Tanushimaru Fukuoka

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- KAPPA - 河童 / 合羽　/ かっぱ /　カッパ - ABC-Index -
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- Tanushimaru 田主丸 Fukuoka -

Aragoroo Daimyoojin　荒五郎大明神 Aragoro Daimyojin

九千坊河童　Kyusenbo kappa　- Kusenbo Kappa
猿猴河童 Enko Kappa (Endo kappa) - Monkey


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Tanushimaru (田主丸町 Tanushimaru-machi) was a town located in Ukiha District, Fukuoka Prefecture.



Tanushimaru was famous for its hot springs, the best being Mino Onsen, as well as its plant farming, unagi, and kappa (a historical, frog-like creature). Legend had it that the nearby river is the origin of all Japanese kappa, and many monuments to the river monster can be seen around the town. Many of the local inhabitants offer cucumbers and sake to the kappa shrines.
- source : wikipedia


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One legend from Kumamoto and Fukuoka in Kyushu knows that the Kappa clan once lived upstream of the Yellow River in China and one of their groups made it all the way to Kyushu to the river 球磨川 Kumagawa in Kumamoto. Their offspring soon counted for more than 9000 (九千坊 Kusenbo / Kyusenbo, Kuzenbo, also the name of their leader).
They became the 九千坊 Kyusenbo clan in Kyushu and it was 加藤清正 Kato Kiyomasa who called on the help of the Monkeys of Kyushu to fight them (Monkeys can see a kappa, even if he is invisible to the human eye).
The Kappa family was defeated and moved on to Higo 肥後 (Kumamoto) and with permission of the local lord 有馬 Arima settled at the river 筑後川 Chikugogawa, also adjacent to Fukuoka.
They now helped to control the water flow of the wild rivers and were soon venerated as the messengers, or rather the Water Deity 水神 of the shrines in their honor, called 水天宮 Suitengu.

- sources -
本朝俗諺志 Honsho Zokugenshi of Kumamoto - and 倭訓栞 Wakunkan, Wakun no Shiori.
- 本朝俗諺志 -
- 和訓栞 -


. suijin 水神 Kappa, a water deity - Introduction .


. Suitenguu 水天宮 Shrine of the Water God - Introduction . .
Fukuoka, Kyushu 福岡　九州 - Kurume town 久留米市
265 Senoshita-machi Kurume City / 福岡県久留米市瀬下町２６５
and Kappa amulets and toys - 河童竹、河童鈴、河童人形


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A connection to the famous story of the Journey to the West
. 西遊記 Saiyuki and Son Goku 孫悟空, the Monkey King .



Genjo Sanzo meets Sha Gojyō (Sagojo, Shā Wùjìng (沙 悟淨), a water demon, classified as a kappa in some translations.


『 かっぱの総大将　九千坊物語 』
As the legend is told in Tanushimaru
kamishibai-like presentation of the legend of the Himalayas

-- 沙悟浄 Sagojō, Sagojo, Sandy, leader of the River Kappa (meets 孫悟空 Monkey Songoku)
-- 九千坊 Kyusenbo, leader of the Mountain Kappa in the Himalaya region of China



天地をも狂わす九千坊が神の怒りにふれ、九千メートルの威容を誇っていた事から九千山と呼ばれた 今のエベレスト山に閉じ込められたのは、ずーっと昔。

神の怒りがとける時がようやく訪れます。　九千山のてっぺんに強い光りが突きささり、頂上付近は大音響とともに崩壊。　幽閉されていた九千坊は飛び散る巨石と一緒に、インドのデカン高原まで吹き飛ばされてしまいました。



かっぱの総大将・九千坊が解放されたことで、世界中の河童たちは大変喜び、九千坊は、崩壊で低くなった九千山を元通りにする事を生涯の目標にします。
世界中の河童を総括していた九千坊の幽閉中に、頭角を現したのが孫悟空の兄弟で、中国の川に棲む河童・沙悟浄です。　沙悟浄は既に世界中の山や川を支配下に置き、残すはヒマラヤだけとなっていました.

