Talk:Kappa (folklore)

Oops. I just posted an article I'd written while away from the internet: Kappa (Japanese folklore). It's considerably more detailed than this one, but this one does have a few details mine does not. What's the procedure to merge these suckers? Amcaja 22:08, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I merged them. Amcaja 07:23, 19 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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The article mentions that these creatures are common in Final Fantasy games. Are they known under a different name in the US versions, or did I miss them? - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:42, Apr 27, 2004 (UTC)

They're renamed "Imps" in the US translations. -Sean 03:44, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I -guess- Lombre looks like a kappa.. but Golduck is actually said to be confused for one in its description. Also, Jakken is a kappa? I'd never heard that before, but I suppose he isn't too unlike one. Takahashi is pretty bad at making creatures look like you'd expect them to.

Update: Jaken is definitely not a kappa. In the Inuyasha episode "Chokyukai and the Abducted Bride" there is a kappa, and it looks totally different from Jaken and the other examples of his race, so Takahashi's kappa are definitely different from Jakken. Fortunately the article seems to have revised it and just said that the show has kappa in it.

See Also

I removed the link to Kappabashi-dori as that has nothing to do with the kappa. It's a coincidental homophony Nik42 05:07, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

I simply annotated it with an alternate name for Kappa (Gataro) that I came across in my studies. I haven't found much mention of this name outside of the old Oumi region, (present-day Shiga). I also mentioned a current cartoon show airing on Japanese TV.-Cadmus Kyrala

Adults vs children

Evan1975 recently reworded part of the article to make it sound like kappa were invented by adults to scare children away from places they might drown. Lacking a source, I reverted. It's my understanding that adults have historically believed in kappa just as much as children have, so the change does not seem warranted. If there's a source citation to back it up, I have no problem with it. — Amcaja 23:27, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I tend to take Amcajas side in this. Adults were just as scared of kappa in the olden days as children were, and the idea that adults made kappa up to scare children is somewhat farfetched, IMO. The two sources given are not of the best quality - one has an unnamed local city official as the source of this claim (granted, the local city in question is Tōno, but still...), and the other only has a link to the first source. I have moved the claim here, pending better sources (a historian or ethnologist would be nice. Better than some city official, anyway).

*Another theory is that the kappa were invented to scare children[1][2] away from rivers or rice paddies, using the swollen anus common in drowning victims as "proof" of having one's shirikodama stolen.

(btw, this talk page is a mess...) TomorrowTime 19:51, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

also, if we're talking vidgames, in finny the fish and the seven waters for ps2, kappa is the master of the waters. and he is sweet.

... Why... would drowning... cause your anus to swell up? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.70.113 (talk) 00:36, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Harry Potter

I've read all the Harry Potter novels to date, and to my knowledge, kappa play little to no role in the series. The fact that they are mentioned is hardly notable enough to include that information here, in my opinion. Therefore, I've re-removed this bit: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them also mention kappa." — Amcaja 15:04, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Kappa and Haruki Murakami

The INKlings in the Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World are only kappa in the translation. The japanese version has them as the Yamikuro, a made-up word, meant to imply darkness and lurking. The translator chose to call them INKlings for a similar reason and at one point explains the INK stands for Infra Nocturnal Kappa. This is however exclusive to the english translation, not mentioned anywhere in the Japanese. I'm torn here: they are not kappa in the original, so atributing Haruki Murakami with having written about kappa is wrong. They are however, portrayed as kappa in the translation, so it would probably be in order to at least mention this in the article. Any suggestions as to what should be done? I'll remove the reference, if nobody speaks up in about a week or so. 213.172.254.113 16:25, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Kappa is also the Japanese word for raincoat, taken from the little beasie itself.

But I can't figure out where it would fit on this page...

MightyAtom 03:35, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the world kappa "raincoat" comes from Portuguese capa "cloak", another loan from Portuguese sailors and missionaries of the 16th Century. Whether the mytical creature's name also comes from the same source (as the article suggests, though this etymology looks rather dubious) is another story.201.21.202.46 07:09, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Mythology?

I think the kappa is arguably more a creature of folklore than mythology - maybe the name of the article should be changed? Just a thought. Kotengu 20:18, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Alright, if nobody objects, I'm moving the article. Kotengu 07:31, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

"Undoubtably"

Yikes! How many times is this strong word used when talking about modern cultural references to kappa. The use of such a word should be avoided with EXTREME PREJUDICE IMHO in Wikipedia. You can either allege a fact, or back it up (thus removing any chance of doubt - except in your source). For instance I doubt Psyduck's kappa like nature as it is a platypus pokemon.--ZayZayEM 01:59, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Lambda?

