The self of the heavens has billions of clones

Chapter 182

Kappa looks a bit like a human being, but has webbed hands and feet and is quite good at swimming.In addition, the kappa has a turtle-like carapace on its back, and the surface of the skin is covered with slippery transparent mucus, just like amphibians.The top of the kappa's head is disc-shaped. It is said that once the skin of this part dries up, the kappa will die, so the kappa often appears near the water.Although there are rumors of kappa appearing all over Japan, the legend of kappa in Lake Biwa originated the earliest and is the most orthodox. There is even a mummy of a kappa hidden in the nearby Antu Temple.It is said that there are various kinds of kappa inhabiting Lake Biwa, some of which have poor conduct and drown many innocent people every year; these kappa with bad behavior will hide in the water and take the opportunity to hold people's feet, After pulling the person into the water, they eat part of the internal organs.

Kappa legend
It is said that a leader named Jiuqianfang led the Kappa clan from China to live in the area around Unzen Hot Spring in Kumagawa, Kyushu.He often led his subordinates to appear in the village and caused a lot of trouble. Because he had the strange power to pull a horse to the river, no one in the village could match him.Kato Kiyomasa, the lord of Kumamoto Castle who was furious when he knew this, used the ape that the Kappa hated the most to give a good lesson to the Kappa who harmed the people.Later, it became the envoy of Suitian Temple, and its branch was located in the mansion of Mrs. Ma on the bank of the Akabane River in Edo. (His Royal Highness Kurume) later moved to the vicinity of Nihonbashi.

It is said that in order to defeat Kuzenbo, Kato Kiyomasa led the Kappa to Jigokudani, which emits sulfur gas. He not only poisoned the river, but also threw hot stones into the pool, and finally gathered the mountain ape, which Kappa hates the most. A group attacked them, and because of the heat of sulfur, the water in the plate on the head of Jiuqianfang gradually disappeared, and he was finally captured without fighting because of the magic power. one. (Note: Kato Kiyoshi was a military general in the Azuchi Momoyama era in Japan. He followed Toyotomi Hideyoshi when he was young, and showed his superb martial arts in the desperate battle with Shibata Katsuie. Later became the lord of Kumamoto Castle, famous for his bravery and battle and castle architecture.)
anthropomorphism
Legend has it that Zuo Jingoro in the Edo period, the fan craftsman of the ancient Takeda, and the craftsman of Hida in the Nara and Heian eras. When these craftsmen built shrines, temples or cities, they spread a spell to write people's names on paper. Then put the paper strips into the gaps in the wood or the human figures (i.e. dolls) made of grass. This action is called "calling the soul", and it is said that the building will be built stronger and more secure.After completion, the unused dolls would be thrown into the river. Later, these cursed dolls turned into kappa one after another, causing chaos everywhere, threatening humans and animals.In addition, Abe Seimei, who is famous as an onmyoji, used paper dolls (shigami) entrusted by the gods to help him perform his work. Later, because some people were afraid of shikigami, Abe Seimei had to seal the shikigami in a cave in Kyoto. Under the bridge, it is said that Kappa is the descendant of these shikigami.

