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Daniel Tarr (et.al)
Kappa Monsters
- Kappa Szörnyetegek -
2014.
The Kappa is a creature in Japanese Folklore. In places where it is rumoured to roam, warning signs have been placed to ward away children and tourists. Kappa's are water demons with incredible elastic arms. They lure people to their pools and drown them to eat them.
The kappa is an amphibious, web-footed aquatic creature, about the size of an 11-year-old boy, with a sharp beak for a mouth and bald patches on the tops of it head. Kappas are known for tripping up horses and stealing vegetables from fields, and using their anus to cause various forms of mischief. Children are told not to swim too far out in rivers or the kappa will pull them under and suck the life energy out of them. Kappas receive their power from a depression in their head that holds water. The easiest way to trip one up is to bow. When the kappa returns the bow, water spills from its head and it loses its powers.
There are two ways to stop these deamons form eating you. The only thing they love to eat more then human flesh (particularly the livers) are cucumbers. They even sneak out of their habitat just to get a cucumber. Just carve your name and birth date in a cucumber and when they eat it, they'll have to leave you alone. Another way is to take advantage of the hollow in their head. This hollow contains water. This water gives them their power. If you find a way to make them bow, the water will spill out and he will be powerless.
Kappa (河童, "river-child"), alternatively called Kawatarō (川太郎, "river-boy"), Komahiki (“horse puller”), or Kawako (川子, "river-child"), are a yōkai found in Japanese folklore, and also a cryptid. [1] [2] [3] Their name comes from a mixture of the word "kawa" (river) and "wappo," an inflection of "waraba" (child). In Shintō they are considered to be one of many suijin (水神,“water deity”), theiryorishiro, or one of their temporary appearances. [4] A hair-covered variation of a Kappa is called a Hyōsube (ひょうすべ). [5] There are more than eighty other names associated with the kappa in different regions which include Kawappa, Gawappa, Kōgo, Mizushi, Mizuchi, Enkō, Kawaso, Suitengu, and Dangame. [3] Along with the oni and the tengu, they are one of the most well-known yōkai in Japan. [6] [7]
Kappa are similar to Finnish Näkki, Scandinavian/Germanic Näck/Neck, Slavian Vodník and Scottish Kelpie in that all have been used to scare children of dangers lurking in waters.
It has been suggested that the kappa legends are based on the Japanese giant salamander or "hanzaki", an aggressive salamander which grabs its prey with its powerful jaws. [8] |
Kappa (Gatarō, Kawako) Water Imp (1836) |
Appearance
Kappa are typically depicted as roughly humanoid in form, and about the size of a child. Their scaly, reptilian skin ranges in color from green to yellow or blue. [9] [10] [11] Kappa supposedly inhabit the ponds and rivers of Japan and have various features to aid them in this environment, such as webbed hands and feet. [12] They are sometimes said to smell like fish, and they can certainly swim like them. The expression kappa-no-kawa-nagare ("a kappa drowning in a river") conveys the idea that even experts make mistakes. [13] Although their appearance varies from region to region, the most consistent features are a carapace, a beak for a mouth, and a plate (sara), which is a flat hairless region on top of their head that is always wet, and which is regarded as the source of their power. This cavity must be full whenever a kappa is away from the water; if ever dries, the kappa will lose its power, and may even die, according to some legends. [3] [9] [10] Another notable feature in some stories, is that the kappa's arms are said to be connected to each other through the torso and able to slide from one side to the other. [3] While they are primarily water creatures, they do on occasion venture on to land. When they do, the plate can be covered with a metal cap for protection. [14] In fact, in some incarnations, kappa will spend spring and summer in the water, and the rest of the year in the mountains as aYama-no-Kami (山の神, “mountain deity”). [3] Although they are reported to inhabit all of Japan, they are often said to be particular to Saga Prefecture. [15]
Behavior
Kappa are usually seen as mischievous troublemakers or trickster figures. Their pranks range from the relatively innocent, such as loudly passing gas or looking up women's kimonos, to the malevolent, such as drowning people and animals, kidnapping children, and raping women. [14] |
Katsushika Hokusai |
As water monsters, kappa have been frequently blamed for drownings, and are often said to try to lure people to the water and pull them in with their great skill at wrestling. [14] They are sometimes said to take their victims for the purpose of drinking their blood, eating their livers or gaining power by taking their shirikodama (尻子玉), a mythical ball said to contain their soul which is located inside the anus. [14] [16] [17] [18] Even today, signs warning about kappa appear by bodies of water in some Japanese towns and villages. Kappa are also said to victimize animals, especially horses and cows; the motif of the kappa trying to drown horses is found all over Japan. [19] In these stories, if a kappa is caught in the act, it can be made to apologize, sometimes in writing. [19] This usually takes place in the stable where the kappa attempted to attack the horse, which is considered the place where the kappa is most vulnerable. [3]
Kappa are also known as ravishers of women. An 18th-century ukiyo-e image by Utamaro depicts kappa raping an ama diver underwater. In his Tōno Monogatari, Kunio Yanagita records a number of beliefs from the Tōno area about women being accosted and even impregnated by kappa. [20] Their offspring were said to be repulsive to behold, and were generally buried. [20]
It was believed that if confronted with a kappa there were a few means of escape: Kappa, for one reason or another, obsess over being polite, so if a person were to gesture a deep bow to a kappa it would more than likely return it. In doing so, the water kept in the lilypad-like bowl on their head would spill out and the kappa would be rendered unable to leave the bowed position until the bowl was refilled with water from the river in which it lived. If a human were to refill it, it was believed the kappa would serve them for all eternity. [14] A similar weakness of the kappa in some tales are their arms, which can be easily pulled from their body. If their arm is detached, they will perform favors or share knowledge in exchange for its return. [3] Once the kappa is in possession of its arm it can then be reattached. Another method of defeat involves the kappa and their known love of shogi or sumo wrestling. They will sometimes challenge those they encounter to wrestle or other various tests of skill. [2] This tendency is easily used against them just as with the bow, by encouraging them to spill the water from their sara. They will also accept challenges put to them, such as in the tale of the farmer's daughter who was promised to a kappa in marriage by her father in return for the creature irrigating his land. She challenged it to submerge several gourds in water and when it failed in its task, it retreated and she was saved from the promised marriage. [3] Kappa have also been driven away using their aversion to variously, iron, sesame, or ginger. [3]
Kappa are not entirely antagonistic to humankind, however. They are curious of human civilization, and they can understand and speak Japanese. They may even befriend human beings in exchange for gifts and offerings such as nasu (茄子, "Japanese eggplant"), soba (そば or 蕎麦, “buckwheat noodles”) nattō (なっとう or 納豆, "fermented soybeans"), or kabocha (カボチャ, 南瓜, “winter squash”), but especially cucumbers, the only food kappa are known to enjoy more than human children. [3] Japanese parents sometimes write the names of their children (or themselves) on cucumbers and toss them into waters believed to be infested with kappa in order to mollify the creatures and allow the family to bathe. [21] In some regions, it is encouraged to eat cucumbers before swimming as protection, but in others it is warned this act is said to guarantee an attack. [3] There is even a kind of cucumber-filled sushi roll named for the kappa, the kappamaki. [14]
Once befriended, kappa have been known to perform any number of tasks for human beings, such as helping farmers irrigate their land. Sometimes, they will bring the occasional gift of fresh fish, which is regarded as a mark of good fortune for the family that receives it. [3] They are also highly knowledgeable of medicine, and legend states that they taught the art of bone setting to humankind. [14] [22] [23] Due to these benevolent aspects, some shrines are dedicated to the worship of particularly helpful kappa. [24] There were also festivals meant to placate the kappa in hopes of receiving 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. [3] Kappa may also be tricked into helping people. Their deep sense of decorum will not allow them to break an oath, for example; so if a human being can dupe a kappa into promising to help him, the kappa has no choice but to follow through.