If a kappa is a turtle-monster, is a lambda a sheep-monster? Or is it a headcrab? --Damian Yerrick (☎) 08:55, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh dear oh dear oh dear... is there any precedent for calling WP:ISNOT (subsection: Talk boards) a respository of horrendous jokes? :D 193.63.174.211 (talk) 17:56, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Origin of Term Kappa

Can you two stop wasting time edit-warring for a moment and maybe try to track down a reliable source on the topic instead? I'm pretty sure the information came from here. If I find anything better I'll let you know. Kotengu 小天狗 06:33, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

A search on google scholar turns up a paper on JSTOR which I can't access, which refers to a word "kappa" coming from the Portuguese "capa", but I'm guessing it's referring to "kappa" as in a straw raincoat rather than "kappa" as in a water imp. Kotengu 小天狗 06:44, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

The original reference for Kappa as "water leeches", meaning aborted fetuses dumped into the river, comes from the Tono Monogatari, written by Yanagita Kunio. I'm not sure why this was discredited as a reference, as it is one of the most important books on Japanese folklore ever written. For a discussion on the book, which also talks about the origin of the kappa, here is a link from a paper by Takayuki Tatsumi,Ph.D of Keio University. However, this was also dismissed out of hand as a random google search. With references like this, I am honestly don't understand why it is in dispute.MightyAtom 14:03, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/n5_a1.html

The link you provide above is a perfectly sound source for the kappa-fetus connection, so feel free to add that back in. Just be sure to include the reference in the article as well. As for the Tono Monogatari, it should be fine as a source, too, but it's not enough to just list the name and author in the article as a reference. We need the information to be easily verifiable by a third party, so it's important to indicate what specific published version of that book you got the information from (i.e., give the author, title, date, publisher, and page number). Let me know if I can help. — Amcaja (talk) 22:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Kappa

Could someone please include the character "Kappah" who was a hidden boss in the 1996 arcade and Playstation release(by CAPCOM) "Star Gladiator?" I remember his sigil was a crossed pair of cucumbers. Thanks. -Ryuseimaru

Is it real?

Are these creatures real??? 69.181.141.140 (talk) 01:54, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Depends on who you ask, but most sources regard them only as mythological. — Dulcem (talk) 01:58, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

IT'S A MOGWAI!!!

The whole article is wrong. The picture and all the facts are of the Mogwai except for the bowl on the head. I want this article to be renamed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.42.150.43 (talk) 20:49, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Kappa in Media

In a tokusatsu TV series Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Ouja's hybrid monster, Genocider, is strongly resemblance to Kappa.

In the PC game Throne of Darkness, Kappa was among the many monsters appeared in the game. In the game, it possesses brute strength and poisoned tipped claws. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Firerat45 (talk • contribs) 07:42, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Koopa

Under "See also", the article mentions a type of enemy from Nintendo's Super Mario video game series, Koopa Troopa. It states that its name is derived from kappa (though they look like generic anthromorphized turtles rather than kappa). However, that is its name in the West, its original Japanese name is Nokonoko (literally "unconcernedly"). Its western name is derived from Kuppa (the anglicized spelling "Koopa" has also been adopted to Japanese), the Japanese name of the character Bowser. As far as I know, the character's creator Shigeru Miyamoto never said that Koopa Troopa/Nokonoko and Bowser/Koopa are based on kappa in any way, but he told indeed about the origin of the name Kuppa (Koopa): the character was named after the Korean dish of the same name (source). No word about kappa there.

A game guide of Prima Games told that Bowser/Koopa is based on kappa, but that is hardly reliable, since those guides also told about relations (siblings, cousins) of Mario series characters never mentioned in any game and named debut games of certain characters wrong, and there are several other mistakes. Regarding their appearance alone, those video game characters hardly resemble kappa at all, and the name Koopa (Kuppa) does officialy come from the Korean dish, not kappa. So, any comments, should this line be removed until there is an official statement from Nintendo (if there will ever be one)? --Grandy02 (talk) 18:01, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

That entry was added in the last week. I support its removal. Flatscan (talk) 22:49, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

No one opposed, so I removed the entry. When someone got official proof that the word "Kuppa" is also derived from kappa, the entry can be recovered. --Grandy02 (talk) 19:49, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Sightings

If there are supposed sightings of the kappa then why not a section about some sightings?Abomasnow (talk)

As far as I'm aware, no one seriously believes the Kappa may actually exist and they are solely folklore creatures. I'm tempted to remove the offending statement, as well as the crypto category unless some reliable sources are provided. bridies (talk) 03:54, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Appeances in media

This section is not acceptable, per WP:OR. It contains blatant personal commentary (such as "in a way meant to be comedic while loosely adhering to actual kappa folklore"; "in a suggestive manner") based on primary sources i.e. the game/show itself. Primary sources are not sufficient references: secondary sources are required to show that this piece of otherwise trivia is even worthy of note. While this entire article is unsourced, there is no such glaring policy violation as this one. bridies (talk) 23:30, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Kappa Signs

Just because signs near to water have kappa on them, this doesn't imply a literal belief in kappa the way the article seems to suggest. All kinds of signs have cartoons on them in Japan. A sign with a dog scooping up after itself doesn't imply a literal belief that dogs can clean up after themselves by handling scoops. The 'Even today' sentence and the 'modern' sign say more about the credulity of people who want to believe in superstitious Japanese villagers than the credulity of the villagers themselves.--Rsm77 (talk) 01:03, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

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