What do kappas eat

Lakes and rivers where kappa live are often marked with warning signs. Their preferred method of attack is to drown or bite their opponent to death under water.

They particularly despise cows and horses, and will attack the animals for no reason at all. They have been known to kidnap or rape swimming women, and to devour humans alive. Usually they go for the anus — in particular a mythical ball of flesh located just inside the anus, called the shirikodama. In the water, there is no escape for anyone who crosses a Kappa. On land, however, it is possible to outwit one: the honorable kappa will feel obliged to return a bow, and if it can be tricked into bowing so low that the water in its dish spills out, it can be easily overcome.

Once bested, many kappa have been made to swear loyalty and friendship to their victor for the rest of their lives. The picture on the right shows a kappa that was caught in a net in Mito, Japan in This kappa had a turtle-like chest, a crooked back and three anuses. The middle picture above shows a humanoid kappa with no shell. The kappa on the left of the picture, sketched by Ito Chobei, was captured during the Meiwa period to in Edo, somewhere in present-day Tokyo's Edogawa ward.

When the creature was shown to Ota Chogen, he identified it as a kappa. Ota happened to have a kappa sketch with him that showed a creature with similar features. And if that doesn't kill you, the drowning will. What is this thing exactly? Some says it's the human soul.

I have to say that if there is such a thing as a soul, that isn't where I'd choose to keep it. Another idea is that it's the Buddhist hojo, a sort of onion-shaped jewel that grants wishes likewise on the storage location choice for that one. Yet another is that the ball is either actually the liver, or it's just in the way of getting at the liver, which the kappa is really after.

The kappa's obsession with our heinies also leads them to hide in toilets and try to stroke women's buttocks. But if that's all that happens, you're getting off easy: there are also tales of them raping women and leaving them pregnant with grotesque children. Most of these are killed at birth, although this tale from The Legends of Tono tells of someone who had a better idea just a bit too late:.

A child looking something like a kappa was born into a certain family in Kamigo village. There was no definite proof that it was a kappa's, but it had bright red skin and a large mouth. It was indeed a disgusting child. Loathing the child and wanting to get rid of it, someone took it to a fork in the road and sat it down.

After having walked only a short distance, he realized that he could make money by showing it. He went back, but it was already hiding and was nowhere to be seen. The kappa has a couple of weaknesses you can use against it: one, it loses its power if the water bowl on its head is dry, and two, it's very polite. So if you bow to it, it is compelled to bow back, and there's the trick.

For instance, Japanese kappa like to challenge people to sumo matches, and are very strong on land, so it's bound to be a losing battle. But of course you have to bow before a sumo match, and there you go: the kappa has to bow back, and is rendered powerless when the water in its head dish spills out.

If you want to try to catch a kappa and kill it, your best bet is to use its worst desires against it. In the print above, the guy who's mooning the river is actually the bait: the idea is to lure the kappa in and catch it when it goes after the guy's shirikodama. A few more helpful facts are that kappas dislike gourds, sesame, ginger, and iron. In some places eating a cucumber and then swimming is said to attract kappas to attack, but in others, it's said to be protective.

Check with the locals, I guess, before you try it. The jewel in our butthole is not the only buttocks-related aspect of the kappa legend. They're also renowned for something they do with their own behinds: farting. Experts that I consulted had no explanation for why kappa are supposedly so good at farting, so I can only assume it has something to do with their cucumber-heavy diet.

Despite their fondness for their own gas, they don't care for anyone else's more or less how most of us feel, I guess.

You can see this from the print above, where it's clear that the kappa can toot it out but they can't take it. Matt Alt explained to me that this print is an ad for a professional fart entertainer, sometimes called a fartiste and we are not making this up, there was really such a thing. Apparently if you're in Japan and you want to convince people you have a talent for flatulence, this is the obvious comparison. You probably won't have such expert aim as a professional fartiste. But if you've got kappa trouble and all else fails: try farting at them.

Kappa are said to be helpful to humans sometimes, although I suspect only when there's something in it for them. At least it's possible to make a deal with one in certain circumstances. One odd feature of the kappa is that it supposedly is talented in health care, making salves and medicines and setting broken bones. If you yank off a kappa's arm like when it's sticking it up out of the toilet to fondle you it knows how to reattach it, if it gets it back in time.

They've been known to teach someone their medical secrets in return for getting their arm back. There are shrines to Japanese kappa where you can leave cucumbers to appease them.

In some regions, it was customary to eat cucumbers before swimming as protection, but in others it was believed that this act would guarantee an attack. There is a cucumber-filled sushi roll known as kappamaki.

Once befriended, kappa may perform any number of tasks for human beings, such as helping farmers irrigate their land. Sometimes, they bring fresh fish, which is regarded as a mark of good fortune for the family that receives it.

Kappa possess keen intelligence and they are one of the few yokai able to learn human languages. They are also highly knowledgeable about medicine, and legend states that they taught the art of bone setting to human beings.

Due to these benevolent aspects, some shrines are dedicated to the worship of particularly helpful kappa. There were also festivals meant to placate the kappa in order to obtain a good harvest, some of which still take place today. These festivals generally took place during the two equinoxes of the year, when the kappa traveled from the rivers to the mountains and vice versa.

Kappa may also be tricked into helping people. Their deep sense of decorum prevents them from breaking an oath, for example. The expression kappa no kawa nagare "a kappa drowning in water" means that even experts make mistakes. Yokai Wiki Explore. Main Page All Pages Community. Recent blog posts Forum. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account?

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