The Kappa 河童 (river-child):

kawataro

from Ryoan Terashima's Wakan Sansai Zue (1712)

Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Kappa's Origins

Michael Foster believes that the earliest incarnation and possibly the origin story of the creature that eventually became one of what he calls the “big five” [2] of the yokai mythos (the other four being the tengu, kitsune, tanuki, and oni), known to us today as the kappa, can be found within the Nihon Shoki, one of Japan’s oldest written documents. The Nihon Shoki features a story dated to have taken place in the second half of the 4^th century, in the Province of Kibi. It regards a mizuchi, or water snake, living in the Kahashima River. Kahashima River is known to the people of modern Japan as Takahashi River (an image of it is featured behind this text), located in Okayama Prefecture, on Japan’s main island of Honshu. The mizuchi of the river is told to be poisoning passersby, and it is stated that many have already died. Eventually, after the apparent number of dead travelers necessary to warrant a political response has been reached, the warden of the district, possessing both a strong will and body, challenges the mizuchi. The warden throws three whole gourds from a calabash tree, the same kind typically dried out, filled with sake or water, sealed with a cork, and often depicted tied to the waist. The warden declares that if the mizuchi can sink all three, he will leave the creature be. However, if the mizuchi cannot sink them, he will kill it. The mizuchi (expectedly) fails to sink them, and is slaughtered by the warden [1].

kappa

from Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo (1776)

A River Runs Through It: The Kappa Takes Shape

The kappa that the people of modern Japan know and love today did not start out with the personality traits and physical characteristics that they are currently known to possess. In fact, while the origins of the kappa may be tied to a single creature, the mizuchi, its distinguishing features came about from the amalgamation of more than a hundred regional variants from all throughout Japan, all of which possessed a variant name {2}. The creature’s current name, kappa, was originally regionally distinctive to Eastern parts of Japan {1}. It eventually became the common name of the yokai, over the other widely used, but now less common name for the kappa, kawataro. Kawataro was also originally a regionally distinctive name, but to the Western parts of Japan. For example, the illustration of a kawataro shown in the previous section, possesses only two traits common to the modern kappa, webbed digits, and a depression in the top of the head. The kawataro was said to be hairy, monkey-like, and walk upright, and was depicted as playing near rivers. It was not until Toriyama Sekien created an image entitled “Kappa, also called kawataro”, that the two major variations began to be thought of as a single entity, and their names used interchangeably. The kappa of Eastern Japan was a slimy amphibious creature with a shell, and beginning with Sekien’s image, depictions of the yokai began to prefer those characteristics over that of the kawataro’s. As depicted in the image taken from Gazu Hyakki Yagyo, Sekien’s kappa has the same depression in the top of its head and webbed digits of the kawataro, but scales instead of hair, and the now standard rim of hair surrounding its depression [4]. From the early 18^th century until the turn of the 20^th century, via attributions asserted by various artists through a variety of artistic mediums, Sekien’s kappa acquired the aesthetics common to the kappa of modernity. Its size came to be regarded as that of a small child. It gained the turtle-like shell of the original kappa. A sharp beak was substituted in place of its initially simian mouth. The dish-like depression in the top of its head became known as a sara. Additionally, it was now said to always be filled with water, or another unspecified liquid, which represents the life force of the kappa. It the liquid dries up or is spilled, the kappa is rendered helpless [1]. The kappa is said to always return a bow, and humans are depicted as tricking the kappa into spilling its water by bowing. Kappa repeatedly lure young women and children to the edge of rivers where they drown them. They typically do this as part of an attempt to steal their livers [1], and, more so than the livers, a fictional, ball-like organ said to be located at the opening of the human anus, referred to as a shirikodama [2]. In addition to drowning and stealing young womens’ organs, kappa are commonly depicted as raping them as well [1]. They also try and drown horses when given the opportunity. It becomes adept in and develops a love for sumo wrestling [3]. In their attempts to harm humans and horses, one of their arms is very often ripped off, and thanks to the additional ability of their arm being able to be reattached if done so within of few days of losing it, they negotiate with humans to get it back in time. Kappa have since this point have gained rare medical knowledge with a specialty in setting bones. The kappa’s wanting its arm back is often exploited by the humans negotiating with them in order to be taught that rare medical knowledge [2]. Supported by its potential origin story within the Nihon Shoki, the kappa has an aversion to gourds. As well as a love of cucumbers [1]. Finally, the kappa, as was the case for most water spirits, came to fear and be repelled by iron [5].

Kappa Tea

by Kinjou Okumura-Ten

Taming the Waters: The Kappa's Domestication

Strangely enough, the roots of the kappa’s rehabilitation from a slimy, organ stealing rapist-murderer with a penchant for animal cruelty and a love of phallic vegetables into a nationally utilized mascot with the salesmanship of the Geico gecko and the cute star power of Hello Kitty (a pipe dream of the American prison system) can be traced back to same quarter century in which its identity began to solidify. The kappa took on a “comic appearance” in kibyoshi, and other artistic formats of the Edo period, beginning towards the end of the 18^th century [2]. However, despite its physical aesthetics being rendered slightly cartoonish, its actions were depicted as identical to the violent kappa of the pre-20^th century. As previously stated, it was not until the late 19^th century that the Japanese people’s perspective of kappa’s began to shift out of the darkness and into the light. It began notably with Ogawa Usen’s portraits of kappa “frolicking joyfully.” [2] While Usen personally stated that he viewed kappa as part of nature, he depicted them on numerous occasions performing human activities [1]. Next, Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s 1927 novel kappa related the creatures to its human protagonist, and even used them as satirical stand-ins for actual Japanese people. Further humanization of kappa came in the form of manga. Mangaka Shimizu Kon published a manga called Kappa tengoku which normalized the male and female gendering of kappa. He also depicted kappa as salarymen. A more radical (and disturbing) humanization of kappa came next in the illustrations of mangaka Kojima Ko, who drew naked female kappa with human nipples and long feminine eyelashes [2]. Finally, famous mangaka Mizuki Shigeru’s 1960’s manga Sanpei no Kappa depicted a human being adopted into a community of kappa due to his face and body type being nearly identical to that of the kappa the encounters [2]. As of today, numerous films featuring kappa have been made, some of which include Onna no kappa, Death Kappa, and Kappa Mikey [6].

Kataan the kappa

From Yugo Ishikawa's Kappa no Kaikata (2004)

Malevolent No More: A Modernized Monster Mascot

The following decade, as city life was beginning to dominate Japanese society, the various villages of the Japanese countryside began projects intended to revitalize their individual economies. They distinguished themselves from other villages, developing their own regional kappa lore, using the yokai to induce nostalgia regarding Japan’s past closeness with nature, attracting tourists, and selling merchandise in the wake of Japan’s shrinking agricultural communities. As a result, the kappa came to be associated with the preservation and respect of nature, and now act as a mascot against littering [2]. In a logical extension of that, the kappa has been used as a mascot for the cleaning up of Japan’s rivers by an organization called FRK, who ask citizens to help do so in order to bring about the kappa’s return. The kappa being used as a symbol of safe water is a reversal of its past identity as something that made rivers unsafe for women, children, and animals, a direct example of its domestication. Some localities have adopted the kappa as the representative of their communication (a kappa post office), their transportation (a kappa train station), and nationally used credit card known as the DC Card, uses the kappa as its mascot [1]. Drawing comparisons to Hello Kitty, the sale of kappa merchandise in Japan today is as widespread or more than its lore ever was. However, instead of acting as a deterrent to certain watery activities and representing fear, the modern kappa now acts serves to encourage tourism, and a mascot embodying the culture and commerce of Japan.

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