1962 (pub): Kappa of Fukiura

        "In former days," the villagers of Fukiura (in Nishi Nakaura-mura) were often troubled by a kappa... but one day, the kappa got himself in trouble. On this particular occasion, the kappa discovered that someone had left their cow tied to a tree on the beach near the village. Being of a mischievious bent, the kappa thought it might be interesting to reach up the cow's anus and pull out it's tongue; not surprisingly, the cow panicked and started to run. Since the cow was tied to the tree, thecow could only run in a circle around the tree, which wrapped it's leash around not only the tree's trunk but also the kappa's arm, trapping the creature at the scene of its attempted crime. This was all seen by a armer workjing a nearby field, who ran to the tree... and the kappa was so desperate to escape before the farmer could reach it, that the water dweller accidentally pulled off his own arm to get away! Thus as the kappa retreated hastily to the river, the farmer aquired a grisly relic from the adventure; the kappa's arm. The farmer took the limb home with him.

       That night, the kappa visited the farmer's home andasked for his arm back; the kappa explained that it could reattached the limb, but only if it did so in the next three days. The farmer, thinking of the trouble caused by the kappa in the past, refused the request, and the kappa left. But the kappa returned on the next night to ask once again, this time a bit more desperately; the farmer refused again. On the third night, the kappa's pleas were so pitiful that the farmer felt as if he should relent; but, once again thinking of the touble the kappa had caused in the past, the farmer wisely made the return on one condition. The kappa had to agree that it would not harm any villager or animal from the village until the buttocks of a little stone Jizou should rot away  (Jizou is a guardian deity of children, a statue of whom was by the river). The kappa agreed, the arm was returned, and the kappa left.

        For many days the kappa checked the buttocks of the little stone Jizou after that, but they showed no signs of rotting. So the kappa started to rub excrement on the statue's buttocks to make them rot faster... but this didn't help. Eventually the kappa realized that it was never going to happen, and resigned himself to live by its promise. In fact, not only did the kappa never harm another living thing belonging to the village, but it also started to warn the villagers when other kappa -- who were not bound by a promise -- were in the waters near the village. It is said that even today, villagers will sometimes hear the kappa's voice in the summer say "Don't let the children go out to the beach, for the guest is coming;" the 'guest' being a visiting kappa. Thus the kappa protects the village's children at both the river and the seashore.