Kappa

Origin

The iconographic origin is the fusion of Japanese indigenous water-deity (suijin) belief with the drowning lore of rivers and ponds. The social experience of drownings in rivers and ponds across Japan — the real occurrence of children's swimming accidents every summer — was interpreted as the wrath of the water-deity or the prank of the water-yokai, giving rise to the Kappa iconography. The earliest textual record is the 'water marvel' (suikai) entry in book 40 of the first comprehensive Japanese encyclopaedia Wakan Sansai Zue compiled in 1712 by Terajima Ryoan, which settled the canonical figure of Kawataro (river boy) with a turtle shell on the back, a plate on the crown, and a beaked mouth. In the 1776 Yokai catalogue Gazu Hyakki Yagyo of Toriyama Sekien, the Kappa was established as a visual canon — about ninety centimetres in height, blue skin, turtle shell and webbed limbs, water plate on the crown. The 1809 Toen Shosetsu of Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848) compiled Edo-period Kappa folktales. The regional names of the Kappa across Japan number around eighty — Kawataro in Kyushu, Enko in Shikoku, Kawako in Western Japan, Mentsuchi in Tohoku, Medochi in Tohoku, Karapa in Kagoshima, Kijimuna in Okinawa — varying by region but sharing the same canonical iconography. The decisive modern canonisation is Kunio Yanagita's (1875-1962) Tono Monogatari of June 1910, the canonical text of Japanese folkloristics: seventeen Kappa folktales of the Tono region of Iwate Prefecture, transcribed by Sasaki Kizen (1886-1933) and edited by Yanagita. The Kappa-buchi (Kappa Pool) behind Joken-ji temple in the city of Tono settled as the decisive sacred site of Japanese Kappa belief.

Features

• Child-sized build with blue or green skin
• Turtle shell (kora) and webbed hands and feet
• Water-holding plate (sara) on the crown of the head
• Loses its strength when the water on the plate dries up
• Loves sumo wrestling and cucumbers (kyuri)
• Canonical disposition of always repaying courtesy

Stories

The 1712 Wakan Sansai Zue and Toriyama Sekien's 1776 Gazu Hyakki Yagyo established the Kappa visual canon, the 1809 Toen Shosetsu of Takizawa Bakin is the decisive Edo-period Kappa folktale canon, and Kunio Yanagita's 1910 Tono Monogatari is the decisive Japanese folkloristic Kappa canon. Shigeru Mizuki's (1922-2015) manga Kappa no Sanpei (Sanpei the Kappa) first serialised in 1962 established the manga Kappa canon, and the Studio Ghibli animation Pom Poko (Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko, released 24 August 1996, directed by Isao Takahata, 1935-2018) included Kappa. The decisive contemporary cinematic canon is Keiichi Hara's (b. 1959) 2007 animated film Summer Days with Coo (Kappa no Ku to Natsuyasumi), released on 28 July 2007 — the friendship between Coo, a child Kappa who slept in an Edo-period river and awoke in modern Tokyo, and the human boy Koichi Uehara — the decisive popular canon of twenty-first-century Kappa iconography. The film won the audience prize at the 2007 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Best Animation Award at the 2008 Tokyo Anime Award. The Japanese conveyor-belt sushi chain Kappa Sushi (founded in 1979) and the Japanese automobile magazine Kappa have established the Kappa iconography as a central mascot of twenty-first-century Japanese popular culture.

Weakness

The Kappa's weaknesses are: (1) the water on the crown plate — the source of the Kappa's strength is the water held in the plate (sara) on the crown, and the canonical Japanese motif that when this water dries up or spills, it immediately loses its strength and is subdued by humans; (2) a polite bow — the decisive canonical weakness in Japanese folklore: when a person makes the Kappa bow politely, the Kappa, also bound to courtesy, bows along, spilling the water from its crown; (3) the absolute keeping of courtesy and promise — the canonical disposition of the Japanese Kappa, that it cannot break a promise once made, and the motif that the Kappa, being unable to break its promise with a person who has shown it courtesy, helps that person; (4) cucumbers (kyuri) — the canonical favourite food of the Kappa; the Japanese folktale that throwing a cucumber makes the Kappa release a person to eat it; (5) iron and deer-antler — the regional Japanese canon in some areas that the Kappa fears iron and deer-antler; (6) saliva and sand — the decisive weakness in the Tono canon that throwing saliva or sand into the Kappa's plate pollutes the water in the plate and weakens the Kappa. In Kunio Yanagita's 1910 Tono Monogatari, when meeting a Kappa, after making it bow politely and spill the water from its plate, the Kappa is subdued and writes a pledge never to entice people again — a narrative that is the decisive canon of Kappa weakness.

Cultural Significance

The Kappa is not merely a horror yokai but the canonical iconographic figure of the Japanese yokai canon that traverses Japanese indigenous water-deity belief, Kunio Yanagita's 1910 folkloristics, Shigeru Mizuki's 1960s manga, and twenty-first-century global Japanese animation and the popular-cultural mascot. The social experience of real children's swimming-drowning accidents every summer in Japan, interpreted as the wrath of the water-deity or the prank of the Kappa, was condensed into the Kappa iconography from the social-historical experience of Japanese rural society, and Kunio Yanagita's 1910 Tono Monogatari, the canonical text of Japanese folkloristics, was the decisive event by which twentieth-century Japanese academia re-established the Kappa as the canonical case of indigenous belief. The Kappa-buchi (Kappa Pool) behind Joken-ji temple in Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, was designated by the Japanese government as an intangible cultural heritage in 2010 (the 100th anniversary of Yanagita's Tono Monogatari transcription) and is the decisive sacred site of Japanese Kappa belief; every year from June to September, the Tono City Tourism Office issues a 'Kappa Capture Permit' (Kappa Hokaku Kyokasho, 220 yen) by which one can fish for the Kappa at the Kappa-buchi, a fixture of the intangible cultural heritage combined with the Japanese tourism industry. Keiichi Hara's 2007 Summer Days with Coo — winner of the Audience Prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Best Animation Award at the Tokyo Anime Award — was the decisive event by which Japanese animation's Kappa iconography became twenty-first-century global canon. The Japanese restaurant chain Kappa Sushi (founded in 1979, presently about 300 stores in Japan) and the Kappa as a Japanese children's manga character since the 1980s have settled as the decisive mascot of twenty-first-century Japanese popular culture.

In Popular Culture

Terajima Ryoan, Wakan Sansai Zue (1712) — textual canonisation of the KappaToriyama Sekien, Gazu Hyakki Yagyo (1776) — Edo Kappa visual canonTakizawa Bakin, Toen Shosetsu (1809) — Edo Kappa folktale canonKunio Yanagita, Tono Monogatari (1910) — decisive Japanese folkloristic Kappa canonShigeru Mizuki, Kappa no Sanpei (1968) — Japanese manga Kappa canonIsao Takahata, Pom Poko (1994) — Ghibli Kappa appearanceKeiichi Hara, Summer Days with Coo (2007) — decisive global Japanese-animation Kappa canonTono City Kappa-buchi, Kappa Capture Permit (2010) — Japanese intangible cultural heritage Kappa tourismKappa Sushi restaurant chain (founded 1979) — Japanese popular-culture Kappa mascot