[Source: Wikipedia] |
Utagawa Kuniyoshi |
Kappas in Japanese Culture
Kappa, alternately called Gataro or Kawako, are mythical water imps found in Japanese folklore. Many believe that the Kappa is just a part of Japanese legend however they have become a popular member in the cryptozoology field. In Shintoism they are considered to be one of many Suijin (literally thought to be water kami or water deity).
Kappa are actually protected in certain regions of Japan such as Tanushimaru. Tanushimaru is a productive agricultural region situated along the Chikugo River, the largest river in Kyushu. It is where the giant Kyoho grapes were born, and the town is famed for both grapes and its extensive plant nurseries. Local government there actually has produced laws to protect the Kappa much like there are protections in place for creatures like Champ (Lake Champlain).
The history of the Kappa in Tanushimaru runs deep more on legend then fact but many believe as follows:
Kuzenbo is the name of the leader of the entire Kappa scattered throughout Japan, and he generally lives here in the Chikugo River. It seems he often visits other rivers in Japan and lives there for short periods of time, as we would in a holiday home, but Kappa researchers believe that the Chikugo is his home river. This is located in Kurume City, downstream of Tanushimaru, and it is there that Kuzenbo is worshipped.
Apparently the Chikugo River and the many waterways and tributaries extending from it must be to the liking of the Kappa, because there are so many of them living here.
“Kappa are mischievous creatures and full of curiosity, but even so the people of Tanushimaru are friends with them. When the heavy rains continue and river threatens to overflow its banks and flood the region, the people depend on the Kappa to protect them. And to say thank you, they leave out the cucumbers that the Kappa love, and invite them to local sumo wrestling competitions.”
Stories and folklore are revolving around the Kappa still run strong. Stories such as this one are still told…
“A long, long time ago there was a lazy Kappa named Yagoro. He would always nap on top of the wooden irrigation channels instead of spending time with the other Kappa. He always napped because he was so tired: every night he played though the region, satisfying his curiosity (perhaps there are a few of you who do the same thing?) One hot summer day, when the children were playing in the river, suddenly a Kappa - Yagoro - came floating down. They were astonished, because Kappa are supposed to be such good swimmers. He had run about so much at night that he wore out his supernatural powers while he was sleeping, fell into the irrigation channel and was swept away.
Yagoro's failure left him immortalized in the saying, "Kappa no Kawanagare," which literally means "a Kappa swept downstream," and has come to mean that even experts can sometimes make mistakes.”
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Toriyama Sekien |
The people of Tanushimaru state that the rivers are much dirtier today than they were in the past, and perhaps this is why the Kappa are seen only seldom. Even so, people visiting Tanushimaru will be astonished at how many there are.
[Source: Unknown Explorers]
Edo-period kappa sketches
Kappa, arguably Japan's most well-known creature of legend, are mischievous river imps notorious for luring people -- particularly children -- into the water to drown and eat them. They smell like fish, enjoy cucumbers and sumo, and are said to be very courteous despite their malicious tendencies.
Although kappa are typically about the size of a child and greenish in color, they can vary widely in appearance. They frequently have a turtle-like shell and scaly skin, but sometimes their skin is moist and slick, or coated in fur. Most walk upright on their hind legs, but they are occasionally seen on all fours. Regardless of body type, the top of the kappa's head usually features a bowl-shaped depression containing water. The water inside this bowl is the source of the kappa's power.
The Edo period (1603 to 1867) saw some serious scientific literature devoted to the study of these creatures. Suikokouryaku (1820), for example, is a compendium of kappa-related information gathered from a variety of sources from Japan and China. The book, which is housed in the Iwase Bunko Library, includes kappa sketches by artist Kurimoto Tanshu. Here are a few.
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The kappa on the left, sketched by Ito Chobei, was captured during the Meiwa period (1764 to 1772) in Edo, somewhere in present-day Tokyo's Edogawa ward. When the creature was shown to Ota Chogen, a noted herbalist of the time, he identified it as a kappa -- he happened to have a kappa sketch with him that showed a creature with strikingly similar features. According to the text in the book, this kappa measured 60 cm (2 ft) tall and had slippery skin like that of a catfish.
The middle picture above shows a type of kappa with no shell, and the picture on the right shows a kappa that was caught in a net in Mito, Japan in 1801. This kappa had a prominent chest, a crooked back and three anuses. |
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Later in the Edo period, an illustrated guide to 12 types of kappa (Suiko juni-hin no zu) was produced based on information taken from Suikokouryaku. A portion of this document is shown above. Check out the complete, high-resolution version here. |
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Ito Keisuke, a well-known man of medicine and prolific natural history artist in the Edo period, sometimes included depictions of mysterious creatures with his animal drawings -- like the kappa on the left above, for example. The middle picture shows a kappa that was observed in one of the moats around Edo castle in the late 18th century. The picture on the right shows a kappa observed in the early 17th century in what is now the city of Hita in Oita prefecture (Kyushu). This kappa looked sort of like a turtle standing on its hind legs, and it had a depression on its head, webbed fingers, and splotches on its chest and abdomen. |
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The neneko (or neko) kappa, shown on the left above, was sketched by Akamatsu Sotan in his 1855 work entitled Tonegawa zushi ("Illustrated History of the Tone River"). This kappa was known to move to a new location along the river each year, causing trouble wherever it went.
The image on the right shows a kappa scroll and kappa hand belonging to Sougenji (a.k.a. Kappa-dera, or "kappa temple") located in the Ueno-Asakusa area of Tokyo. The temple is one of countless places in Japan that has stories and legends of kappa associated with it. According to this temple's legend, the surrounding area was once a basin with poor drainage, making it prone to flooding. A local raincoat maker (the Japanese word for "raincoat" is "kappa") took it upon himself to construct a series of drainage ditches, which he was able to complete with the help of a kappa living in the Sumida River. It is said that people fortunate enough to lay eyes on this kappa were blessed with success in business.
For lots more background information and kappa links, check here.
[Source: Pink Tentacle] |
Kappa Characteristics
Bringing things a bit back down to earth with the Kappa; most depictions show kappa as child-sized humanoids, though their bodies are often more like those of monkeys or frogs than human beings. Some descriptions say their faces are apelike, while others show them with beaked visages more like those of tortoises or with duck beaks. Pictures usually show kappa with thick shells and scaly skin that ranges in color from green to yellow or blue. Kappa are said to inhabit the ponds and rivers of Japan and have various features to aid them in this environment, such as webbed hands and feet. They are sometimes even said to smell like fish, and they can certainly swim like them. The expression kappa no kawa nagare ("a drowning kappa") conveys the idea that even experts make mistakes as described earlier.
The kappa's most notable feature, however, is the water-filled depressions atop their heads. These cavities are surrounded by scraggly hair, and this type of bobbed hair style is named okappa atama for the creatures. The kappa derive their incredible strength from these liquid-filled holes, and anyone confronted with one may exploit this weakness by simply getting the kappa to spill the water from its head. One trusted method to do this is to appeal to the kappa's deep sense of etiquette, for a kappa cannot help but return a deep bow, even if it means losing its head-water in the process. Once depleted, the kappa is seriously weakened and may even die. Other tales say that this water allows kappa to move about on land, and once emptied, the creatures are immobilized. Stubborn children are encouraged to follow the custom of bowing on the grounds that it is a defense against kappa. Modern signs warn children of kappa lurking in water.
Kappa are mischievous troublemakers. Their pranks range from the relatively innocent, such as loudly passing gas or looking up women's kimonos, to the more troublesome, such as stealing crops, kidnapping children, or raping women. In fact, small children are one of the gluttonous kappa's favorite meals, though they will eat adults as well. They feed on these hapless victims by sucking out the mythic shirikodama ball (or entrails, blood, liver, or "life force", depending on the legend) through the anus. Even today, signs warning about kappa appear by bodies of water in some Japanese towns and villages. Kappa are also said to be afraid of fire, and some villages hold fireworks festivals each year to scare the spirits away.
