Japanese mythical creature
Kappa
Drawing of a
kappa
copied from Koga T?an's
Suiko K?ryaku
(1820)
|
Grouping
| Kami
and
y?kai
|
---|
Other name(s)
| Gatar?, Kawako
|
---|
Country
| Japan
|
---|
A
kappa
(
河童
, "river-child")
?also known as
kawatar?
(
川太?
, "river-boy")
,
komahiki
(
駒引
, "horse-puller")
, with a boss called
kawatora
(
川虎
, "river-tiger")
or
suiko
(
水虎
, "water-tiger")
?is a reptiloid
kami
with similarities to
y?kai
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
turtle
-like
carapaces
on their backs. A depression on its head, called its "dish" (sara), retains water, and if this is damaged or its liquid is lost (either through spilling or drying up), the kappa is severely weakened.
The
kappa
are known to 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
shirikodama
from their victim's
anus
.
Terminology
[
edit
]
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".
[3]
The
kappa
are also known regionally by at least eighty other names such as
kawappa
,
kawako
,
kawatar?
,
gawappa
,
k?go
,
suitengu
.
[4]
It is also called
kawauso
'otter',
dangame
'soft-shelled turtle', and
enk?
'monkey', suggesting it outwardly resembles these animals. The name
komahiki
or "steed-puller" alludes to its reputed penchant to drag away horses.
[4]
The kappa has been known as
kawako
in Izumo (
Shimane Prefecture
) where
Lafcadio Hearn
was based,
[5]
and
gatar?
was the familiar name of it to folklorist
Kunio Yanagita
from
Hy?go Prefecture
.
[6]
Appearance
[
edit
]
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.
[7]
They are typically greenish in color
(or yellow-blue
), and either scaly
[10]
[11]
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.
[7]
Despite their small stature they are physically stronger than a grown man.
[7]
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.
[12]
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.
[13]
A hairy
kappa
is called a
hy?sube
.
[14]
Behavior
[
edit
]
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.
[13]
Though sometimes menacing, they may also behave amicably towards humans.
[10]
While younger kappa are frequently found in family groups, adult kappa live solitary lives. However, it is common for kappa to befriend other y?kai and sometimes even people.
[7]
Cucumber
[
edit
]
Folk beliefs claim the
cucumber
as their traditional favorite meal.
[13]
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),
natt?
(fermented soybeans), or
kabocha
(Japanese pumpkin).
[16]
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.
[17]
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
.
[13]
As a menace
[
edit
]
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
.
[13]
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
(
尻子玉
)
, a mythical ball said to contain the soul, which is located inside the anus.
[13]
[18]
[19]
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.
[20]
[13]
Even today, signs warning about
kappa
appear by bodies of water in some Japanese towns and villages.
[
citation needed
]
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.
[21]
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.
[5]
[22]
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
[
edit
]
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.
[13]
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.
[25]
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.
[26]
Good deeds
[
edit
]
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.
[13]
[27]
[28]
There are also legends that Kappa will save a friendly human from drowning.
Regional variations
[
edit
]
Along with the
oni
and the
tengu
, the
kappa
is among the best-known
y?kai
in Japan.
[29]
[30]
The kappa is known by various names of the creature vary by region and local folklore.
[4]
In
Shint?
, they are often considered to be an avatar (
keshin
) of the Water Deity or
suijin
.
[31]
Shrines
are dedicated to the worship of
kappa
as water deity in such places as
Aomori Prefecture
[10]
or
Miyagi Prefecture
.
[32]
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
Kappabuchi
[
ja
]
waters of
T?no
in the
Iwate Prefecture
. The nearby
J?kenji
[
ja
]
In T?no, 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.
[34]
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.
[
citation needed
]
In his
T?no Monogatari
,
Kunio Yanagita
records a number of beliefs from the
T?no
area about women being accosted and even impregnated by
kappa
.
[35]
Their offspring were said to be repulsive to behold, and were generally buried.
[35]
Cross culture lore
[
edit
]
Similar folklore can be found in Asia and Europe. 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.
[
citation needed
]
A frog-face
vodyanoy
is known in Slavic mythology. A green human-like being named a
vodnik
is widely known in western Slavic folklore and tales, especially in the
Czech Republic
or
Slovakia
.
[
citation needed
]
In German mythology, a similar creature is known as
Wassermann
,
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-East 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
[
edit
]
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.
[4]
In Japan, the character Sagoj? (
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
.
[20]
Ry?nosuke Akutagawa
's 1927 novella
Kappa
centers on a man who got lost and ended up in the land of the
kappa
near
Mount Hotakadake
.
[36]
The story heavily focuses on the subject of suicide and Akutagawa killed himself the year the work was published.
[37]
Kappas are a recurring image in
David Peace
's novel
Patient X
,
[38]
itself about the life and work of Akutagawa.
- 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 Goku's descendant, the servant of Choky?kai to find a bride. Later, since
Hakudoshi
collecting the heads of other y?kai, they tracked down Hakudoshi and
Kagura
, that he didn't they're
Naraku's incarnations
, and watching as Hakudoshi to peer into the y?kai heads to catch a glimpse of the Border of the Afterlife.
- Kagome's
grandfather
gave her an alleged mummified foot 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 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
series
Yokai Monsters
, the 2010
kaiju
film
Death Kappa
,
[40]
and "King Kappa", a
kaiju
from the 1972
Tsuburaya Productions
series
Ultraman Ace
.
[41]
These
y?kai
-
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,
y?kai
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.
[42]
- 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
Masao Kogure
.
[43]
- 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.
[44]
- 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 townspeople who interact with them feel frightened by their appearance and mistake them for the legendary "kappa" throughout the film.
[45]
- In
Mountain of Faith
, the character Nitori Kawashiro is a kappa. Her boss fight reflects the aquatic nature of kappas.
- In
Resident Evil Village
, one of the four lord antagonists, Moreau, is inspired after the kappa.
- Several
Pokemon
are based on the kappa, most notably
Golduck
and the evolutionary family of
Lotad
,
Lombre
, and
Ludicolo
.
- The Zora from
The Legend of Zelda
videogame series were originally based on kappa, visually very close to the mythological depictions in the first three games. The fourth game,
Ocarina of Time
, changed them into the fish-humans they are now.
- Numerous kappa characters appear in the
Animal Crossing
franchise.
- In the strategy game
Might & Magic Heroes VII
, the kappa is a neutral creature.
- In
The House of the Lost on the Cape
the
kappa
play a crucial role in helping to restore hope to a region devastated by a
tsunami
.
- Inazuma Eleven
features multiple characters based on Kappa appearing in both
Season 3
and
Orion no Kokuin
.
See also
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Kappa
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
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Marvels & Tales
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.
ISSN
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.
JSTOR
10.13110/marvelstales.27.2.0276
.
S2CID
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- Bibliography
External links
[
edit
]