Kappa (mythical creature)
As Kappa ( Japanese 河童 , river-child " ) is a Japanese called mythical creature in the category of Yōkai , the demons , heard, but also features a" lower "deity of Kami bears. It is a creature associated with water and one of the most recognizable creatures found in Japanese folk beliefs. In the last decades of the 20th century, it became an unofficial national symbol of Japan in a slightly modified form.
Lore
The first traces of a water demon can already be found in the Nihonshoki , which was completed around the year 720. It tells of a large Mizuchi ( 水蛇 , English "water snake") living in the Kahashima River who attacked people who passed their area. A direct relationship between this demon and the kappa described in later times cannot be proven in literature.
The stories of a human and animal-like demon living in the water have been passed down orally for generations. In the first half of the 19th century, scientists began recording the findings and sightings of kappa. Inspired by Nakagami Kundo ( 中 神 君 度 ), Koga Tōan ( 古 賀 侗 庵 ) published the book Suiko Kōryaku ( 水 虎 考 略 , dt. "Outline of the descriptions of Kappa") in 1820 , which was followed in 1839 by a second volume. The different manifestations and names of kappa were described in the books and his preference for sumo has already been described. In the early 1840s, other materials from other scientists were added to the second volume. Among other things, one of Sakamoto Kōnen ( 坂 本 浩然 ) and by his brother Sakamoto Kōsetsu (Juntaku) ( 坂 本 浩 雪 ( 純 沢 )) illustrated woodcut Suiko jūni-hin no zu ( 水 虎 十二 品 之 図 , dt. " Illustrated Guide to the 12 Types of Kappa ”). The collection and writing of the Kappa lore continued during the Meiji period. In the 20th century there was a systematic recording of the Kappa stories spread across the entire Japanese archipelago . Over 80 variants are now known. The name Kappa originally comes from the stories of the Kantō region and has become the most common for this type of demon in the 20th century. The wide distribution is evident in the diverse regional species as well as in the dialectal variants of his name: Kawappa , Gawappa , Kawako , Kōgo , Kawatarō , Mizushi , Mizuchi , Enkō , Kawiele , Suitengu , Komahiki and Dangame . By the ethnologist Jun'ichirō Ishikawa ( 純 一郎 石川 ) 1985 the different names were mapped and assigned. Some of the names reflect the physical shape in the form of a child ( Kawappa , Kawako ), others in the form of a monkey ( enko ), a turtle ( Dangame ) or an otter ( Kawauso ) resist. Other names refer to its properties (e.g. Komahiki , German "horse puller").
description
One of the first written descriptions of a kappa, called here Kawatarō ( 川 太郎 , dt. "Big boy from the river"), can be found in Wakan Sansai zue ( 和 漢 三才 図 会 ), one of Terajima Ryōan ( 寺 島 良 安 ) 1712/1713 edited nature encyclopedia . It is described as follows: “There are many Kawatarō in the valleys, rivers and swamps in the west and in Kyūshū . About the size of a ten-year-old child, the Kawatarō stands upright, walks and speaks in a human voice. His hair is short and sparse. The tip of his skull is arched and can hold a ladle full of water. Kawatarō usually live in the water, but in the late afternoon light, many of them appear around the rivers and steal melons, eggplants and other things from the fields. By nature, Kawatarō loves sumō; when it sees a person, it will invite him (to wrestle) ... If there is water in the cavity of his head, then the Kawatarō has several times the strength of a warrior ... The Kawatarō loves to drag cattle and horses into the water and the blood out sucking their bodies. People crossing rivers have to be very careful. ”In the Wakan Sansai Zue , which also contains the first known pictorial representation of a kappa, the Kawatarō is the only depicted demonic creature for which there is no source and which has no connection to you has a Chinese role model.
The preferred habitat of the kappa is water; usually a slowly flowing fresh water or a pond, occasionally it is also described in connection with salt water. The kappa is often described as small, the size of a three-year-old child, in some variants it is also the size of a ten-year-old child. In some records the entire body is covered with hair, in others it is covered with scales. It smells fishy and is often blue-yellow in color with a blue-black face. It almost always has a back shield, its face has sharp features and a beak-shaped mouth. These elements exist in numerous variations.
In most of the stories, the hands and feet are webbed. The left and right arms are connected to each other, the arms can slide from side to side and are flexible. Also in many stories, the kappa is described as having a plate-shaped hollow on the head ( Sara , 皿 ). Sara contains a special magical liquid, which is mostly simply referred to as water. This liquid represents the life force of the kappa. If it dries up or is spilled, the kappa loses its power as it moves on land; in some stories it even dies.