Kappa are not entirely antagonistic to mankind, however. They are curious of human civilization, and they can understand and speak Japanese. They thus sometimes challenge those they encounter to various tests of skill, such as shogi (a chess-like game popular in Japan) or sumo wrestling. They may even befriend human beings in exchange for gifts and offerings, especially cucumbers, the only food kappa are known to enjoy more than human children. Japanese parents sometimes write the names of their children (or themselves) on cucumbers and toss them into kappa-infested waters in order to mollify the creatures and allow the family to bathe. There is even a kind of cucumber-filled sushi roll named for the kappa, the kappamaki.
Once befriended, kappa have been known to perform any number of tasks for human beings, such as helping farmers irrigate their land. They are also highly knowledgeable of medicine, and legend states that they taught the art of bone setting to mankind. Due to these benevolent aspects, some shrines are dedicated to the worship of particularly helpful kappa. Kappa may also be tricked into helping people. Their deep sense of decorum will not allow them to break an oath, for example, so if a human being can dupe a kappa into promising to help him, the kappa has no choice but to follow through.
There are several theories for the origins of the kappa in Japanese myth. One possibility is that they developed from an ancient Japanese practice of floating stillborn fetuses down rivers and streams. Another theory is that the kappa were invented to scare children away from rivers or rice paddies, using the swollen anus common in drowning victims as "proof" of having one's shirikodama stolen. The name "kappa" may be derived from the term for "robe" used by the Portuguese monks who arrived in Japan in the 16th century; they called this garment a capa, and the monks' appearance is not unlike that of the similarly named Japanese sprites, from the loose, shell-like cloaks to the tonsured hair. Some modern commentators even suggest that the kappa may be space aliens, and many of their pranks are similar to those often attributed to UFOs. They could also be some form of unknown creature that breathed outside of water by carrying water with it in its head. |
Kappa from the Yokai movie (from the Yokai Monsters trilogy from the 1960's, to the recent monsterpiece Kibakichi) without a Kappa! This guy Kyoichi Shimazaki, AKA Ghostman, has some really wonderful effects makeup and behind the scenes images on his site, including the stunning Kappa creation pictured below.
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Kappa in Modern Culture
Today Kappa are popular figures in Japanese animation, children's toys, and literature. Modern depictions make them much less monstrous, showing them instead as cute, cartoon like figures.
A notable literary appearance is the short story "Kappa" by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. The INKlings in Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World are at one point referred to as kappa. This is, however, limited to the English translation, and no mention of the kappa is made in the Japanese original. One of comic artist Shigeru Mizuki's most popular characters is Sanpei, the Kappa, who starred a long running comic series, as well as several animated features. The kappa were also the inspiration for the creature in the film Ringu. A series of animated shorts on Japanese TV, (How to Raise a Kappa) detail the humorous trials of a young man trying to raise a kappa as a pet.
Kappa also appear in a number of video games, many of which have appeared in localized form in the West. A status ailment in the computer role-playing game Final Fantasy VI transformed the affected player character into a kappa; however, the word "kappa" was replaced with the word "imp" for the English language localization of the game. The second chapter of the game Guild Wars called Factions has many Asian inspired themes. The character Skull Kid, a common imp in the Nintendo 64 installments of Zelda appears to be loosely based on it. One of the monster types in the game is a turtle like creature with a bowl in its head called Kappa. These creatures do not have water in their bowls though.
In the game "Goemon's Great Adventure", there are small kappas that jump up and attack the player. There is also a bigger version that can only fit its head in the screen in a later level. The Koopas in the Super Mario Bros. games also appear to be based on the creatures, and Super Mario World goes so far as to name a mountain with its peak filled with water "Kappa Mountain".
Several Pokémon, such as Psyduck, Golduck, Lotad, Lombre and Ludicolo, are undoubtedly based on the imp. A monster named "Kapha" appears in the PC MMORPG Ragnarok Online. In Digimon Savers, Gawappamon, Kamemon's Champion form is undoubtedly based on the Kappa. Recently in the manga Naruto, the three-tailed tailed beast has been revealed to be to be a kappa. InuYasha, Harvest Moon, Pocky & Rocky, We Love Katamari, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon and Gintama also feature kappa characters.
In the Tokyo Mew Mew anime, the Mew Mews fight a Chimera Anima in episode 8 that looks like a Kappa, which later returns in episode 49 when Tart and Kish release all of the Chimera Anima that have appeared before that episode into Tokyo. In "Animal Crossing", the boatman who takes the player to the tropical island is a kappa named, in the English localization, as Kapp'n. Although for the localization he claims to be a turtle, he has two songs expressing his love for cucumbers. In the movie Spirited Away many Japanese deities are represented, and the kappas are not the exception. They are seen as obese duck-like creatures with a leaf on the top of their heads, specifically when Haku helps Chihiro to get across the bridge, and later, a small group of kappas are seen taking a bath.
Western media includes notable appearances of kappa as well. The James Bond novel The Man with the Red Tattoo by Raymond Benson features a Japanese assassin nicknamed "The Kappa", because of his short height. In the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the title characters are confused with Kappa during their time travels to Japan's feudal era. The children's cartoon Arthur aired an episode in which one character faces a kappa during a fantasy scene. An early story in Usagi Yojimbo has the title character fighting such a monster. In the Harry Potter series, kappas are mentioned a few times in the context of Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes.
The bottom line is that the Kappa is probably cryptozoology’s biggest “sleeper” with its influence on modern day culture. It is by far Japan’s biggest cryptid and its influence stretches world wide. Whether the creature is that of just a legend, or if it does in fact exist though, is yet to be determined.
The Evidence
A tremendous amount of artwork, stories, and tales of the Kappa exist however no firm evidence suggests that the Kappa are any more then a legend at this point in time.
The Sightings
Sightings of the Kappa have dwindled through modern time but are said to still be seen often in some remote river regions of Japan and in the Tanushimaru province. A list of individual sightings are being built to be displayed here at a later time. |
From the great Shigeru Mizuki's adorably weird Sanpei the Kappa to the classic brushy comic strip work of Kon Shimizu (Kappa Tengoku, Kowataro the Kappa, etc.) which became the spokesmonsters of Kizakura Sake for many decades, Kappa are a big part of Japanese pop culture. Not that these river-dwelling pranksters are a modern phenomenon, though... no, sir! Kappa are venerable Yokai, and have been a part of Japanese folklore for centuries. [Source: Monsterama]
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The Stats – (Where applicable)
• Classification: Hybrid
• Size: About 2 to 3 feet according to most sightings
• Weight: Roughly 30 pounds as estimated by size
• Diet: Most likely water vegitation, cucumbers, and other human foods
• Location: Japan
• Movement: Walking and Swimming
• Environment: Japanese rivers and basins
[Source: Unknown Explorers]
Yokai
There are several types of Japanese monsters or Yokai as they are collectively known. Lurking in the halls of Buddhist temples and museums across Japan are a host of monster mummies -- the preserved remains of demons, mermaids, Kappa, Tengu, Raiju, and even human monks.
Yokai is a Japanese word for Japanese supernatural beings. Sawa Kurotani, a professor of Anthropology at Redlands University, wrote in the Daily Yomiuri. Yokai are unique products of Japanese supernatural beliefs, with no exact equivalence in Western culture. They stem from the animistic world view of Shinto, in which everything animate and inanimate has a spirit, and therefore has potential to turn into supernatural beings with mystical powers. Their shapes and characters vary widely; so do their powers and capabilities.
While origins and shapes vary greatly," Kurotani wrote, "all yokai have one thing in common: they are the products ofblockagepent-up emotions that can not be expressed, desires unfulfilled, lives terminated prematurely, inanimate objects that cannot fully turn into divine beings. They are condemned in perpetual limbo, between being and becoming, in neither this world nor the nether world. This perpetual in-between-ness is the source of their strangeness and grotesqueness.
