Yamawaro and Kappa

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- KAPPA - 河童 / かっぱ /　カッパ - Yokai 妖怪 Monsters -
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- Yamawaro, Yama-Waro やまわろ / ヤマワロ / 山童 / 山𤢖
"Child of the Mountain" -
- - - - - and his alter ego
Kappa　河童 "Child of the River"


Bronze Statue at the Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakai Minato / Tottori 水木しげるロード


- - - - - Other names:
Sanso 山そ / さんそ / 山𤢖 　
Yama warawa やまわらわ
Yamanmon やまんもん (Yama no mono)
Yamanto やまんと
Yamantaroo 山ん太郎 Yama no Taro
Yamanbo やまんぼ /山ん坊

Yamanwakkashi やまんわっかし
（山の若い衆 yama no wakai shu - young people of the mountains)
Yamanojiyan やまんおじやん
（山の伯父やん yama no ojisan - uncle of the mountains)

Maybe identical with
. yamaotoko, yama-otoko 山男 the "Mountain Man" monster .

Yamawaro is a popular Yokai in Kyushu and Western Japan. It is a one-eyed monster with a hairy body.
It is especially interesting because of its relation to, or rather, identity with the Kappa.

When entering a mountain forest for work the woodcutters of Kumamoto have to take some o-miki.
Sometimes, when after a lot of effort with the saw a tree would still not fall, it was said to be the bad influence of the "Mountain Child". So they had to offer him some o-miki and ask him to go away elsewhere. Sometimes he even helps with the work when offered food.
Also when other unforeseen things happened during the work in the mountain forest they would offer o-miki and ask for help.

The Yamawaro come down to the river during the spring Higan equinox 春の彼岸 and become the Garappa of the rivers.
During the autumn Higan 秋の彼岸 they climb back to the mountains in a long row, sometimes more than 1000 creatures.
People should not build their homes or kilns to make charcoal in their commuting way.

. sumigama 炭竈 と伝説 Legends about charcoal kilns .
and the Yamawaro

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- quote -
やまわろ YAMAWARO - - - TRANSLATION: mountain child
ALTERNATE NAMES: yamawarawa
HABITAT: mountains; commonly found throughout Kyushu and West Japan
DIET: omnivorous



APPEARANCE:
Yamawaro are minor deities of the mountains, closely related to other nature spirits such as kappa, garappa, and hyōsube.
They are short creatures resembling boys of about 10 years of age. Their heads are covered in long brown hair and their bodies is covered in very fine, light hair. They have a short torso and two long legs, on which they walk upright. A yamawaro’s most distinguishing feature is the single eye in the middle of head. They are skillful mimics, copying the sound of falling rocks, wind, dynamite, tools, and can even learn to speak human languages and sing human songs.

INTERACTIONS:
Like their cousins the kappa, yamawaro despise horses and cows, and often attack them on sight. They love the sport of sumo, which they are better at than any human. They also enjoy sneaking into homes to nap and take baths, leaving a thick film of grease and hair in the tub when they are done.
Yamawaro
are frequently encountered in the mountains by woodcutters, and are known to help with work. If properly thanked, and offered food for their services, a yamawaro is likely to return to help again. However, care must be taken when feeding a yamawaro. If the amount of food is less than what was promised, the it will grow extremely angry and never return. If the food is offered before the work is performed, it will simply take the food and run away.

ORIGIN:
One theory from Kumamoto says that yamawaro and garappa (Kappa) are actually different forms of the same yokai.
During the cold months, these creatures live in the mountains as yamawarawa, while during the warm months, they live in lakes and rivers as garappa. Every year on the fall equinox, all of the country’s garappa transform into yamawaro and travel from the rivers to the mountains in a mass migration. They return on the spring equinox and transform back into garappa. Villagers who build their houses in the pathway of these massive yokai migrations are prone to find holes, gashes, and other damage caused by yamawaro angry at having their path blocked by a house.
People who witness the springtime return of the yamawaro often catch deadly fevers.
This theory
is supported by the fact that these creatures share so many traits in common with one another, and because it is extremely rare to see garappa in the winter. However, it is also possible that these aquatic yokai simply go into hibernation during the colder months, and that the similarities between garappa and yamawaro are simply coincidences.
- source : yokai.com/yamawaro


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source : Christopher on facebook


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. ta no kami - yama no kami 田の神 山の神　Deity of the Fields and Mountains .
Before the spring sowing the statue of the deity is carried from the woods above the village to the house, where it is set up to preside over a festive spring banquet. Then it is carried to a particular place in the fields, from where it will protect the growing rice.
In autumn the festival procedure is reversed and the deity returns to the mountain forest.