The kappa has both human features and the features of various animals, but it cannot be traced back to any specific animal. The greatest similarity to the Chinese softshell turtle (Jap. Suppon ( 鼈 )), but also in common with the Nihonzaru ( 日本猿 (Jap.), A Makakenart, and otter Kawauso ( 川獺 )) are determined.
properties
As long as a Kappa ashore moves, it provides for people no serious consequences. It steals in the fields cucumber (Jap. Kyuri ( 胡瓜 )), eggplant (Jap. Nasu ( 茄子 )) and giant pumpkins (Jap. Kabocha ( 南瓜 ) ) or uses people's supplies, preferably noodles (Japanese soba ( 蕎麦 )) and pickled soybeans (Japanese nattō ( 納豆 )). However, since it has an aversion to sesame, ginger, spit, iron and gourd (Japanese Hyōtan ( 票 筆 )), it can be easily tricked and driven away by humans.
Some of the tales tell of the kappa's knowledge of human anatomy and its knowledge of medicinal herbs and recipes, which it passes on out of gratitude to people who have helped it.
Many legends tell of the kappa's passion for sumo wrestling. It loves to challenge people, children and adults to a duel. As long as the magical liquid is in the Sara des Kappa, it cannot be defeated by a human being. Since it is a malicious but polite creature, people only have to bow politely before the wrestling match. The kappa will also bow in response and thus lose the water in its Sara and with it its strength.
A story from Okayama Prefecture shows that kappa is also a little simple-minded . In this story, an unknown child appears in a circle of children playing and challenges the children to a wrestling match. They recognize the kappa and decide to shake their heads. The kappa imitates them and spills the liquid out of its Sara and then has to withdraw because it is robbed of its power.
However, kappa becomes dangerous for humans and animals when it is in its element, water. In some regions of Japan, people believed that if you ate cucumber and then went swimming, you would be safely attacked by a kappa, dragged underwater and drowned.
Favorite victims of the kappa are horses and cows that move near a body of water inhabited by kappa. The kappa will drag them underwater to steal their liver. This is done by the kappa's movable arm reaching into the body through the victim's anus. Before the liver can be stolen, however, the kappa has to steal another organ that does not exist in anatomy, the so-called shirikodama ( 尻 子 玉 ), which, according to the ancient beliefs of the Japanese, was located at the end of the anus inside the body. The removal of the Shirikodama meant certain death. This danger, the removal of the shirikodama and the liver, was also exposed to people, adults and children, who ventured into a body of water inhabited by a kappa or who simply relieved themselves while sitting astride or over a body of water.
Kappa research
Numerous authors see the kappa as both characteristics of a yōkai and a kami . In today's research it is assigned a dual character: on the one hand, as a yōkai it is destructive, but as a water god it is also positively creative. Destructive and threatening, it is seen as a metaphor for the forces of nature, which people can defy with sufficient caution. Creatively and close to nature, it also helps individual people with field work, reveals anatomical secrets and remedies for diseases, and thus cares about people's health. It is closely related to fertility and harvest.
In the stories of many regions, the kappa does not only live in water. Twice a year it changes its location, from the mountains to the rivers and vice versa. Its coming and going is often associated with the equinoxes . In winter it is a Yama no Kami ( 山 の 神 , German “mountain deity”) or Yamawaro and in summer a Mizu no Kami ( 水 の 神 , German “water deity”) or a Kawawaro (Kappa).
The kappa as an agricultural deity is complex and often cannot be clearly described, but it is often viewed as a "smaller" deity ( kami ). Kappa festivals still exist locally today and the Kappa belief was certainly an important part of the Japanese folk belief in many regions.
Kappa in the 20th century
In the 20th century the meaning of kappa changed in Japan. He became a cute creature that is used to advertise in trade and tourism, a symbol of clean water, environmental awareness, village life and the national identity of Japan. An evaluation of the database of the daily newspaper Asashi Shinbun in 1995 showed that in the ten years from 1985 to 1995 more than 600 articles had appeared nationwide that more or less directly related to the kappa.
The new view of Kappa began with the work of the graphic artist and painter Ogawa Usen ( 小川 芋 銭 , 1868–1938), for example in his Kappa hyakuzu ( 河 童 百 図 , Eng . "100 Kappa-Pictures" ) from 1923 to 1937 ) which represented kappa as a symbol of human freedom in the realm of nature. Kappa experienced its first boom after the short story “Kappa” from the pen of the poet Akutagawa Ryūnosuke ( 芥 川 龍之介 , 1892–1927). From the point of view of a human narrator, a journey to the land of the Kappa is described in order to point out the miserable living conditions of ordinary people in a social satirical way.
With the next wave of kappa enthusiasm, it found its way into people's everyday life. In the 1950s and 1960s, various comic artists ( mangaka ) took on the creature. In the weekly newspaper Asahi Weekly a cartoon of the mangaka Shimizu Kon ( 清水 崑 , 1912–1974) appeared regularly from 1953 , which had the adventures of a Kappa as an office worker in the modern era as its content. Kojima Kō ( 小島 功 , * 1928) finally created the first female kappa and gave them a sexy look: his kappa only differed from people by pink nipples, thick eyebrows, the patterned back shield and the pale blue Sara on the head. Toy figures, pendants and stickers with these friendly and familiar looking kappas were produced in large numbers.