The Japanese have traditionally been fascinated with yokai, and other spirits such as mononoke and ayakashi, and many believe they truly exist. Rather than view them as something scary or horrible they are seen as things that exist in everyday life and have to be dealt with. In the Heian period (794-1185) the Emperor employed an onmyoji, a bureaucrat who handled all supernatural matters connected with Imperial Court.
Records of yokai exist in Japans earliest historical documents. Gazu Hyakki Yako (Illustrated Fairy Night Parade) was landmark publication released in 1776 with detailed research and illustrations of more than 100 yokai species. In other publications descriptions of yokai often appeared side by side with descriptions of real plants and animals, with some like tanukis and foxes, having both yokai and biological descriptions.
Book: Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt (Kodansha International, 2008) is a field guide to 122 Japanese monsters. Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai (University of California Press, 2009) by Michael Dylan Foster, a professor at Indiana University; Anime and Its Roots in Early Japanese Monster Art by Zilia Papp, professor at Hosei University (Global Oriental, 2009) Papp traces the visual genealogies of many of yokai with an 18th-century yokai catalog by Toriyama Sekien. |
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"Various Yokai Flying out of Wicker Clothes Hamper"
from the "Omoi Tsuzura" (おもゐつづら), Yoshitoshi |
Different Kinds of Yokai
The long-nosed tengu glares at a solitary traveler from the branches of a tree. Below the mountain, a web-fingered kappa lurks in the dark water beneath a bridge. Downstream, there's a rustling sound in a garbage dump as discarded items eerily come to life as tsukumogami. And on city streets, a seemingly ordinary woman known as Kuchisake Onna uses a cold-sufferer's sanitary mask to hide a gaping mouth full of sharp teeth... Each of these entities is a yokai.[Source: Tom Baker, Daily Yomiuri, December 2010]
Tools and household items such as umbrellas, inkstones and pots are said to turn into yokai after 100 years of age. Many yokai have regional associations. The nureonna (wet woman), a grotesque creature with the head and arms of a woman and the body of a giant snake, inhabits dense willow forests along the banks of swift-flowing rivers in the deep mountains along the borders of Fukushima and Niigata Prefectures in northern Honshu.
Among the yokai associated with Yokkaichi, a town on Ise Bay, are the Nure Onna, who has the upper body of a hag and the lower body of a colossal snake, and Kara Kasa, a one-eyed umbrella that hops about on a single leg. The mountains of northwestern Shikoku are said to be the home of a huge fire-breathing bird called the Basan. It has been described as a nocturnal creature with beak, fleshy wattle and spurs on the back of its legs sort of like those on a rooster.
There are also yokai that seem to have a relatively recent origin. Foster writes that "some Japanese scholars have suggested the Kuchisake Onna, for example, may represent a sort of education mama turned monster: the image of her confronting children...on the twilit streets between school and supplementary lessons at juku, was born of anxiety felt by children about pressures exerted by their own mothers." Award-winning Canadian comic book artist Nina Matsumoto told the Daily Yomiuri Shimbun she thinks the Kuchisake Onna is "something adults can use to scare children. It's a very useful urban myth. 'Children, don't stray too far, or go with strangers.'" [Source: Tom Baker, Daily Yomiuri, December 2010]
On the psychological origin of another yokai, the Konaki Jijia baby who changes into an old man who drags you down, who crushes you to death fiction writer John Paul Catton, told the Daily Yomiuri; "To me it represents the fear of responsibility and the fear of parental obligations which you can't keep, which turn into a millstone around your neck. And this is a literal example of that." [Ibid]
Evidence of Mythical Creatures in Japan
- Until about 100 years ago Japanese believed that kappa and tengu inhabited the forest and rivers of Japan. A tengu mummy is kept in Hachonoche, Aomori Prefecture. One temple has an entire hand of a kappa. A bakemono claw is displayed at another temple. Analysis of the tengu mummy reveals it has the head of a cat and the legs, wings and feathers of a woodcock.
- In his 2009 book Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai Indiana University Prof. Michael Dylan Foster writes that questions about what yokai are"often elicits not a definition, but a list of examples." The earliest references to yokai, he said, are records nearly a thousand years old that describe to a "night procession of 100 demons said to be so terrifying viewing it could fatal. [Source: Tom Baker, Daily Yomiuri, December 2010] |
- Mummified ogres, and mermen have been displayed at Japanese museums and temples. A temple in Shizuoka claims to possess a letter of apology written by a tengu captured by the temples head monk in the mid-17th century. In 2001, a tsuchinoko was found and displayed in the small ski resort of Mikata.
- Historians have found papers with special medicines and prescriptions "administered by kappa." A number of encounters with supernatural creatures have been reported. A document dated to 1853 described the death of 13 samurai officials by a five-meter-long monster, with a body like a seal and the face of a monkey, disturbed in a canal near Inba Marsh in Chiba Prefecture.
- Many creatures were displayed at a exhibit at the Kawasaki Museum called Japans Mythical Creatures: Accounts of Unidentified Living Organisms. DNA analysis of some of the creatures revealed that many were made by combing monkey remains with body parts from other animals.
- A temple in Kamuro in Hashimoto in Wakayama Prefecture contains a mummified mermaid that looks like the head from Munchs The Scream attached to the body of a fish, and most likely is the body of fish sewn onto the head of a snow monkey whose face has been reconstructed. The mermaid is thought to date to the early- or mid-19th and perhaps was used in a traveling freak show.
- Lake Kussharo in Hokkaido is said to be the home of Lochness-like monster named "Kussie." Since 1973, more than 100 local people in the town of Teshikga have reported seeing the long black eel-like creature.
[Source: Facts and Details]
Different types of Yokai Mummies
Some temples and museums in Japan boast the ownership of several of the most rare relics in the world, namely mummies of demons, imp, Raiju, Tengu, Kappa, and other mythical creatures. In fact, some institutions in the northern parts of the country even host “living mummies” of human origin, as in people who have willingly sacrificed their own lives in temples, in rituals lasting more than 5 and a half years to complete. And while some of the mummified remains have been made from parts of other animals, a good deal of them are of yet-unexplained origin, which amplifies their mystery.
Kappa
The kappa is one of the most famous of all yokai and along with the Tatsu (Japanese dragon), Tengu (the bird men) and the Oni (Japanese daemon) the most well known outside of Japan. Kappa has the shell of a turtle and frog’s arms and legs. It has a human like face but with a beak instead of a mouth. It has a fringe hair like that of a western monk about its head. The hair is known as okappa-atama.
Kappa head
The kappa is an amphibious, web-footed aquatic creature, about the size of an 11-year-old boy, with a sharp beak for a mouth and bald patches on the tops of it head. Kappas are known for tripping up horses and stealing vegetables from fields, and using their anus to cause various forms of mischief. Children are told not to swim too far out in rivers or the kappa will pull them under and suck the life energy out of them. Kappas receive their power from a depression in their head that holds water. The easiest way to trip one up is to bow. When the kappa returns the bow, water spills from its head and it loses its powers.
Many kappa (river imp) mummies are thought to have been crafted by Edo-period artists using parts of animals ranging from monkeys and owls to stingrays.
The top of a kappa’s skull is concave and holds a magick liquid that gives the water goblin its phenomenal strength. Despite being only the size of a small child a kappa is strong enough to overpower a horse or cow.
Kappa will often challenge an unsuspecting human to a sumo match and easily overpower them with it’s magickal brawn. The defeated victim would have his bowels devoured after they were ripped from his anus.
Animals would be killed by kappas in this way as well. Kappa was particularly fond of the shirikodama, a fabled ball said to be found near the anus.
A kappa victim will usually have a distended anus and is known as a Gappadoko. Some victims, oddly, seemed to be smiling after their fatal, anal violation!
