Kids Web Japan

"Water god"

Habitat: Clear rivers and ponds.

Height: About the same as a child.

Special feature 1: Always stores water in a small dish it carries on its head; if the water dries up, the kappa loses its power and becomes weak.

Special feature 2: Has webbed fingers and toes.

Special feature 3: Has a tortoise-like shell on its back.

Personality: Mischievous

Hobby: Sumo wrestling.

Favorite food: Cucumber.

Where did kappa come from?

On the Maekawa, a river that flows through the city of Yatsushiro in Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan, there is a monument marking the place where "kappa arrived." It says that 1,600 years ago, 9,000 kappa came from China, crossing over the sea, and reached the town of Yatsushiro. But where did kappa really come from?