Night Parade wing

Water

Rivers, ponds, wells, rain, and inland water.

30 entries

Field-guide entries

In this wing

Akashita赤舌

the red tongue

Picture only

A black cloud hangs over an irrigation sluice gate.

Enkō猿猴

the monkey-kappa of the western rivers

Regional

The western water-child, monkey-flavored: hairy, sized like a three-year-old, long-limbed, clawed, "slimy skin like catfish"; a captured specimen reportedly red-faced with "human-like feet and retractable hands".

Enma Daiō閻魔大王

the judge of the dead

Regional

The underworld Izanami cursed and Buddhism systematized got a magistrate: Enma Daiō — Japan's King Yama — "the judge of the dead," presiding over hell's courts, sentencing souls by conduct.

Gangikozō岸涯小僧

the riverbank fish-eater

Chronicle

A hair-covered child-figure squatting at the water's edge, file-like teeth bared, eating fish — Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (1784).

Gyūki / Ushi-oni牛鬼

the ox demon

Regional

Western Japan's great composite demon: ox-headed, and after that, negotiable — demon body, "bovine head with spider abdomen" in Edo scrolls, monkey-faced tiger-bodied winged forms, even serpent-headed whale-bodied sea versions.

Hyakume百目

the hundred eyes

Picture only

A lump of flesh covered in a hundred blinking yellow eyes.

Hyōsubeひょうすべ

the hairy river imp

Regional

Kyūshū's darker kappa: child-sized, cave-dwelling, covered in greasy hair, with a laugh that kills.

Issieイッシー

the lake with a mascot

Regional

Lake Ikeda, Kagoshima — Kyūshū's largest caldera lake — and its resident unknown.

Iyaya否哉

"oh no." The wrong face.

Chronicle

A beautiful woman seen from behind — and in the water at her feet, the reflection shows an old man's face — Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (1784).

Kappa河童

the river child

Chronicle

There is no one kappa — and that is the first thing to know about it.

Kawahime川姫

the river princess who drains

Regional

A beautiful woman by the water — and the young man who looks too long pays in vitality: "men's spirits are quickly drained".

Keneō懸衣翁

the old man who weighs sins by hanging clothes

Regional

At the Sanzu River's far bank: Keneō — "the clothes-hanging old man" — the datsue-ba's partner.

Kenmunケンムン

the Amami tree-child between two worlds

Regional

Amami's spirit-child: child-sized, thin elongated limbs with club-like tips, a monkey-hairy body (red or black), sharp red eyes, pointed mouth, "a yam-like odor" — and a plate on its head containing mystical water or oil.

Kyōkotsu狂骨

the mad bones in the well

Chronicle

A white-haired skeleton in white grave-clothes rising out of a well on the bucket-rope — Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (1781).

Kyūsenbō九千坊

the kappa with nine thousand subordinates

Regional

The kappa as organization: Kyūsenbō, "a legendary kappa boss" commanding nine thousand subordinates, "controls the kappa throughout the western provinces from bases in the Kuma River and Chikugo River".

Minobi蓑火

the raincoat fire

Edo catalog

Crossing near Lake Biwa on a rainy night, fireballs bloom on your straw raincoat "like firefly light" — cold, sparkling "like twinkling stars," and — the signature — multiplying when brushed at.

Mintuchiミントゥチ

the Ainu water-child born from a war

Regional

The Ainu water-being: child-sized (3–12 years in appearance), haired, no kappa dish; "skin like sea turtle, purplish or reddish," bird- or sickle-shaped feet — and the anatomical signature: both arms connect internally, so pulling one shortens the other, or detaches both (the same sliding-arm anatomy Wajin folklore gives the kappa, kept, while the dish is dropped).

Mizuchi蛟

the water-spirit the kappa came from

Chronicle

Before the kappa had a dish or a cucumber, the rivers had the mizuchi: mi-tsu-chi, "spirit of the water" — the -chi suffix marking raw spiritual potency (the same syllable in Orochi).

Nozuchi & Tsuchinoko野槌

the field hammer

Chronicle

A snake shaped like a hammer-head or mallet: thick in the middle, blunt, mouth where a face should be, rolling downhill at travelers.

Nure-onna濡女

the wet woman

Regional

At the water's edge: a woman's head on a serpent's body, hair always dripping.

Ofuda御札

the paper that holds the line

Chronicle

The tradition's monsters have one standard-issue countermeasure: a slip of paper.

Oiwaお岩

the wronged wife of Yotsuya

Regional

Japan's most famous ghost.

Okikuお菊

the counter of plates

Edo catalog

From the bottom of a well, every night, a woman's voice counts: one...

Suijin水神

the water god class

Regional

The class-term for freshwater divinity: suijin — the wells, springs, channels, and paddies each with their station-god.

Suiko水虎

the water tiger

Edo catalog

The suiko is the kappa's fiercer Chinese cousin: the shuihu ("water tiger") of Hubei's rivers — child-sized, tiger-headed, armored in pangolin-like scales — imported through Japan's encyclopedias until the name blurred into the kappa complex and, in Aomori, onto a shrine.

Takirei-ō滝霊王

the king in the waterfall

Edo catalog

The tradition's mildest possible ending to a milestone: Sekien's Takirei-ō (1781) is Fudō Myōō appearing in a waterfall — said to "emerge from waterfall basins in every province," his caption citing the sutra-commentary line that this power "subdues all demons and obstructions".

Yamawaro山童

the mountain child

Edo catalog

The kappa entry's flagship claim — one being, river in summer, mountain in winter — gets its mountain half.