. Kappa Legends from Kumamoto　熊本県　 .


. Yamawaroo 山童 from Bungo no Kuni Hita 豊後国日田 . - Oita

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source :　明子さんのギャラリー


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- - - - - Yamawaro from Kumamoto 　熊本県のヤマワロ

. Yama no Kami 山の神 God of the Mountain
and Legends from Kumamoto　熊本県 .


ヤマワロ Yamawaro - with one eye


The first to spot a Yamawaro is usually not the hunter, but his dog.
When the dog suddenly stops in fear and can not move any more, the hunter has to offer some o-miki　お神酒 ritual sake to the Yamawaro and ask for his support.

And they are always hungry, so as long as you give them food, they will do no harm. During a festival farmers but a box with delicious festival food out for the Yamawaro to keep them happy too. They also get a tokkuri bottle of sake.

They like to drink sake quite a lot.
Once a farmer lost his tobacco pouch in the forest, but the Yamawaro found it and brought it back. As a thank-you gift he got some sake to drink.

A Yamawaro has two hands of pink color like a baby.
Once a farmer found one arm on the road and in his home was another one his grandfather had won in a bout of sumo wrestling with a Yamawaro.
If someone in the home got a high fever (malaria) they would cut a bit from the arm and prepare a medicine out of it. Therefore only a little bit of the fingers is now left of this precious hand.

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Once upon a time
four or five Yamawaro followed a farmer in the evening on his way home when he walked down a river valley. They were small as children and he was not afraid of them. So he sat down at the bottom of the valley to take a rest, when suddenly the Yamawaro extinguished the light of his lantern and jumped at him. Aaaah, they were after the rice in his food box hanging from his waist. So he threw his box away as far as he could - and in no time they began to eat the rice.
Then there was the sound of a dog howling and in a swhish they were all gone.


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七滝村 Nanataki

The Yamawaro of this village like to eat 筍 bamboo shoots.
They start to bite in it from the side, so it is easy to see who had been biting.
Once a farmer was preparing the narrow paths between his rice paddies when he saw a lot of footprints from small children. He could not see anyone and thought it must be the Yamawaro. So he swung his hoe high into the air to hit the invisible foe and then there was the sound of the hoe hitting something.
But later back home this farmer became very ill and had to stay in bed.

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大島郡 Oshima gun 竜郷村 Tatsugo

Once upon a time
a 継子 stepchild was asked to go and break a branch of the ritual Sakaki tree, but it did not know what kind of tree that was and broke a branch from the wrong tree. His stepfather got very angry and scolded him so much, in the end, the poor child committed suicide.
And this child later became the Yamawaro.
Therefor the Yamawaro looks so similar to a human and can make sounds like a human voice. Once a farmer went to the cedar tree forest to collect firewood and when he came home in the evening, all the threads of his robe had been torn and fallen on the path.


. sakaki 榊 the ritual Sakaki tree .
Cleyera japonica


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八代郡 Yatsushiro gun 東陽村 Toyomura

In some hamlets the woodcutters use the Yamawaro to help with their work.
When they sing a special song during the dayitime, the Yamawaro will remember it soon and then sing it in the evening when he is alone in the mountains.
If someone takes a mid-day nap in the forest on a slope where Yamawaro wants to climb, he will develop a high fever that night.
Sometimes four or five Yamawaro will come to a home and enjoy a hot bath. When people inspect the 風呂桶 bathtub later, it is full of oil and smells terribly.

ヤマワロ Kappa
He sometimes comes to help lumberjacks with their work. To thank him, they give him オコゼと酒 Okoze and Sake rice wine.

. okoze 虎魚 / 鰧魚 / オコゼ / ヲコゼ stonefish legends .


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- source -

yokai database : ヤマワロ (76 - 10)
- source : www.nichibun.ac.jp




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- reference -

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

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. Yamabiko (Yamahiko) 山彦 / やまびこ Mountain Deity and Yokai .


- KAPPA - 河童 / かっぱ /　カッパ - Yokai 妖怪 Monsters -

. Kappa densetsu　河童伝説, Kappa minwa 河童民話 - Legends - Introduction .

. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .

- #kappayamawaro #yamawaro -
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