Last night over dinner, the conversation happened to turn to the infamous Japanese river sprite called Kappa while I was talking to my children.

When we lived on the island of Kyushu, we learned about Kappa fairly soon. We lived on the side of Takatoyama, where on the mountain top, there was a Kappa shrine. The first things I learned about him were in Japanese language, so I wrongfully assumed Kappa was a certain deity, because of the respectful way its story had been told. There was this Kappa monument on the mountain and from that moment, I was fascinated by it. Not much has been published about this river sprite – on the German side I could find one book only . When I checked on-line book stores in the U.S.A. and the U.K., there was nothing about this impy little creature.

It was not until later I learned that not only do Japan and Germany share certain institutions (such as banking at the post-office, making payments via bank transfers, etc.), but also a certain passion for gory children’s tales.

But like the Grimm brothers’ tales told about values in Europe, stories about Kappa are a good reflection of the Japanese societal development. Kappa served as a warning to disobedient children.

One of them is this Kappa, who goes around looking for lost children near the river side. When he captures them he sucks their liver, parts of their colon, and excrements out through their anus. Did you just go ahhhhhhh? I did when I first heard that story, and so did my children…

But there is much more to this creature. His creation is based on the mystery of death. Whenever death happens in mysterious ways, such as children drowning or disappearing in a big forest, a folktale develops.

I would suppose that in the old days some children played too close to the riverside and disappeared by drowning. In those days – without A/C – much time must have been spent down by the river in the summertime to get away from the omnipresent humidity. Thus, various mysterious disappearances are easily linked to this creature.

Kappalogy is a very young science, but a big part of the Japanology studies in Germany. About 65 years ago, Ishida Eiichiro took great interest in comparing Kappa with other river sprites. One book called Kappa no sekai, written by by Ishikawa Junichiro, also deserves mentioning.

What does Kappa look like?

He has the shape of a teenage boy, with long arms and legs, a turtle-like trunk on his back and he stinks like rotten fish.
People who claimed to have seen him – only at dusk or at night – have different opinions about his looks. Some mentioned a beak, others long hair, some were still under shock and could give no report.

This is what Kappa looks like done up in clay form. Would you like to rest your chop sticks on its rear end?

Some other posts you might like to read

• I have been walking for more than 45 years
• English Word Game
• Listening by phone

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Anything Japanese, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.