From the mid-1970s, the Kappa cult spread across the country. For example, in the city of Yukuhashi , Fukuoka Prefecture , a train station was named after the Kappa, in Imagawa the post office was renamed Imagawa Kappa Yūbinkyoku ( Eng . "Imagawa Kappa Post Office"). Organized groups of kappa followers emerged, mostly young people, who each chose their special kappa, which had been designed by the different mangakas, as the object of their worship. In 1993 there were 50 of these associations nationwide, which five years earlier had come together to form the Kappa Renpō Kyōwa Koku ( 河 童連邦 共和国 , German "United Republic of Kappa"). The enthusiasm for kappa was part of a movement to revive village life and became a symbol of an appealing and attractive life in the country. Under the motto “Water is life, Kappa is the heart”, as a creature connected to water, it became the leading figure in a campaign for water pollution control and against water pollution. On the countless Kappa products that came on sale, it was depicted as cute and sweet as Hello Kitty or the frog Keroppi . It appeared on children's school supplies (pencil cases, breakfast boxes, etc.), adorned notepaper and, printed on credit cards, accompanied Japanese tourists on their travels around the world. In the last decade of the 20th century at the latest, it has become a Japanese national symbol and popular object.
In addition to the marketing of the kappa as a commodity, a few other stories emerged over the years, such as Hino Ashihei's collection of short stories Kappa Mandala ( 河 童 曼陀羅 ) from 1957 and it became the hero of several film and television contributions. Most recently in 2010, when in the film Desu kappa ( デ ス カ ッ パ , dt. "Dead Kappa") it was upset by vicious human actions how a godzilla-like monster was laying a Japanese city to rubble and ashes.
Proverbs
Since Japanese proverbs are a reservoir for often ironically and witty formulated wisdom, it is not surprising that the kappa has also found its way here:
- Kappa no kawanagare ( 河 童 の 川流 れ , German "Kappas are washed away by the river")
Explanation: A kappa that has been swept away by the river and is proud of its powers that come from the water literally stands for an expert, connoisseur or specialist who makes a mistake in his own field.
- He no kappa ( 屁 の 河 童 , German "fart of a kappa")
Explanation: Just as the peculiar smell of the kappa comes from the habit of continuously emitting unpleasant gases in the water, the "fart of a kappa" is a child's play.
literature
- Michael Dylan Foster: The Metamorphosis of the Kappa. Transformation of Folklore to Folklorism in Japan . In: Asian Folklore Studies . tape 57 , no. 1 , 1998, p. 1–24 (English, [1] [PDF; accessed November 15, 2012]).
- Michael Dylan Foster: Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai . University of California Press, Berkeley 2009, ISBN 978-0-520-25362-9 (English).
- Ishida Eiichirō: The Kappa Legend. A Comparative Ethological Study on the Japanese Water-Spirit Kappa and Its Habit of Trying to Lure Horses into the Water . In: Asian Folklore Studies . tape 9 , 1950, pp. 1–152 (English, [2] [PDF; accessed November 15, 2012]).
- Ishikawa Jun'ichirō: 新版 河 童 の 世界 , Shinpan kappa no sekai ( Eng . The world of Kappa. New edition) . Tokyo 1985 (Japanese).
Web links
- Description of Kappa in the Obakemono database (English)
- 怪異 ・ 妖怪 画像 デ ー タ バ ー ス (Ghosts and Ghosts Database). 国際 日本 文化 研究 セ セ タ ー(International Research Center for Japanese Studies), 2014,accessed June 18, 2012(The Ghosts and Ghosts Database offers a variety of images of the kappa ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ 第三 章 珍禽 奇 獣 異 魚 . National Parliamentary Library , 2005, accessed June 17, 2012 (Japanese).
- ^ Foster, 1998 p. 2
- ↑ Description of the Suiko Kōryaku on the website of the city of Nishio. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 4, 2014 ; Retrieved July 4, 2012 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Foster, 1998 p. 3.
- ^ Own translation from English, based on Foster, 2009 p. 46.
- ↑ Foster, 2009 p. 46.
- ↑ a b Kappa. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2012, accessed June 17, 2012 .
- ^ Bernhard Scheid: Oni and Kappa. Religion in Japan, January 11, 2012, accessed June 17, 2012 .
- ↑ Foster, 1998 pp. 4-5.
- ↑ a b Kappa. The Obakemono Project, accessed June 17, 2012 .
- ↑ Kappa to Shirikodama - Kappa and the Small Anus Ball. Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, accessed on June 17, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Foster, 1998 pp. 3-6.
- ↑ Foster, 1998 pp. 9-10.
- ↑ 河 童 百 図 購入 に つ い て . (No longer available online.) Ushiku City Hall, 1999, formerly the original ; Retrieved June 17, 2012 (Japanese, with some of the 100 Kappa images). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Foster, 1998 pp. 11-18
- ↑ Brief description of the film on Wikia. Retrieved July 7, 2012 .
- ↑ 野 口 七 之 輔 : こ と わ ざ 辞典 (Lexicon of Proverbs) . Tokyo 1994, ISBN 4-528-00642-1 , pp. 148 (Japanese).