Kappa would often lurk in toilets and fondle women’s thighs and buttocks. Indeed Kappa were said to rape women if they got a chance. In Matsuzaki village, Iwate Prefecture, women bore hybrid children from Kappas for two generations. The creatures were so grotesque that they were hacked to pieces upon birth and buried in wine casks.
Kappa fairy Oberon [Source: The Art of Juan Cabana]
National Museum of Ethnology, at Leiden in the Netherlands has a mummified kappa, seemingly made of parts of a monkey and a stingray.
Zuiryūji temple in Osaka holds a preserved kappa with a very human like ribcage and a fish like head. It may be a fish head on a monkey body. The arms and legs look simian. It is 70 cm long and dates to 1682.
In a shrine in Kumamoto prefecture there is an alleged mummified kappa hand. It looks like it may have come from a Japanese otter, now feared to be extinct.
In the Matsuura Brewery in Imari, Saga Prefecture, a whole mummified kappa is on show. It was discovered in a box during plant renovations over fifty years ago. It is known as kahaku. It has a cat like body with no shell but a long neck and odd looking skull with eyes set far apart. Its nose recalls a softshelled turtle. |
Kappa mummy at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden (Netherlands)
This mummified kappa, which now resides in a Dutch museum, appears to consist of various animal parts put together in a seamless whole. It is believed to have been created for the purpose of carnival entertainment in the Edo period.
Kappa mummy at Zuiryūji Temple, Osaka [Photo]
The 70-centimeter long humanoid purportedly dates back to 1682.
Kappa mummy at Matsuura Brewery
The notable kappa mummy can be seen in a seemingly unlikely place -- at a sake brewery in the town of Imari (Saga prefecture).
According to a company brochure, the mummified kappa was discovered inside a wooden box that carpenters found hidden in the ceiling when replacing the roof over 50 years ago.
Reckoning the creature was an old curiosity their ancestors had passed down for generations, the company owners built a small altar and enshrined the kappa mummy as a river god.
Kappa hand
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Demons (oni)
One of the best known yokai, the Oni feature in many Japanese legends. Oni are savage daemons in bodying the worst of human nature. They can have ox like, bird like, or humanoid heads. The generally have horns and wild mane of hair. They have three claws on each and three toes on each foot. Some have three eyes. They may be red, green, blue, white or grey in colour. They go naked except for a loin cloth. They are usually huge in size and their favored weapon is an iron spiked club.
Oni have their ancestry, like so many other yokai, in China. Here the ruler of Jigoku the Buddhist hell is called Emma-Daiō. He has two Oni henchmen, one green and one red known as ao-oni and aka-oni respectively.
Oni in Japan have a roll akin to that of trolls, giants and ogres in western lore. They walk the earth spreading terror in their wake until stopped by some hero. But like daemons they also torture souls in hell. Despite this their unpleasant image was often carved into tiles at the end of Japanese roofs. The onigawara tiles were used to keep evil spirits away from the building.
In the festival of setsubun, that marks the start of the new year and spring in the old lunar calendar, people don Oni masks to ward off evil and bad luck for the coming year. The Oni themselves are said to be driven off by the smell of burning sardines (and who can blame them?) and soya beans, which they cannot abide. Folk throw these and yell Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Out with demons! In with happiness!").
Zengyōji temple in Kanazawa ,Ishikawa prefecture holds the head of a three faced oni. Its origins are unknown and it was supposedly found by priest in a temple storage chamber in the early 18th century. It has two faces (but only 3 eyes) at the front of the head and one at the back. It is put on show at the spring equinox.
The three-faced demon head mummy, discovered in the early 18th century at the Zengyōji temple, in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, is of unknown origin, and no clear manufacturing appears on it. Two adjoined faces adorn the front of the skull, while a third one is located at the back, in what looks like something that has come out of a childhood nightmare. Today, the creature is shrined at the temple, and is revered as a sacred being, despite the fact that it made its discoverer sick and that the man only got cured when the mummy was brought to the temple.
Three-faced demon head at Zengyōji temple [Photos]
Zengyōji (善行寺) temple in the city of Kanazawa (Ishikawa prefecture) is home to the mummified head of a three-faced demon. Legend has it that a resident priest discovered the mummy in a temple storage chamber in the early 18th century. Imagine his surprise.
Nobody knows where the demon head came from, nor how or why it ended up in storage.
The mummified head has two overlapping faces up front, with another one (resembling that of a kappa) situated in back. The temple puts the head on public display each year around the spring equinox.
Another preserved oni can be found at Daijōin temple in Usa, Oita prefecture. It is a thin creature with a long face and neck. Its hands and feet bear three claws. The mummy heirloom of a noble family. But after they were forced to get rid of it after some kind of misfortune.
The oni changed hands a number of times before ending up with a Daijōin temple parishioner in 1925. After the parishioner fell extremely ill, the mummy was suspected of being cursed.
The parishioner quickly recovered from his illness after the mummy was placed in the care of the temple. It has remained there ever since. Today the enshrined oni mummy of Daijōin temple is revered as a sacred object.
Rakanji Temple at Yabakei ,Oita prefecture, once had a mummified baby oni . The creature bore horns on its head. It was destroyed in a fire in 1943.
[Source: Fortean Zoology]
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It might seem odd that Buddhist temples in Japan house the occasional stray mummified demon (oni), but then again it probably makes sense to keep them off the streets and under the watchful eye of a priest.
A mysterious demon mummy can be found at Daijōin temple in the town of Usa (Oita prefecture):
The mummy is said to have once been the treasured heirloom of a noble family. But after suffering some sort of misfortune, the family was forced to get rid of it.
The demon mummy changed owners several times before ending up in the hands of a Daijōin temple parishioner in 1925. After the parishioner fell extremely ill, the mummy was suspected of being cursed.
The parishioner quickly recovered from his illness after the mummy was placed in the care of the temple. It has remained there ever since. Today the enshrined demon mummy of Daijōin temple is revered as a sacred object.
Baby demon mummy at Rakanji temple
A much smaller mummy -- said to be that of a baby demon -- was once in the possession of Rakanji Temple at Yabakei (Oita prefecture). Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a fire in 1943.
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Tengu
Another legendary supernatural sky creature is the tengu, a dangerous demon often depicted in art as being part human and part bird.
One of the best known off all yokai, the tengu is a man / bird hybrid. It has two basic forms, the first being a creature with the head of a bird (usually a raven or a bird of prey), a humanoid body, birds talons and birds wings. It is known as the Karasu Tengu. The second is more human like with a man’s face. A greatly elongated nose is seen in lue of a beak. This form is the Yamabushi Tengu On occasion tengu are portrayed as red skinned men with long noses but no avian features. This may spring from a confusion with the Shinto god Sarutahiko who shares these features. If defeated they are said to transform into birds. Tengu seem invariably male.
Their nature seems contradictory they can spread chaos and fear but are also not averse to humble humans joining in with their merrymaking. They punish the vain and the rich and can affect the human mind leaving the victim wandering the forests or mountains in a state of madness known as tengu-kakushi. This sounds very like the effect certain fairies had on humans in western legend. In the South West of England this was known as being pixy led. The same monster would equally be called on to help lost children find their way home. This may be because in some stories the evil tengu were converted to Buddhism and become enlightened creatures.
Tengu hatch from huge eggs. How these are laid is unclear as the race seems to have no females. When Dutch travelers brought an ostrich egg to Japan locals thought it to be the egg of a tengu. Some say that the daemon Ama-no-zako begat the Tengu. They generally make their homes in Cryptomeria trees. They generally wear small black caps and sashes with pom-poms. These can be traced to a sect of warrior monks known as yamabushi or shugenja. These mountain dwelling ascetics sought enlightenment in the harsh environment of the wilderness. They held the bird yokai’s image as sacred. Tengu were supposed to be great martial artists and were said to have schooled many ninja and samurai.