山の河童と、沙悟浄率いる川の河童との攻防戦は、来る日も来る日も続きます。
頭目カッパ同士が対峙したのは、パミール山地のタクラマカン砂漠でした。

新興勢力の沙悟浄も、九千坊に負けない実力の持ち主。　長老の提案により、沙悟浄と九千坊は、九千山の崩壊時に吹き飛んだ巨石で力比べをする事に。

力比べもなかなか勝負がつきません。　しかし、九千坊が重さ九千トンもの巨石を軽々と持ち上げ、遠くまで投げ飛ばしてしまったことで、沙悟浄はついに降参。

川河童の大将・沙悟浄を参謀役に、九千坊は河童の総大将に君臨します九千坊たちは、砂漠に散らばった巨石を九千山へと運び、修復につとめますが、巨石の間を埋める上質な栗石が必要です。　

Following the orders of Sagojo, the clan travelled along the Silk Road, via China and Korea and then came to Japan.
The clan landed in Yachio in Kumamoto, Kyushu and from there on to Chikugogawa. They settled in Tanushimaru along the river Kosegawa 巨川 at the 蛇渕 banks. This became their base camp in Japan.
The water of the Himalayas gave them special powers, but it seem the water of river Chikugogawa was also a powerful potion 神通力 for them,



Later Kyusanbo had 9000 of his clan members travel all around Japan and settle in every river. From Mount 九千山, a mountain of 9000 meters, he could look over them and check how they collected small stones and have them transport to the Himalayas.
お～しまい - The End
source and all paintings :　capricorn09928.blog84



. 河童紙芝居　Kamishibai of the Kappa legends - Introduction .

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Sha Gojyo (沙悟浄) Sagojo is a hanyou, a cross between a yokai and a human, and uses the Shakugetsujou, a metal weapon staff with a sickle and chain, as his primary weapon. In the anime it is revealed that Gojyo can hold his breath for prolonged periods of time while submerged, possibly an inheritance from his demon father, who may have been a water demon (hence, Gojyo's own nickname as "Kappa").
His eyes and hair are blood-red, which expresses his status as a half-blood. Due to this, he is labeled as taboo and unclean by general society.
As a child, he was perpetually being either ignored or beaten by his stepmother, who had been devastated to learn that her husband had an affair with a human woman.
Gojyo smokes, gambles, and flirts with nearly every woman he meets (the last trait is implied to be mainly due to the trauma of being unloved by his abusive stepmother, despite his constant efforts at winning her affection).
...  Gojyo is quick to defend others and holds particular sympathy towards threatened children.

- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Journey to the West is a famous Chinese story (called Hsi-Yu Chi in Chinese).
Although compiled by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century, the legend existed long before that. It is based on a real person named Xuan Zang (602-664 AD), a Buddhist monk who journeyed to India in search of Buddhist sutras. Protecting him on his journey (in the book) are three companions -- the Monkey, the Pig, and a Water Demon called Sandy (Jp. = Sagojō or Sangojo).
To some, the Japanese Kappa is based on Sandy the water demon. According to Chinese mythology, Sagojō was originally the ”Commander of the Heavenly Hosts,“ but he was banished to Earth for accidentally breaking the Jade Emperor’s vase. On earth, he appeared as an ugly water spirit, devouring anyone who strayed near his abode.
In Journey to the West, he is armed with a “water staff” with a metal blade on each end, and he wears a necklace of the skulls of his victims.
source : Mark Schumacher

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Many ancient legends about kappa (water sprites) continue to live on in Tanushimaru to this day and visitors to the district can see a kappa nearly everywhere they go.
Kyushu’s largest river, the Chikugo River, runs through Kurume and makes up part fertile area that has long been called the Chikugo Plains. It can, however, be a very violent river, and given the fact that the flow of its riverbed can change overnight, it has even earned the nickname “The Overnight River”. People living near the river long ago suffered its great floods; they thought the flooding to be the work or curse of gods, spawning a deep belief in gods and eventually a water god-based faith.

With the progress in the world after that, this faith split into factions, one of them thought to be the belief in kappa. It was at this point that the long-held beliefs in various kappa (such as Aragoro Daimyojin) were born in Tanushimaru, and kappa came to be worshipped in various areas!
Beliefs in the Kyusenbo kappa (who bares its torso, wears a loincloth, and has a dent in its head - a so-called “head bowl”) as well as the Endo and other such kappa that avert mass floods have persevered since long ago.