Just like how an onmyoji uses shikigami, sorcerers can cause illness or even death if they do something to the victim's name, hair or clothing.And he can also steal his soul essence and make it serve himself.In the Qing Dynasty of China, there was also a sorcery event of "calling the soul": Deqing County, Zhejiang Province needed to drive wooden piles into the bottom of the river for the bridge construction project, so the stonemasons borrowed the names of living people to write on pieces of paper and pasted them on the prepared The tops of the wooden piles that are to be the base of the bridge are then hammered down hard with a mallet, which will add a certain spiritual force to the impact of the sledgehammer.Because it is difficult to drive the wooden piles to the bottom of the river, rumors spread that the pier could be stabilized and lasted if the soul-calling technique was used, which caused great panic among the people in the south of the Yangtze River. The local officials in the emperor's era spent a lot of effort to suppress the panic incidents that disturbed people's hearts. (Please refer to "Soul Calling" published by Shiying)
Japanese literature
Through the brilliant pen of Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the kappa (published in [-]) is no longer a terrifying image of a water ghost, but instead becomes a humorous and typical character who can lead people into a magical utopia world.This story is about a lunatic recalling what he saw and heard in the kappa country, using the eyes of a lunatic to pull readers away from reality, using a third-party perspective to look back at the world we live in, thus forcing us to Reflect on life.The appearance of kappa is described in detail in the novel: they have a saucer on their head, and they often pose as frogs jumping, or climb on trees to watch people.The body is slightly transparent and can change color according to the environment (it feels like a tree frog or tree frog).In the kappa country, all the concepts are mocking people in the real society. They even understand human beings better than themselves.Once they master their unique language, accept their weird ideas, and leave this utopia, they will immediately fall into the annoyance of incomparably disgusting humans.In the last chapter of the novel, the protagonist returns to the world with great difficulty, and is treated as a lunatic because he can no longer get used to human life.If coming to the kappa symbolizes the awakening of human beings and the ascension of spiritual power, then returning to the human world is tantamount to a kind of behavior of self-sacrifice, which will eventually lead to tragedy, because such people are destined to be unable to continue to survive in the real world Going on, perhaps this is the main reason why the author Akutagawa Ryunosuke finally chose to commit suicide to end his life.

Fold other explanations
Many monsters used to be gods, but due to the influence of foreign religions and Buddhism, they gradually lost believers, and finally turned into monsters.Kappa is also one of them. They were water gods revered by residents from all over the world a long time ago.At the same time, they also like sumo very much, and like to live in rivers and swamps.The bones of the wrists are connected, so that one hand is retracted and the other is extended.In addition, there are many legends that can be heard everywhere.

Most people's impression of a kappa is a crow with a plate on it.In fact, his appearance came from the hairstyle of the Portuguese missionaries who came to Japan in the [-]th century. Why is there such an interesting saying? It is said that when the Jesuit missionaries went to China to preach, there were many Chinese People thought they were water gods who came by boat from the other side of the sea.In fact, if you look at the hairstyles on the heads of those missionaries, they are somewhat similar to Kappa.After this saying was spread to Japan along with the missionaries, it became the standard image of Kappa.

As for what the kappa looked like before, although there is no definite statement, but because he has no fixed shape, everyone who sees him will naturally describe him differently.As for whether the kappa is an enemy or a friend of mankind, there are different opinions in different places.

folding habits
Because they are amphibian monsters, kappa like to live in caves near the river. Their skin is very sticky and slippery, which is very suitable for living in this humid environment. Kappa can change their body shape according to the surrounding environment like a chameleon. The color of the skin, but most of the time they remain green all over.Kappa like to play tricks, they often fool humans, but occasionally help people do something good, but Kappa is still very dangerous, they sometimes attack horses drinking water by the water and children playing by the river, Kappa will suddenly appear Killing them and eating their guts shows how dangerous water tigers can be.But the Kappa is very afraid of cows, which reminds me of the saying in Chinese legend that Wang Bajing and turtle spirits are also afraid of cows, especially the bronze bull that reminds people of Yiheyuan. Maybe it is a common problem of animals like turtles to be afraid of cows. Bar.In addition, Kappa also has a habit of eating cucumbers. It is precisely because of this habit that cucumbers are called Kappa in many small restaurants in Japan. I used to eat a Japanese dish called "Green Kappa". It's called Kappa, and later I started to study Japanese monsters and finally understood the whole story.

The last thing to say is that the names of kappa in different parts of Japan are also different. The Northeastern generation is called めどち, めんつち, the western Japan is called がたろ, the Chinese and Shikoku generations call it かわこ, えんこう, and the people of Kyushu are called Kappa.がらっぱ.

fold morphological features

[Full body]: Height is about 60 cm to 1 meter tall, and weighs only about 45 kg. He is thin and looks like a child between 3 and 11 years old. He looks like a human or an ape.Their bodies smell bad and are covered in mucus, making them difficult to catch. Kappa seen in some places are said to be covered in hair.

