Encounter Atlas
The kappa is one of Japan's best-known yokai, a child-sized river creature with green or yellow-green skin, a turtle-like shell, webbed hands, a beak and a dish-shaped hollow on top of its head that holds water. As long as the dish stays full, it is very strong.
Kappa are blamed for drownings and for dragging horses and swimmers into rivers, but they are also polite, love cucumbers and sumo wrestling, and keep their promises. The trick in many stories is to bow: the kappa bows back, spills the water from its dish and loses its strength.
Temples and families around Japan keep so-called mummified kappa hands and bodies. Tōno in Iwate has a famous Kappa-buchi pool, and signs warning about kappa still stand by some rivers.
What witnesses report
- A child-sized green figure by a river
- A shell on its back and a beak
- A bowl-shaped dent on top of the head
- Cucumbers left as offerings
Famous cases
- 1910Tōno Monogatari folk tales, including kappa
Tōno, Iwate, Japan
Seen the Kappa?
Tell us what happened. Every report is read by a person before it goes on the map, and you can stay anonymous.
