Case file · Folklore / legend
Kappa
A Japanese river creature, one of the three great yōkai, green and turtle-like, said to drown people and drag horses into the water.
1775 CE · 36.65, 137.22 · status: legend
The account
Older tales make it a dangerous killer; later ones make it a mischief-maker that, when caught, trades a secret medicine for its freedom. A 1775 compendium already lists many local names, such as gawara in Etchū (Toyama).
The sceptical view
It is a folk figure; natural dangers of rivers and drowning lie behind the warnings.
Connections in the atlas
- Kappaya Kihachi and the kappa of Kappabashi
- Kappa
- Kappa-buchi pool of Tōno
- The kappa mummy of Imari
- Kitsune, the fox spirit
- Kuchisake-onna