Case file · Folklore / legend
Kappa-buchi pool of Tōno
Kunio Yanagita's 'Tales of Tōno' (1910) reports that kappa in the Tōno valley lived in river pools and that local women were said to bear kappa children.
1910 CE · 39.34, 141.56 · status: legend
The account
Tale 55 and others describe red-faced kappa near Tōno, unlike the green ones elsewhere. The pool behind Jōken-ji temple is shown as their home, and visitors can buy a 'kappa catching licence'.
The sceptical view
Folklorists read such tales as ways of speaking about drowning, infanticide and deformed births in hard times.