The Kappa (Kawataro, Kawako) is a dwarf-like water demon of Japan, sometimes listed as one of the Obake. They resemble shrivelled old-men, with webbed hands and feet, sporting a tortoise shell. Skin colour ranges from green to blue to yellow, and even red. Their face can contain a beaked nose or else look like a monkey. Crowning their head of page-boy style hair is a circular depression filled with water. A kappa covered in hair is known as a Hyosube. They are known to speak Japanese fluently.

An origin for the demons could be they are the ghosts of drowned souls. Any pond or river may have one. They possess immense strength and can easily overpower a human. Although the source of this power comes from the stored water within the dish on their head. Emptying the dish reduces the kappa to frailty. This may be done by bowing to the kappa upon encounter. In a show of manners the creature will bow back and thus pour out the contents of its might.

Activities from this demon can range from mischievous to deadly. It enjoys passing gas and forever gives off a fishy odour. It may also try to look up women's kimonos and swim down the plumbing to stroke a persons bottom as they defecate. Else they will overpower a person or animal to drown them. Once drowned they remove a person's entrails through their backside, favouring the liver or something the Japanese call the shirikodama.

Besides fresh flesh, the kappa also partakes in vegetarian cuisine. It enjoys eggplants and cucumbers. It is said carving your name and age into a cucumber, then throwing it into the water for a hungry kappa, will ensure that kappa cannot harm you. Though it is also dangerous to swim soon after eating a cucumber.

Kappa also loved contests. They would challenge passersby to such games as pull-my-finger and sumo wrestling. Should the demon win, they usually drowned and ate you. One tale tells of a samurai who accepted a kappa's request for tug-of-war. Fortunately he outsmarted the kappa and used a horse to pull in his stead. The outmatched demon fell, spilling the contents of its head upon the ground. Now too weak to get away, the kappa promised to teach the samurai the trick of bone-setting if it could be released.

Many kappas have proven to be quite knowledgeable on subjects of medicine and irrigation. In a case where one kappa lost its arm to a frightened horse, it petitioned the villagers for the limb's return. The community forced the kappa to sign a contract with its webbed hand. From then on the kappa delivered to the village piles of fish, and warned of other kappa passing through the area.

Source: Myths and Magic Encyclopedia - http://mythsandmagicencyclopedia.wikifoundry.com/page/Kappa