. Like the Japanese description of the beast, in Chinese and in Scandinavian lore this beast is infamous for kidnapping and drowning people as well as horses.

The '' siyokoy'' of the Philippine islands is also known for kidnapping children by the water's edge.

A frog-face ''vodyanoy'' is known in Slavic mythology. A green human-like being named a ''vodník'' is widely known in western Slavic folklore and tales, especially in the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

In German mythology, a similar creature is known as '':de:Wassermann_(Mythologie), Wassermann'', ''Nixie (folklore), Nix'', or ''Nickel''. They have been mentioned in connection with the larger rivers Elbe and Saale in the eastern part of Germany, but they are most widely connected to Lusatia in South-Est Germany. This is not entirely surprising, as the area is not only close to Poland and Czech Republic, but also home to the Slavic minority of the Sorbs.

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.

In Japan, the character Sagojō (Sha Wujing) is conventionally depicted as a ''kappa'': he being a comrade of the magic monkey Sun Wukong in the Chinese story ''Journey to the West''.Does Kappa still have their occult power?
road-station.com (Michi-no-eiki).

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's 1927 novella ''Kappa (novel), 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 took his own life the year the work was published. Kappas are a recurring image in David Peace's novel ''Patient X (novel), Patient X'', itself about the life and work of Akutagawa.

In 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 Goku's descendant, the servant of Chokyūkai to find a bride. Later, since List of Inuyasha characters#Hakudoshi, Hakudoshi collecting the heads of other yōkai, they tracked down Hakudoshi and List of Inuyasha characters#Kagura, Kagura, that he didn't they're List of Inuyasha characters#Naraku's incarnations, Naraku's incarnations, and watching as Hakudoshi to peer into the yōkai heads to catch a glimpse of the Border of the Afterlife.

List of Inuyasha characters#Kagome Higurashi, Kagome's List of Inuyasha characters#Grandpa, grandfather gave her an alleged mummified foot a kappa for her early 15th birthday, but she doesn't accept and gives to List of Inuyasha characters#Buyo, Buyo.

In episode 4 of ''Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon'', Grandpa Higurashi gifted to his great-granddaughter, List of Inuyasha characters#Moroha, Moroha a mummified kappa's foot as a gift in which she accepts and kept since then.

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

These ''yōkai''like ''kami'' also represent Japan as a nation, featuring in advertisements for a range of products from a major brand of sake to Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank's DC Card (a credit card). In their explicitly commercial conceptions, ''yōkai'' are no longer frightening or mysterious — the DC Card Kappa, for example, is not a slimy water creature threatening to kill unsuspecting children but a cute and (almost) cuddly cartoon character.

''Summer Days with Coo'' is a 2007 Anime, 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 Masao Kogure.

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.

See also

* Kappabashi-dori, a Tokyo street named after the kappa
* ''Kijimuna'', a spirit creature from Okinawa
* Kappa (novel), ''Kappa'', a novel by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
* ''Mintuci'', a water spirit from Ainu mythology, Ainu mythology
* Neck (water spirit), Neck, a shapeshifting water spirit in Germanic mythology and folklore

References

;Bibliography

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External links

*Mark Schumacher (2004)
Kappa – River Imp or Sprite
Retrieved 23 March 2006.
*Garth Haslam (2000)

Retrieved 14 December 2006.
*Kirainet (2007). For a look at Kappa in popular cultur
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)
Animation film featuring a Kappa as main character.

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Kappa (folklore),
Legendary turtles
Water spirits
Yōkai
Mythological hematophages
Piscine and amphibian humanoids