Tengu are troll-like creatures infamous for their unpredictable nature and habit of both kidnaping unsuspecting children and returning missing ones. Associated with mountainous areas, they have long phallic noses, wings and are typically found riding on the back of white foxes. Tengu are part bird and part human. They reside deep in the mountains and come in two types: large ones with a long nose and smaller ones with a birds beak nose. The larger type is often depicted carrying a magic fan of bird feathers.
Kevin Short, a cultural anthropologist at the Tokyo University of Information Science, wrote in the Daily Yomiuri, Tengu originated in China, and were conceived of as spirits of shooting stars. Their appearance was considered unlucky, a portent of disasters and misfortunes to come. The first one recorded here in Japan was in the early eight century. Once here, however, the tengu began evolving in their own directions. They quickly became associated with mountain ascetics, called yamabushi or shugengja.
Tengu are adept at shape-shifting , able to turn into a bird of prey such as a kestrel or black kite, and also to take on the form of a human being at will. They are absolute experts at conjuring up visions, which they can use to trick Buddhist monks and other susceptible people . Although basically devious and mischievous in nature, when tengu take a liking to someone they will reveal secrets of invisibility or invincible swordplay.
The big tengus magic fan can be used for various purposes. When angered they can fan up a great storm or whirlwind. Many charming folk stories also attribute to them the ability to make a persons nose grow or shrink. Often a thief or mischievous boy steals the fan, after which his nose grows way up into the clouds, where it gets stuck, When the miscreant tries to retrieve his nose by shrinking back to normal size, he is pulled up into clouds instead, never to be seen again.
By the 17th and 18th centuries, Japans tengu population was recorded to have risen to 125,000. Of these, however, only 48 were of the large long-nosed variety, the vast majority being the smaller beak-nose type. The large tengu all have proper names, and most are associated with a single mountain although they are known to sometimes move around or exchange abodes.
Mountains around the Kyoto plain such as Mt, Hiei and Mt. Atago and those around Tokyo and the Kanto Plain such Hakone and Mt. Takeo are said to be home to many tengu. The tengu on Mt. Akiha in Shizuoka Prefecture is said to have been a former yamabushi who spent 1,000 days training in the high mountains and discovered a variety of secrets and now rides aorund on a pure white fox and is revered for his ability to prevent fires.
The Hachinohe Museum (Aomori prefecture) in northern Japan is home to a tengu mummy, which is said to have once belonged to Nambu Nobuyori, a Nambu clan leader who ruled the Hachinohe domain in the mid-18th century.
The Hachinohe Museum in Aomori prefecture in holds a tengu mummy, which is said to have once belonged to Nambu Nobuyori, a Nambu clan leader who ruled the Hachinohe domain in the mid-18th century. It has a simian head with a bird’s body and legs, with long toes. There are also many feathers, in poor condition. The feet and feathers suggest a pheasant or similar bird. The mummy originated in Nobeoka ,Miyazaki prefecture. The Hachinone tengu bears an uncanny resemblance to Owlman!
[Source: Facts and Details and Fortean Zoology] |
Tengu mummy at Hachinohe Museum
Another embalmed body, located at the Hachinohe Museum, the Aomori prefecture, in northern Japan, is also shrouded in mystery. It represents a Tengu, some sort of an air god, a personification that resembles a man and a bird. While the skull is clearly humanoid, it has feathers, and the feet are those of a bird. The artifact originated in the southern parts of the country, but was passed from one family to another until it reached its current location. Some say that the mummy is that of Nambu Nobuyori, a clan leader that ruled vast lands in the mid-18th century, but the claims have yet to be verified.
The mummy, which appears to have a humanoid head and the feathers and feet of a bird, is believed to have originated in the town of Nobeoka (Miyazaki prefecture) in southern Japan. Theories suggest the tengu mummy made its way north after being passed around between members of Japan's ruling samurai families, some of whom were deeply interested in collecting and trading these curiosities.
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Mermaids
Several museums host mermaid mummies, fossils of creatures that closely resemble the depiction that we're so accustomed to – half-fish and half-human creatures that have the ability to sing travelers into submission. But the exhibits of these institutions do not look like charming young girls, but rather like demons from another world. In Edo-period Japan, comedians moving across the country to provide entertainment created the beasts from large fish bones and the upper half of a monkey body. The effect was guaranteed, and the superstitions have endured to this day.
There are a number of different types of mummified yokai, mermaids being the most common. In Japan the mermaid is not the beautiful creature of popular western imagination. It looks more like the ancient Greek triton. It has a fish’s body, humanoid arms and a head that looks like a cross between a monkey and a carp. It is covered with shining golden scales.
A Ningyo’s voice is said to sound like a flute and if it ever sheds tears it will be transformed into a human. Fishermen would usually throw he creature back if they caught one as they generally papered before a storm. Dead ones washing up on beaches was thought to be a bad omen. The flesh of the Ningyo is said to greatly extend human lifespan if ingested.
A fisherman from Wakasa (now Obama town in Fukui prefecture) once caught a Ningyo and not knowing what it was served it up at a meal for his friends. The men refused to eat the flesh after they saw the strange appearance of the ‘fish’ their colleague had netted. But one man, drunk on sake accidentally took some of the meat home.
The man’s sixteen year old daughter ate the Ningyo flesh and stopped ageing. She married many times and had many children. Time and again she had to suffer seeing her family grow old and die as she stayed unchanged. Finally she could stand it no longer and became a reclusive Buddhist nun and lived alone in a cave. She finally died at the age of eight hundred. She is called the Happyaku Bikuni or Yao Bikuni, the "Eight Hundred Nun".
A number of mummified mermaids are held in temples. One is at Zuiryuji Temple in Osaka, which was bestowed to the temple as an offering from a Sakai-area trader in 1682. It is a withered creature with an outsized head. Another mummified mermaid is preserved at Myouchi Temple in the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata prefecture. This mermaid is about a foot long. It has a mouthful of sharp teeth and is holding it’s hands up by its face as if in alarm. Yet another mermaid mummy is preserved at Karukayado Temple outside the city of Hashimoto in Wakayama prefecture. The it is nearly one and a half feet long and has fangs that protrude from its wide open mouth. Both of its hands are raised to its cheeks. Its lower body is covered in scales, and there appear to be the vestiges of fins on its chest, as a pair of nipples.
A fourth mummy is owned by a Shinto sect in the city of Fujinomiya near the base of Mt. Fuji. At nearly 5 feet cm tall and 1,400 years old, it is the largest and oldest known mermaid mummy in Japan. The mermaid has an unusually large head that is bald, except for some hair growth that extends from its forehead to its nose. Its eyes and mouth are open. It has webbed hands with sharp claws. The lower body has a bone structure similar to that of a fish, but it is unclear whether or not the upper body has a bone structure. The entire body shows signs of having been ravaged by moths.
The mummy has a legend attached to it. The mermaid appeared to Prince Shotoku Taishi as he was passing along the shores of Lake Biwa 1,400 years ago. The creature told the prince about how it had been transformed into a mermaid as punishment for making a living as a fisherman within the boundaries of an animal sanctuary. The mermaid claimed that over many years it had come to a clear understanding of the horrors of destroying life, and that it was prepared to move on to the next world. As a final wish before dying, though, it asked the prince to establish a temple using the mermaid’s body as a centerpiece, where it could be used to educate people about the sanctity of life. The mermaid then died. The prince took the mermaid’s body and set up a temple as requested. But after a number of strange occurrences, the mummy was passed on to another temple. The mummy changed hands several times before ending up at its current location at the base of Mt. Fuji.
Another mermaid mummy is claimed to be the cadaver of the creature met by Prince Shotoku Taishi is held at the Kannon Shoji Temple in Shiga prefecture, which is nicknamed the “mermaid temple.” This temple professes to be the one established by Prince Shotoku at the request of the mermaid. The temple mummy is much smaller than the one owned by the Shinto sect and is a little above a foot long.
