Kappa

Kappa: A little humanoid creature with big eyes that habits some watery and marshy places like river or swamp. The skin is a bit slimy and its color is greenish gray. It is said that Kappa takes human or animal's internal organ from back passage.

Sound Famillier.

Lets grab some legends shall we!

Kappa - Small creatures more intelligent than the oni and not wholly evil. They can be placated by man and even have been known to impart skills, most notably is bone setting. Kappa resemble hairless monkeys with an indentation on the top of their heads. They are about the size of a 10 year old and are yellow green in color. They sometimes have scales or tortoise shell instead of skin. Kappa live in rivers, ponds, and lakes. They keep water in the indent on top of their heads if the water is spilled they lose their power. Kappa are vampires feeding off the blood through the anus. They can live on horse and cattle blood as well as human. A drowning victim found with a distended anus as well as unrecoved bodies were thought to be their victims. Kappas are also known for raping women. Kappas also have a liking for cucumbers and by inscribing a name and age on a cucumber and throwing into the body of water where a kappa lives a person can protect themselves from being a kappa victim. Despite all their bad habits kappas are strangely polite and completely trustworthy.

Kappa are probably the most recognizable of all Japanese mythological beings. More peculiar than frightening, kappa are generally water spirits who resemble a tortoise with a shell, green skin, a distinct beak, monkey-like limbs and a circle of water on the top of their heads that enables them to move out of water. Some stories speak of them as monsters who attack people and livestock, while others tell of kappa as water gods who protect their fresh water homes. Some legends also credit kappa as healers that taught humans the way of bone-setting.

Today, most kappa are depicted as cute creatures with an affinity for sumo wrestling and cucumbers. In fact, cucumber sushi is often called "kappa-maki".

Some Art






To an extent... A Kappa sounds like an Eastern Chupacabra. (sp?)
Just a little bit of info I remembered from some Folklore.




EDIT - Well... sense this thread went to Chit-Chat
Googla Kappa Legends and you should get some fine material.

[edit on 3-10-2004 by Xabora]

kappa sounds like the guy from mario video games haha

There was an excellent retelling of one of the kappa legends in the comic book USAGI YOJIMBO. I have no idea which volume, but it was up to Stan's usual wonderful standards!

Well, we all know those Japenese are crazy when it comes to stuff like this

Aye, they are
But this one sounds a lot like thr chupa tho.

Arent kappas the ones you bow to so the water on there head falls out thus killing them.

OH YAY LOOK its a Koopa troopa! Yay QUICK JUMP ON ITS HEAD TO KILL IT!!!!!!

roflmfao.......a koopa troopa haha thats funny......yea all we have to do to beat a kappa is to jump on its head like in the mario games.....maybe cuz they are so famous cuz it teaaches us how to kill kappas just in case they are real

Mmmkay.. this is getting away from information and into chit-chat... thread closed.

For those of you interested in it, a Kappa is a Japanese mythic creature and it's really quite interesting to read up on these legends. Some material's available on Google.