SHINGO YOSHIDA

By now, KAPPA disappeared

Iwate, Japan 06 / 01 / 2011

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In Iwate Prefecture, there is a place called Tono, famous for its kappa. Kappa are legendary creatures dressed in red or green, wearing a dish-like object on their heads, and are similar to water demons in Japanese folklore. One day, when I met a taxi driver, he told me that the story of the kappa is about abandoning children, or in other words, "reducing the number of mouths to feed" that a family should support.

"This area was very poor," he said. Hungry children would steal cucumbers, wash them in the river, and eat them. This is why kappa are known to eat cucumbers in Japan. In the past, when famines occurred almost every year, there was a custom of abandoning the elderly in the mountains to reduce the number of mouths to feed in a family. Sometimes even children were driven to their deaths. When children were taken to the mountains, they would cry or follow their families back home. For many people, killing children in this way was a painful thing to do. So, they would take them to rivers or lakes and drown them. Some survived and searched for food.

"That's why, in the old days, you could sometimes see wild children near the rivers," people in Tono say. The little girls had long, unkempt hair, just like kappa. Eventually, the kappa disappeared.

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By now, KAPPA disappeared.

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** The people of Tono say that the Kappa are gods. However, one day I met a taxi driver who told me that this story was about abandoning children, namely reducing the number of mouths a family needed to feed. “This area here was very poor“ he said. A hungry child stole a cucumber, washed it in the river and ate it. This is why in Japan the Kappa are known to eat cucumber.

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岩手県にはカッパで有名な遠野という場所があります。
かっぱとは、赤や緑をした伝説の生き物で、頭に皿のようなものをかぶっており、日本の民間伝承では水のお化けに近いものです。

ある日、タクシーの運転手に会ったとき、河童の話は子供を捨てること、つまり一家が養うべき"口減らし"のことだと教えてくれた。

"ここの地域はとても貧しかった "と彼は言った。

お腹を空かせた子供がキュウリを盗み、川で洗って食べた。日本で河童がキュウリを食べることで知られているのはこのためだとか。

その昔、毎年のように飢饉が起こっていた頃、一家の口減らしのために年寄りを山に捨てる習慣があった。

時には子供までもが死に追いやられた。子供が山に連れて行かれると 山に連れてこられた子供は、泣いてしまうか、家族に付いて帰ってしまう。多くの人にとって、このような形で子供を殺すのは辛いことでした。
そこで、川や湖に連れて行って水に沈めてしまうのです。中には生き残って食べ物を探すものもいたという。
「だから、昔は川の近くで野生の子供を見かけることがあったんだよ」と遠野の人は言う。
小さな女の子は髪の毛が長くて抜けていて、まるでカッパのようだったという。

そのうち、カッパは姿を消してしまったとか。。

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