In Victorian times it was not uncommon for explorers to bring back stiffed ‘mermaids’ from the Far East. These bore little resemblance to the beautiful creatures of European myth because hey were meant to represent the ape-like Ningyo. Most were skilful composites were the top half of a monkey is stitched onto the bottom half of a large fish. This is done with such skill that the stitching can only be seen via an x-ray. In Europe they were dubbed nondescripts.
The most famous was created in 1810 by a Japanese fisherman. It was bought by Dutch merchants who then, in 1822, resold it to an American sea captain, Samuel Barrett Eades, for $6000 (at the time, a huge amount of money). Eades had to sell his ship in order to afford the mermaid, but he hoped to make a fortune by exhibiting it in London. Unfortunately he didn’t own the ship and spent the rest of his life in debt!
His son sold the mermaid to PT Barnum who exhibited it in the UK and the USA. It was destroyed in a fire.
This was one of several mermaid mummies to make it to the west. The one held in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden was brought by Jan Cock Blomhoff while serving as director of Dejima, the Dutch trading colony at Nagasaki sometime between 1817 and 1824.
The Centre for Fortean Zoology owns an excellent specimen skillfully created by the special effects wizard Alan Fizwell. Thankfully he did no use a real fish or monkey!
[Source: Fortean Zoology] |
British Museum merman part fish, part monkey 18th |
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In 18th- and 19th-century Edo (present-day Tokyo), sideshow carnivals known as misemono were a common feature of the landscape. These wildly popular shows featured crafts, acrobats and animals in a kaleidoscopic blend of attractions that were believed to bring luck, fortune and health to the audience. One attraction commonly featured at these shows was the mermaid.
Sideshow carnivals in Europe and America in the 1800s also featured mermaids, many of them from Japan and the West Indies. The most famous of these mermaids was P.T. Barnum's Feejee Mermaid, which is believed to have been created around 1810 by a Japanese fisherman. The art of creating faux mermaids was perfected by fishermen and often involved stitching the heads and upper bodies of monkeys onto the bodies of fish.
(P.T. Barnum's Feejee Mermaid)
The next photo (left) shows the mummy owned by a Shinto sect headquartered in the city of Fujinomiya near the base of Mt. Fuji. At 170 cm tall and 1,400 years old, it is the largest and oldest known mermaid mummy in Japan. The mermaid has an unusually large head that is bald, except for some hair growth that extends from its forehead to its nose. Its eyes and mouth are open. It has webbed hands with sharp claws, and a 20-cm long tail. The lower body has a bone structure similar to that of a fish, but it is unclear whether or not the upper body has a bone structure. The entire body shows signs of having been ravaged by moths.
Legend has it that this mermaid appeared to Prince Shotoku (Shotoku Taishi) as he was passing along the shores of Lake Biwa (about 1,400 years ago). The hideous beast told the prince about how it had been transformed into a mermaid as punishment for making a living as a fishermen within the boundaries of an animal sanctuary. The mermaid claimed that over many years it had come to a clear understanding of the horrors of destroying life, and that it was prepared to move on to the next world. As a final wish before dying, though, it asked the prince to establish a temple using the mermaid's body as a centerpiece, where it could be used to educate people about the sanctity of life. The mermaid then died. The prince took the mermaid's body and set up a temple as requested. But after a number of strange occurrences, the mummy was passed on to another temple. The mummy changed hands several times before ending up at its current location at the base of Mt. Fuji.
[Source: Fuji mermaid ]
Also claiming a connection to this legend is Kannon Shoji Temple in Shiga prefecture, which is nicknamed the "mermaid temple." This temple professes to be the one established by Prince Shotoku at the request of the mermaid. The temple reportedly has an old, 50-cm mermaid on the premises, though no images are available online.
And finally, here are a few sketches of mermaids drawn by Keisuke Ito (1803 - 1901), a man who played an instrumental role in introducing Western medicine to Japan. In addition to establishing a method for smallpox vaccination in Japan and helping to set up what is today known as Nagoya University, he drew numerous sketches of plant and animal specimens. Buried deep in the volumes of sketches he made of marine animals, which show a variety of rather fantastic, but mostly realistic-looking fish, are the following specimens:
[Source: Fish volume 3, pp.23-24 ]
[Source: Fish volume 1, page 162 ]
You can browse the entire Ito Keisuke collection » here. There is at least one more mermaid sketch buried in the book -- and lots of other surprises.
(Many thanks to mermaid hunter Juan Cabana for the inspiration to search for these mermaids. Check out his museum » here and purchase his found creatures » here.)
[Source: Pink Tentacle] |
In Edo-period Japan -- particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries -- mermaid mummies were a common sight at popular sideshow carnivals called misemono. Over time, the practice of mermaid mummification blossomed into an art form as fishermen perfected techniques for stitching the heads and upper bodies of monkeys onto the bodies of fish.
The mummy pictured below is a prime example of a carnival mermaid. It appears to consists of fish and other animal parts held together with string and paper.
Mermaid mummy at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden
The mummified creature was obtained by Jan Cock Blomhoff while serving as director of Dejima, the Dutch trading colony at Nagasaki harbor, from 1817 to 1824. It now resides at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden.
Another old mermaid mummy exhibited at a museum in Tokyo several years ago appears to belong to the founder of the Harano Agricultural Museum.
Mysterious mermaid mummy
The mummy's origin is unknown, but the collector says it was found in a wooden box that contained passages from a Buddhist sutra written in Sanskrit. Also in the box was a photograph of the mermaid and a note claiming it belonged to a man from Wakayama prefecture.
A few of these old, mummified mermaids can still be found in the care of temples and shrines around Japan.
Here's a photo of a mermaid mummy at Zuiryuji Temple in Osaka, which was bestowed to the temple as an offering from a Sakai-area trader in 1682. The temple also has in its possession the mummies of a kappa and a small dragon, both of which can be found by exploring the site at the link below.
[ Source: Nightmare's Psychiatry Examination ]
Another mummified mermaid is preserved at Myouchi Temple in the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata prefecture. The mermaid is about 30 cm long and is holding its hands up near its cheeks -- apparently a common pose for mummified mermaids. The proprietors of the temple keep the mermaid in a small wooden chest out of view, but according to the account at the link below, they will allow you to check it out if you ask nicely.
[ Source: One person's visit to Myouchi Temple ]
The next photo shows a mermaid mummy at Karukayado Temple outside the city of Hashimoto in Wakayama prefecture. The 50-cm long mummy has fangs that protrude from its wide open mouth, and both of its hands are raised to its cheeks, like the previous mermaid. Its lower body is covered in scales, and there appear to be the vestiges of fins on its chest, as well as a pair of nipple-like protuberances.
[ Source: Photos of Karukayado Temple ]
Mermaid mummy
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Raiju
Another legendary supernatural creature is the Raiju.
With a limited scientific understanding of the sky above, the common person in Edo-period Japan looked upward with great awe and mystery. Supernatural creatures called raijū (雷獣) -- lit. "thunder beast" -- were believed to inhabit rain clouds and occasionally fall to earth during lightning strikes.
The earliest known written records of the raijū date as far back as the late 18th century, though the creature appears to borrow characteristics from the nue -- a cloud-dwelling, illness-inducing chimera first described in The Tale of the Heike, a 12th-century historical epic.
Details about the raijū's appearance vary. Some Edo-period documents claim the raijū resembled a squirrel, cat or weasel, while others describe it as being shaped more like a crab or seahorse.
Raijū depicted in the Kanda-Jihitsu (ca. 1800) // Raijū seen in Tottori, 1791
However, most descriptions agree that the raijū had webbed fingers, sharp claws, and long fangs that, by some accounts, could shoot lightning. The beast also sometimes appeared with six legs and/or three tails, suggesting the ability to shape-shift.
One illustrated document tells of a raijū that fell from the sky during a violent storm on the night of June 15, 1796 in Higo-kuni (present-day Kumamoto prefecture).