[Hands and feet]: Arms can move left and right flexibly. If they are cut off, they will grow back. They have strong regenerative ability. (A severed arm can be made into a special medicine for bruises.) It is slender and can be used for paddling at ordinary times, but it only has four fingers, and its hands and feet can be retracted into the turtle shell.

[Head]: The hair is disheveled. There is a disc-shaped depression in the center of the head. After it is filled with water, it is extremely powerful. If the water is poured out, the mana will disappear. Some people say that his head is red, while others say it is dark blue. color.

【Eyes】: The eyes are round, glowing, and sharp.

[Nose]: The nose is as prominent as a dog and has a keen sense of smell.

[Mouth]: It looks like a human mouth, or some looks like a bird's beak. There are four fangs on the top and bottom of the mouth, which can tear food apart very quickly.

【Turtle Shell】: A turtle-like carapace is carried on its back.It is said that the shell is red, covered with large and small diamond-shaped bone spurs,
[Butt]: It is said that there are three buttholes, I don’t know what they are used for; it is said that it can jet to get the thrust out of the water
In ancient Japan, the image of the water god was accepted by beliefs in many places.Later, when people no longer believed in the water god, it gradually evolved into the image of the monster kappa we are familiar with.Although the appearance of kappa distributed all over Japan is slightly different, the common feature is that there is a plate filled with water on the head. If the water in the plate is gone, the mana will disappear. I heard that the kappa also likes to find people to play with. Sumo, or butt-sneaking, is a mischievous yokai.

The legendary kappa is an amphibious monster with a tiger-like face, a bird-like mouth, a body covered with scales, and a turtle shell on its back.Kappa are generally not very tall. They look like children of four or five years old. They are over one meter tall and weigh about [-] to [-] pounds. There are also larger kappas of [-] to [-] pounds.Their heads have weed-like hair, and there is a concave oval-shaped depression on their heads. This depression will become harder and harder with age, and there is a certain amount of water in this depression. When there is a lot of water, the kappa With great strength, kappa become very fragile when the water becomes less.

In addition, there is another big monster that is the nine-tailed demon fox, and his reputation among monsters is even more terrifying. He is Tamamo-mae...
Tamamo no まえ (たまものまえ) is said to be a peerless beauty transformed from a white-faced golden-haired nine-tailed fox at the end of the Heian period and during the reign of Emperor Toba (1129-1156). Known as the most beautiful woman in the world and the most talented woman in Japan.

In the earliest local Japanese legends, Tamamo-mae only appeared as the image of a vixen who confuses Emperor Toba in the legend, and has nothing to do with the images of Chinese "vixes" Daji and Baosi, but because of the influence of Chinese culture, its image later Because of the creation of Japanese novels and kabuki many times, the image has gradually changed, and it has gradually been combined with the Chinese evil girl Daji or Baosi. In some works, she is said to be Daji, and in some works, she is said to be Baosi. .

In some novels or Kabuki works of later generations in China and Japan, her life even appeared-she was born in China, and in legends, she is the crystallization of Yin Qi and knows the art of humanization.

In the eleventh century BC, she transformed into a stunning beauty, Daji, and became the favorite concubine of Xin, the prince of Shang Zhou at that time.Under Daji's despotic power, the people of the Shang Dynasty lived in dire straits, and were soon overthrown by the emerging Zhou regime in the west.

The demon fox also ran to India and transformed into Hua Yangtian, the princess of the spotted-footed prince of Mojie Tuo Kingdom. Later, he returned to China and lived a life of anonymity for the time being.During the Tang Dynasty, Japan sent an envoy Kibi Zhenbei to China, and the demon fox slipped into Kibi Zhenbei's ship and came to Japan.

Hundreds of years later, he called himself "Tamamo-mae" and gained the favor and trust of Emperor Toba.Later, the emperor fell ill and was bedridden; the ministers began to doubt her and asked Abe Yasuchika (Abe Seimei's grandson) to perform a divination on her secretly.

As a result, the true face of "Yuzaoqian" was finally exposed. It turned out to be a nine-tailed demon fox from China, so she fled the capital and hid in a distant place.

(End of this chapter)