Here's a Golden Kappa found on the street of Kappabashi.
Kappabashi (Kitchen Town where you can find all sorts of restaurant equipments and cookwares) has adopted the Kappa; a mythical Japanese water creature as its mascot of sorts although the origin of the name Kappabashi was either due to the practice of locals hanging out their ‘kappa’ raincoats on the nearby bridge or from a merchant named Kihachi Kappaya who funded the project to build Shinhorikawa River for water management.
The Kappa on the other hand is one of the many Suijin 水神 (water kami, water deities) in Japanese folklore. They are depicted as flesh-eating water imps who live in rivers, lakes, ponds, and other watery realms. They are generally portrayed with the body of a tortoise, ape-like head, scaly limbs, long hair circling the skull, webbed feet & hands and yellow-green skin,with a tortoise shell attached to their backs and with a hollow cavity atop its head.
Kappa are usually seen as mischievous troublemakers. Their pranks range from the relatively innocent, such as loudly passing gas or looking up women's kimonos, to the evilly sinister such as drowning people and animals, kidnapping children and raping women. When benevolent, the Kappa is supposedly a skilled teacher in the art of bone setting and other medical skills. In addition, the Kappa is always portrayed as trustworthy despite its many evil ways. When captured and forced to promise never again to harm anyone, the kappa always keeps its promise.
The defining characteristic of the Kappa is the hollow cavity atop its head. This saucer-like depression holds a strength-giving fluid. Should you chance upon the quarrelsome Kappa, please remember to bow deeply. If the courteous Kappa bows in return, it will spill its strength-giving water, making it feeble, and forcing it to return to its water kingdom.
Any addition or further insight to this kappa story by you folks over in Japan is most welcome!
Kappa are usually seen as mischievous troublemakers. Their pranks range from the relatively innocent, such as loudly passing gas or looking up women's kimonos, to the evilly sinister such as drowning people and animals, kidnapping children and raping women. When benevolent, the Kappa is supposedly a skilled teacher in the art of bone setting and other medical skills. In addition, the Kappa is always portrayed as trustworthy despite its many evil ways. When captured and forced to promise never again to harm anyone, the kappa always keeps its promise.
The defining characteristic of the Kappa is the hollow cavity atop its head. This saucer-like depression holds a strength-giving fluid. Should you chance upon the quarrelsome Kappa, please remember to bow deeply. If the courteous Kappa bows in return, it will spill its strength-giving water, making it feeble, and forcing it to return to its water kingdom.
Any addition or further insight to this kappa story by you folks over in Japan is most welcome!
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