There are two theories as to the origins of kappa in Tanushimaru.
The first claims that Kusenbo from mainland China was leading his subjects and moved toward the Kuma River in Kumamoto Prefecture’s Yatsushiro City but encountered the subjugation of the Higo domain lord Kato Kiyomasa, who forced Kusenbo to flee into the Chikugo River.
The second claims that members the Heike clan who were defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura were swept into the Chikugo River basin, and the essence of their grudge took on the form of kappa. Specifically, the incarnation of Taira no Kiyomori (a general during the mid to late 1100’s) is enshrined as the Monster of the Kose Tributary.

Tanushimaru-machi, Kurume-shi, Fukuoka
- source : www.kurume-hotomeki.jp


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Shikaumi Jinja, Shika-Umi Jinja 志賀海神社
877 Shikashima, Higashi Ward, Fukuoka
海人族の信仰の普及の一つに、九州福岡のAzumi no Isora 安曇磯良を祭神として祀っている志賀海神社を根拠地とし、安曇や厚美などの名を頂いて、全国の海辺伝い、もしくは山 奥まで広まっているようだ。これには傀儡舞などの芸能が核となり八幡信仰と結び付いて、西日本に広がり、摂津西宮神社に隷属して、第二の拠点となったと。 つまり仮説だが、河童伝承の残る地域には、海人族である安曇族の流れが
定着したものではないか？
- 茨城は古代、常陸の国であり、蝦夷の国の入り口でもあった。三大河童地帯が、九州の福岡から西日本を飛んで、蝦夷の国である常陸と遠野に定着したと考えると、かなり面白い流れとなると思う。
肥 前の国の武田番匠の使いとも、名匠左甚五郎の使いとも伝えられる大工が、人手が足りないので藁人形や、おが屑の人形を作って命を与えて手伝わせ、無事に仕 事を完成させる事ができた。仕事を終えた後、不必要となった人形は河原に棄てたのだが、いつしかその人形達は人を襲い、人の尻こ玉を抜いて食べるように なったなどの伝承が伝わる。
source : dostoev.exblog.jp

and maybe a connection to the Hachiman belief?

. Azumi no Isora 阿曇磯良 .
- Azumi no Isora Maru 阿曇磯良丸 Isoramaru - Hakata and Hotaka shrine, Nagano
- Ame no Koyane no mikoto 天児屋根命 Amenokoyane


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Chikugo 筑後 and Kurume　久留米

河童と地元民とのもめごと　trouble between Kappa and the local people
河童族同士の戦争 insider fighting of the Kappa clan

and many place names named after the Kappa.



In Kurume
you get a カッピースタンプ Kappy Stamp for buying certain goods.

People still tell the children to eat bamboo shoots before going into the water, eating some rice offerings from the Buddhist home alter before going into the water
or reciting a mantra to the Suitengu Shrine .

. Chikugo no kuni 筑後国 Chikugo Province .
and Kappa Legends

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At うきは市吉井町 Ukiha town
there was a wild river, 巨瀬川 Usegawa, where the Kappa lived.
To appease the river deity, the shrine 高橋神社 Takahashi Jinja was built.



Every year in September there is a かっぱ相撲 Kappa Sumo ritual. In former times it used to be grown-ups to perform it, but nowadays schoolschildren with a Kappa shield painted on their back do the sumo wrestling.
source :　hosmec.blog.so-net.ne.jp

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CLICK for more photos of the station !


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- reference - Tanushimaru -

. Legends - Kappa densetsu　河童伝説 .

. 加藤清正 Kato Kiyomasa .
(1562 - 1611)

. 平清盛 Taira no Kiyomori .
(1118 - 1181)


. - kaikidan ekotoba 怪奇談絵詞 monster scroll - .
Fukuoka City Museum

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. - - - Join my Kappa friends on facebook ! - - - .

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. - monkey - enkoo, enkō 猿猴 / 猿　saru and Kappa 河童 - .

. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .

- #Tanushimaru -
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[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
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