Pink Tentacle is showing a number of Edo-period kappa drawings. Kappa 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.
Apparently the Edo period (1603 to 1867) saw some serious scientific literature devoted to the study of these (regarded as mythical) 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.
The Onmark Productions site has a lot more information on Kappa, as does Wikipedia. In fact, the encyclopedia has a drawing of a kappa that was reported caught in a fishing net on Mito East beach in 1801 — scientific evidence that confirms kappa are a serious ongoing threat.
In fact, the encyclopedia even shows an example of one of the many present-day signs warning about kappa that appear by bodies of water in some Japanese towns and villages. Myth, cryptozoology, Shinto, or fact? The answer is obvious and obviously Shinto not so far off the mark as previously believed by some…
oh yeah, I had a student in Japan who swears he and his friend were chased by Kappa in Okinawa whilst hiking. He said that the two creatures spoke to eachother in some kind of Kappa-language before the attack. bizarre stuff.
on another note, not entirely unrelated, methinks, that was back before magic mushrooms were illegal in Japan….
“the two creatures spoke to each other in some kind of Kappa-language before the attack”? This is just another piece of empirical evidence that adds to the overwhelming evidence. It does seem incredible, but the facts speak for themselves?
Paul said “They smell like fish, enjoy cucumbers and sumo, and are said to be very courteous despite their malicious tendencies.”
Had a boyfriend like that once… . >
smell like a fish??..well certain parts of the human body aren’t exactly perfumed gardens you know.
*smell-like-a-fish* (whatever next).
Humans! i give up!.
I love these mythological creatures!~ The kirin is also another favorite.
If the cappa was a modern myth, it would be easy to say that they were post-nuclear bomb survivors zombie-esk creatures. But since they’ve been around since edo jidai I think, it almost ruins the mythology for me…
Edo jidai may not be a mythological deal-breaker! I (of course) do not necessarily agree with questionable crackpot views, but some like David Hatcher Childress (http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/ancatomicwar1.html) are convinced that Visitors used nuclear weapons here in ancient times:
“Religious texts and geological evidence suggest that several parts of the world have experienced destructive atomic blasts in ages past. Way back near the beginning of the ancient astronaut craze, the prolific author Erich von Däniken argued in Chariots of the Gods? (1969) that atom bombs destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah…”
The Kappa could be Texas Chainsaw Massacre-type zombies descended from ancient victims of these crimes and what would be more natural than for them (with the serious burns) than to take to the water? It could even explain how Remora got that way? But — this may be speculative…
Eh, that sounds a bit too ‘Scientology’ for me
It was a bad move for Japan to outlaw psilocybe mushrooms. Ever since 2002 there has been a drop off in the quality of their anime in my opinion. I always wondered to myself just how much of an effect mushrooms had on the art and culture of Japan. It’s like alcohol and absinthe and weed in the West.
Would there have ever been an Earnest Hemingway or a Miguel De Cervantes or an Oscar Wilde, or even a Thomas Paine without alcohol?
Would Japanese today be enjoying “Sunflowers,” or theives enjoying “The Scream”, or the world enjoying “Starry Night” if Van Gogh didn’t chug down thujone laced absinthe like water?
Would America be as rich a landscape if Allen Ginsberg, Duke Ellington, Hunter S. Thomas, Peter Lewis, Jack Nocholson, Howard Stern, Alexander Dumas (okay he’s french), Ken Kasey, and Snoop Dogg never lit up?
Would we have discovered DNA if it wasn’t for Francis Crick (Nobel Prize winner) dropping acid while researching biological structures? Would the world even be the same if not for Albert Hoffman?
Likewise, I believe that a tremendous amount of Japan’s ancient art is due to the fact that they had a strong mythological sense combined with a ready source of naturally growing hallucinogens. Would there have ever been a kappa a kirin, an Abura-akago, a
Jubokko, a Noppera-bō, a Rokuro-kubi, a Yuki-onna; would there be ukiyo-e, painted shoji, The Tale of Genji, or I am A Cat without someone frying balls?
Wonder if anyone else thinks the same.