Illustration of raijū encountered on June 15, 1796
Here, the raijū is described as a crab-like creature with a coat of black fur measuring about 11 centimeters (4 inches) thick.
Another notorious encounter took place in the Tsukiji area of Edo on August 17, 1823. Two versions of the incident offer different descriptions of the beast.
Raijū encounter, August 17, 1823 - Version 1
One document depicts the raijū as being the size of a cat or weasel, with one big bulging eye and a single long horn, like that of a bull or rhino, projecting forward from the top of its head. |
Raijū (雷獣,"thunder animal" or "thunder beast") is a legendary creature from Japanese mythology. Its body is composed of lightning and may be in the shape of a cat, fox, weasel, or wolf. The form of a white and blue wolf (or even a wolf wrapped in lightning) is also common. It may also fly about as a ball of lightning (in fact, the creature may be an attempt to explain the phenomenon of lightning). Its cry sounds like thunder.
Raiju is the companion of Raijin, the Shinto god of lightning. While the beast is generally calm and harmless, during thunderstorms, it becomes agitated and leaps about in trees, fields, and even buildings (trees that have been struck by lightning are said to have been scratched by Raiju's claws).
Another of Raiju's peculiar behaviors is sleeping in human navels. This prompts Raiden to shoot lightning arrows at Raiju to wake the creature up, and thus harms the person in whose belly the demon is resting. Superstitious people therefore often sleep on their stomachs during bad weather, but other legends say that Raiju will only hide in the navels of people who sleep outdoors.
Given the frequency of raijū sightings, it should come as no surprise that a few mummies have turned up.
In the 1960s, Yūzanji temple in Iwate prefecture received a raijū mummy as a gift from a parishioner. The origin of the mummy, as well as how the parishioner obtained it, is a mystery.
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Raijū mummy at Yūzanji temple
The mummy looks like that of a cat at first glance, but the legs are rather long and the skull has no visible eye sockets.
Raijū mummy at Saishōji temple [Photo]
A similar raijū mummy is on display at Saishōji temple in Niigata prefecture.
Raijū encounter, August 17, 1823 - Version 2
In the other account, the raijū has a more roundish look and lacks the pointy horn.
In Volume 2 of Kasshi Yawa ("Tales of the Night of the Rat"), a series of essays depicting ordinary life in Edo, author Matsuura Seizan writes that it was not uncommon for cat-like creatures to fall from the sky during thunderstorms. The volume includes the story of a family who boiled and ate one such creature after it crashed down onto their roof.
[Source: Pink Tentacle]
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The Museum of Fantastic Specimens
Gensou Hyouhon Hakubutsukan ("Museum of Fantastic Specimens") is an online collection of creatures "curated" by Hajime Emoto. The three-story virtual museum consists of 9 rooms chock full of water- and land-dwelling monstrosities from all corners of the globe. (Navigating the virtual museum may be a bit difficult if you cannot read Japanese, so try the links below if you get lost.)
- 1st Floor: Room 1, Room 2, Room 3
- 2nd Floor: Room 4, Room 5, Room 6, (Room 7)
- 3rd Floor: Room 8, Room 9, Room 10
- Basement: Shop, Cafeteria
Each specimen has a clickable thumbnail that links to additional photos and historical and background information (in Japanese).
The basement contains a bookshop and a cafeteria serving dishes prepared with some of the beasts featured in the museum (such as umiushi sashimi, served fresh from the tank and wriggling on your plate, with a balsamic vinegar sauce).
All of the creatures showcased in the museum are sculpted from paper, modeling paste and bamboo and are completely imaginary, claims Emoto -- perhaps a disappointment for hunters of the legendary tsuchinoko (see photo ) in search of an actual specimen, but an amazing collection of critters nonetheless.
[Link: Museum of Fantastic Specimens] |
Kappa Monsters |
There are more than 215 different speciments in the Museum, thus it would be too much to list here. Please refer to the links above for the full online catalogue of the Emoto fantastic speciments. However here are a few examples to make you curious:
[ See another comprehensive catalogue at » Socialphy ]
Footnotes
[1] Bush, Laurence C. (2001). Asian horror encyclopedia: Asian horror culture in literature, manga and folklore. Laurence C. Bush. p. 94. [ISBN 0-595-20181-4].
[2] Foster, Michael Dylan (2009). Pandemonium and parade: Japanese monsters and the culture of yōkai. University of California Press. p. 46. [ISBN 978-0-520-25361-2].
[3] Foster, M. D. (1998). "The metamorphosis of the kappa: Transformation of folklore to folklorism in Japan".Asian Folklore Studies, 57(1), 1-24.
[4] Frédéric, Louis (2002). Japan encyclopedia. President and Fellows of Harvard College. p. 910. [ISBN 0-674-00770-0].
[5] "怪異・妖怪伝承データベース: カッパ， ヒョウスベ" [Folktale Data of Strange Phenomena and Yōkai] (in Japanese).International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
[6] Kyōgoku, Natsuhiko; Tada, Katsumi (2000). Yōkai zuka (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Kokusho Kankōkai. p. 147. [ISBN 978-4-336-04187-6].
[7] Tada, Katsumi (1990). 幻想世界の住人たち. Truth In Fantasy (in Japanese) IV. 新紀元社. p. 110. [ISBN 978-4-915146-44-2].
[8] "River Monsters" programme 6 Series 3 directed by Duncan Chard, screened in UK on ITV1 14.02.2012 at 19.30
[9] Davis, F. Hadland (1992). Myths and legends of Japan. Dover Publications. p. 350. [ISBN 0-486-27045-9].
[10] Volker, T. (1975). The animal in Far Eastern art and especially in the art of the Japanese. E.J.Brill. p. 110. [ISBN 90-04-04295-4].
[11] Frédéric, Louis (2002). Japan encyclopedia. President and Fellows of Harvard College. p. 480. [ISBN 0-674-00770-0].
[12] Mack, Dinah (1998). A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits. Carol K. Mack and Dinah Mack. p. 17. [ISBN 1-55970-447-0].
[13] Buchanan, Daniel Crump (1965). Japanese Proverbs and Sayings. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 42. [ISBN 0-8061-1082-1].
[14] Ashkenazi, Michael (2003). Handbook of Japanese Mythology. ABC-CLIO. pp. 195–196. [ISBN 1-57607-467-6]. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
[15] Metropolis, "Fortean Japan", 27 June 2008, p. 12.
[16] "Shirikodama". tangorin.com.
[17] Nara, Hiroshi (2007). Inexorable modernity: Japan's grappling with modernity in the arts. Lexington Books. p. 33. [ISBN 0-7391-1841-2].
[18] Rose, C. (2000). Giants, monsters, and dragons : An encyclopedia of folklore, legend, and myth. ABC-CLIO.
[19] Eiichirô, Ishida (1950). "The Kappa Legend". Folklore Studies 9: 1–2. [JSTOR 1177401].
[20] Tatsumi, Takayuki (1998). "Deep North Gothic: A Comparative Cultural Reading of Kunio Yanagita's Tono Monogatari and Tetsutaro Murano's The Legend of Sayo". The Newsletter of The Council for the Literature of the Fantastic 1 (5). Retrieved December 22, 2010.
[21] "怪異・妖怪伝承データベース: 河童雑談" [Folktale Data of Strange Phenomena and Yōkai] (in Japanese). International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
[22] "怪異・妖怪伝承データベース: 河童の教えた中風の薬" [Folktale Data of Strange Phenomena and Yōkai] (in Japanese). International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
[23] "怪異・妖怪伝承データベース: 河童の秘伝接骨薬" [Folktale Data of Strange Phenomena and Yōkai] (in Japanese). International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
[24] "怪異・妖怪伝承データベース: 河童神社" [Folktale Data of Strange Phenomena and Yōkai] (in Japanese). International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
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