Kappa

Kappa are usually seen as mischievous troublemakers or trickster figures. Their pranks are usually rather innocent, such as loudly passing gas or looking up women's kimonos, but they can harm humans and even try to kill us.
As water monsters, kappa have been frequently blamed for drowning, and are often said to try to lure people to the water and pull them in with their great skill at wrestling.They are sometimes said to take their victims for the purpose of drinking their blood, eating their livers or gaining power by taking their shirikodama, a mythical ball said to contain their soul which is located inside the anus. Even today, signs warning about kappa appear by bodies of water in some Japanese towns and villages. Kappa are also said to victimize animals, especially horses and cows; the motif of the kappa trying to drown horses is found all over Japan. In these stories, if a kappa is caught in the act, it can be made to apologize, sometimes in writing. This usually takes place in the stable where the kappa attempted to attack the horse, which is considered the place where the kappa is most vulnerable.

 

It was believed that if confronted with a kappa there were a few means of escape: Kappa, for one reason or another, obsess over being polite, so if a person were to gesture a deep bow to a kappa it would more than likely return it. In doing so, the water kept in the lilypad-like bowl on their head would spill out and the kappa would be rendered unable to leave the bowed position until the bowl was refilled with water from the river in which it lived. If a human were to refill it, it was believed the kappa would serve them for all eternity. A similar weakness of the kappa in some tales are their arms, which can be easily pulled from their body. If their arm is detached, they will perform favors or share knowledge in exchange for its return. Once the kappa is in possession of its arm it can then be reattached. Another method of defeat involves the kappa and their known love of shogi or sumo wrestling. They will sometimes challenge those they encounter to wrestle or other various tests of skill.
Japanese parents sometimes write names on cucumbers and toss them into waters believed to be infested with kappa in order to mollify the creatures and allow the family to bathe.

Urashima Tarô

Urasima Tarô by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

One day a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō is out fishing when he notices a group of children torturing a small turtle. Tarō-san decides to save it and lets it to go back to the sea. The next day, a huge turtle approaches him and tells him that the small turtle he had saved is the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryūjin, who wants to see him to thank him. The turtle gives Tarō gills and brings him to the bottom of the sea, to the Palace of the Dragon God. There he meets the Emperor and the small turtle, who turned out to be a lovely princess, Otohime.

Tarō stays there with her for a few days, but soon wants to go back to his village and see his aging mother, so he requests Otohime's permission to leave. The princess says she is sorry to see him go, but wishes him well. She gives him a mysterious box called tamatebako, which will protect him from harm, but which she tells him never to open. Tarō takes the box, jumps on the back of the same turtle that had brought him there, and returns home.

When he does, everything has changed. His home is gone, his mother has vanished, and the people he knew are nowhere to be seen. He asks if anybody knows a man called Urashima Tarō. They answer that they had heard someone of that name had vanished at sea long ago. He somehow discovers that 300 years have passed since the day he left for the bottom of the sea. Struck by grief, he absent-mindedly opens the box the princess had given him, and out bursts a cloud of white smoke. He is suddenly aged, his beard long and white, and his back bent. From the sea comes the voice of the princess: "I told you not to open that box. In it was your old age ..."

Another version of the legend says that he turns in to dust when opening the box, since nobody can live for 300 years.



 

The Tamatebako that Otohime gave Tarô-san is an origami cube that can be opened by any side. If it is opened by two sides it falls apart and is not easily put together again. The model of the cube and the instructions for creating it had been lost for centuries, but have recently been rediscovered.

 

Sadako Sasaki and the Senbazuru

Sadako Sasaki, with two years old, was at home when the explosion of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 blew her out of the window, which she somehow miraculously survived. But when she was eleven, signs of leukaemia started to show (swelling on her neck and behind her ears, as well as purple spots on her legs) caused by the radiation exposure, and she had to be hospitalized in February of 1955 after being told she only had one year left to live.

On August of that same year Chizuko Hamamoto, Sadako's best friend, went to the hospital to visit her. She folded an origami crane on a golden colour piece of paper and told her about an ancient Japanese legend that promises that a crane, or the gods, depending on the version of the legend, will grant a wish to anyone who manages to fold a hundred paper cranes. Sadako decided to try it, though she knew she wouldn't ever get cured. She wanted to wish that nobody else ever had to find themselves in her situation. 

