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kappa

We visit Kaiyodo Kappa Museum: dedicated to a yokai that loves cucumbers and human souls

Kappa lovers — add Kochi Prefecture to your bucket list!

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Four train stations in Tokyo installed free groundwater pumps available 24-7

Well, there you go.

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A visit to “the most blessed kappa statues in all of Japan”【Photos】

The fabled yokai water imps at this shrine want to make you happy for your whole life.

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Disney knows what yokai are, teaches Japanese vocabulary word to Donald Duck【Video】

Kappa and kasa obake are among the creatures menacing Donald and his feathered friends.

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Celebrate National Cucumber Day by learning about the cucumber-loving yokai, the kappa

Why DO kappa flip their lids for cucumber? No better time to investigate that than June 14, recognized around the globe as Cucumber Day.

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Fukusaki Anal Orb Instant Curry intrigues, terrifies Japan, as does town’s horrific mascot

Package promises three “butthole balls” in each box!

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Web search reveals dark (and kinky) habits of beloved mythical Japanese spirit

The Kappa is generally known as a clownish, mostly friendly water spirit in Japanese mythology, but a cursory web search recently revealed the creature’s darker nature.

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A kappa and a mermaid want to move to Miyazaki…no it’s not the beginning of a joke【Videos】

While some cities promote themselves with cute, dancing idols, others rely on cryptids

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Hyogo town scares children away with mechanical kappa in park’s pond

The town of Fukusaki in Hyogo Prefecture has taken a rather unusual direction when it comes to public art. Namely, the town spent roughly 3 million yen (US$25,000) to install a red, mechanical kappa in the small pond at Tsujikawayama Park (辻川山公園). The strange fixture has become a local attraction, and is scary-looking enough to make children cry!

Just what could have driven the town to install such a creepy mechanical model?

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From mermaids to monsters: The taxidermy mummies on show in Japan【Photos】

In the mid-nineteenth century, a showman named P. T. Barnum exhibited an oddity named the Fiji mermaid. Barnum’s mummified mermaid, one of the most famous hoaxes of all time, is widely believed to have been the body of a young monkey sewn onto a fish tail, and had been bought from Japanese sailors for $6,000.

Ningyo (Japanese mermaids – the word literally means “person-fish”) have a long and interesting history, but they aren’t the only ancient fake taxidermy on show in Japan. Across the country are all kinds of other fascinating specimens: “mummies” of tengu, kappa and even dragons.

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Paramount Pictures project asks artists to reimagine Ninja Turtles as kappa

Paramount Pictures has asked artists from all over the world to contribute to its Legend of the Yokai project, which features the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as inspired by kappa, water-dwelling yokai often found in Japanese folklore.

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Bones of mythical Japanese water demon to go on public display

Every Japanese person knows about kappa, the tricksy and sometimes dangerous, yet strangely polite, water demons from ancient folklore. But how many have actually seen one in real life?

Next month, people will have the chance to, when parts of a supposedly real kappa go on display in all their mummified glory.

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