The Kappa
In Japanese folklore, the kappa is a small river creature with a dish of water on its head. Spill the water, and it loses its strength.
What was reported
The kappa is one of Japan's best-known folklore creatures: a child-sized being that lives in rivers and ponds, with a beak, a shell like a turtle's and a dish-shaped hollow on its head filled with water. If the water spills, the kappa becomes weak. It loves cucumbers and sumo wrestling.
Stories warn children to stay away from deep water. In the town of Tōno in northern Japan, made famous by a 1910 collection of local legends, visitors can still see the Kappa-buchi pool where the creatures are said to live.
Explanations offered
The kappa is folklore, and some researchers think the legend may have grown partly from sightings of animals such as otters, giant salamanders or turtles. Signs warning of kappa still stand near some Japanese rivers, partly as a way of warning children about drowning.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Tōno, Iwate, Japan
- Witnesses
- Japanese villages, especially around Tōno
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.