Though she had plenty of free time in the hospital, she couldn't find enough paper. She used medicine wrappings, paper from get-well presents and the pieces her friend bought from school for her. She passed away at the young age of twelve, on the morning of October 25 in 1995.

Whether she managed to finish them or not isn't known. The most popular version is that she couldn't complete the 1000 cranes and died with “only” having done 644. However, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum states that she did manage.

After her death, Sadako's friends and schoolmates raised funds and built a memorial to her and all the children who had died, or were about to die, because of the effects of the atomic bomb. Now there is also a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Sadako's older brother, Masahiro Sasaki, has become a peace activist.

In Japan, the crane is considered a holy creature, such as dragons or tortoises, and it is said to live for a thousand years, hence why 1000 cranes are made in the legend. Some say that all of the cranes must be completed within a year and must all be made by the person who wants to make the wish at the end, and it doesn't count if they are given to somebody else. However, it is a popular gift for special friends and family.

 

The 1000 origami cranes receive the name of Senbazuru (千羽鶴), with sen meaning 'a thousand' and tsuru meaning ‘paper crane’. A thousand paper cranes are traditionally given by the father as a gift at a wedding, who wishes for "a thousand years of happiness and prosperity" to the couple. Hanging them in one's house is considered to be a powerful lucky charm.

How to fold a paper crane

Japanese legend - The snow bride

Since I love Japanese legends, I decided to post one. I got this from here. I will probably be posting a few more from different sites or  even  from  the  same  one,  but  don't  forget  to  follow  the  link  if  you  like  this to read more.

The Snow Bride

Mosaku and his apprentice Minokichi journeyed to a forest, some little distance from their village. It was a bitterly cold night when they neared their destination, and saw in front of them a cold sweep of water. They desired to cross this river, but the ferryman had gone away, leaving his boat on the other side of the water, and as the weather was too inclement to admit of swimming across the river they were glad to take shelter in the ferryman's little hut. Mosaku fell asleep almost immediately he entered this humble but welcome shelter. Minokichi, however, lay awake for a long time listening to the cry of the wind and the hiss of the snow as it was blown against the door. Minokichi at last fell asleep, to be soon awakened by a shower of snow falling across his face. He found that the door had been blown open, and that standing in the room was a fair woman in dazzlingly white garments. For a moment she stood thus; then she bent over Mosaku, her breath coming forth like white smoke. After bending thus over the old man for a minute or two she turned to Minokichi and hovered over him. He tried to cry out, for the breath of this woman was like a freezing blast of wind. She told him that she had intended to treat him as she had done the old man at his side, but forbore on account of his youth and beauty. Threatening Minokichi with instant death if he dared to mention to anyone what he had seen, she suddenly vanished. Then Minokichi called out to his beloved master, "Mosaku, Mosaku, wake! Something very terrible has happened!" But there was no reply. He touched the hand of his master in the dark, and found it was like a piece of ice. Mosaku was dead! During the next winter, while Minokichi was returning home, he chanced to meet a pretty girl by the name of Yuki. She informed him that she was going to Yedo, where she desired to find a situation as a servant. Minokichi was charmed with this maiden, and he went so far as to ask if she were betrothed, and hearing that she was not, he took her to his own home, and in due time married her. Yuki presented her husband with ten fine and handsome children, fairer of skin than average. When Minokichi's mother died, her last words were in praise of Yuki, and her eulogy was echoed by many of the country folk in the district. One night, while Yuki was sewing, the light of a paper lamp shining upon her face, Minokichi recalled the extraordinary experience he had had in the ferryman's hut. "Yuki," said he, "you remind me so much of a beautiful white woman I saw when I was eighteen years old.
She killed my master with her ice-cold breath. I am sure she was some strange spirit, and yet tonight she seems to resemble you." Yuki flung down her sewing. There was a horrible smile on her face as she bent close to her husband and shrieked, "It was I, Yuki-Onna, who came to you then, and silently killed your master! Oh, faithless wretch, you have broken your promise to keep the matter secret, and if it were not for our sleeping children I would kill you now! Remember, if they have aught to complain of at your hands I shall hear, I shall know, and on a night when the snow falls I will kill you!" Then Yuki-Onna, the Lady of the Snow, changed into a white mist, and, shrieking and shuddering, passed through the smoke-hole, never to return again.



This legend comes out in Inuyasha. In the episode, Miroku is tricked by a lady he sees in a snow storm and they have lots of snow kids. Anyway, it's episode 5 of season 2, called "The Snow from Seven Years Past".