The Kappa - A Dangerous Fellow

A kappa (河童- river child) is a Japanese folkloristic being mainly inhabiting rivers and ponds. It goes under many different names: kawatarō, kawako, suiko, etc. and is an amphibious or reptilian yōkai, a sort of demon.

(Above: Kappa, by Hokusai)

The kappa is green and human-like, of a child's size, with slimy or scaly skin, webbed thumbless hands and feet and a turtle-like shell. A peculiarity is a depression in its skull, sara, that retains water. This water is the source of the kappa's power, if it is spilled out or dried up while the kappa is on land, it is weakened and might even die. It is also said that a kappa has three anuses, so it can pass away three times as much gas as a human.

(Below, two pages from a book by Juntaku, Illustrated Guide to 12 Types of Kappa, Suiko juni-hin no zu [水虎十二品之図]. Mid 18th century.)

An even more peculiar detail is that they are known to attack humans in water and remove an organ, shirikodama, from the anus. This organ is shaped like a ball and contains the soul.

(Above: Defence against Kappa [by farting]. Woodblock print by Yoshitoshi from 1881.)

The kappa is mischievous and dangerous. They are sometimes blamed for drownings, and are said to take humans to drink their blood, eat their liver or take their shirikodama. They are also known for kidnapping and raping human women.

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

For some reason their favourite food is cucumber and there are festivals with offerings of cucumber to mollify the kappa so the family is not harmed in the water. There are also shrines dedicated to kappa worship; kappa are considered water deities.

(Below: Utagawa Kunisada: The fisherman Urashima Taro looking down at a kappa, from between 1843 and 1846.)

So what would you do if you meet a kappa?

According to the expertise, the best is to try to make it spill out the water from its sara. One way to do that is to be very polite and make a deep bow. The kappa, polite to a fault, would also bow, and the water is spilled. And if you fill its sara again, the kappa will serve you for ever.

Another way is to draw off one of the kappa's arms. Then it would do you any favour to get it back.

Then, if you feel up to it, you can always challenge a kappa to sumo wrestling and try to make it spill the water from its sara during the match. As it loves sumo wrestling, the challenge might as well come from the kappa. Don't feel too sure to win tough, a kappa is small but very strong!

(Woodblock print by Yoshitosi. Sumo wrestling kappa. From the series One Hundred Ghost Stories from Japan and China, 1865.)

There are later depictions of kappa in a more modern style by for instance Hasegawa Konobu and Nagai Iku, but for copyright reasons I cannot display their works here.

(The lead image is a detail from Kappa, a print from 1843 by Issunshi Hanasato.)

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