kappa

I have made a habit of writing a blog post every week but sometimes, I have to admit, I find myself quite at loss as to what to write about next. Often there are things happening or occasions and occurrences I want to share, but there are weeks where I come up with a blank as I sit down to write. Fortunately, something always tends to come to mind as I keep my eyes open to every day life, just as it did this time as I went for a morning run while pondering what to write about next.

A kappa is a Japanese folklore being, living in rivers and ponds. The size of a child, a kappa is an honorable creature but can be dangerous. And they have a soft spot for cucumbers. This is how kappa was described to me when I first was told about them. If you are out walking in an area where there are kappa, always bring a cucumber, I was told with a hint of a smile. Adults try to teach children lessons of safety by making stories about kappa living in the ponds that are used to irrigate the rice fields. My wife was told about kappa as a child and she tells stories to our son who now is very familiar with the dangers of going to play in the ponds where kappa are supposedly waiting to take his foot and pull him under the water.

Every time I go for a morning run after having waved goodbye to our son getting on the kindergarten bus, I pass the biggish pond close to our home. I don’t know if it is only in Fukuoka, but on the fences surrounding ponds around here I often see a sign warning children not to play in the pond, illustrated with the image of a kappa trying to catch a young boy. I have meant to write about this sign many times before but never come around to it, and noticing this sign as I was passing by the other day, I thought that this time I will make it happen – I will introduce this Japanese mythological being to my readers.

As I stopped by the pond coincidence, fate, or whatever word you want to use, chose to show its face to me. I thought I saw something red swimming among the green lotus leaves in the water below and as I looked closer I saw, while not a kappa, the long lost red carp fish swimming towards me. Passing by this pond many times every week, my son and I always stop the bike at the fence to look at the grey carp fish. Only once did we see a red fish, it made a strong impact on us and resulted in the watermelon story from last year, but since we have not seen again we were starting to think that maybe we had imagined the whole thing. But lo and behold, there it was, no dream, no story, no imagination. Maybe, I thought to myself, it is a sign for me to write another pond-story. The kappa and his friend, the red carp fish. I will discuss this with my son tomorrow, if we should make up a story together.

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