Hyōsybe

- Is a Japanese yōkai.

They are short, with bald scalps and a mouth full of sharp teeth which are prominently visible due to the malicious smile they wear. They are covered with a pelt of thick, greasy hair which
gathers dust, oil, dirt and constantly sheds wharever they go.There are legends about them in many areas such as Saga Prefecture and Miyazaki Prefecture. This child-sized river monster is from Kyūshū island.

It prefers to come out at night and loves to eat eggplants. It is a cousin of the supernatural yōkai in a kappa folklore.

Going deeper into the Kappa folklore:

The kappa is one of the most famous of Japan’s mythological creatures.
It is sometimes called an imp in the West.
This scaly water creature is a mix of a turtle, a monkey, and a frog. About the size of a child, the kappa is said to wait in water for a hapless victim to pass. It is said the kappa has a taste for human blood and livers.

It wasn’t unusual for people in ancient Japan to use rivers and stream as toilets. The kappa would wait underwater and just out of sight for someone to drop their drawers and aim their bottom toward the river. In a flash it would extend its arm right up the hapless person’s rectum, through their insides and grab their tongue. Just a quick, it would yank, pulling the person inside out so it can get to the person’s liver and organs.
Moral of the story: don’t use streams and rivers as toilets!

Kappa are also known to enjoy raping women, kidnapping children, and drowning people and animals.
They are said to be strong wrestlers.

How to defeat Kappa:

• Kappa is obsessed with politeness, so if a person makes a deep bow, it will return the gesture. This results in the kappa spilling the water held in the "dish" (sara) on its head, rendering it unable to leave the bowing position until the plate is refilled with water from the river in which it lives. If a person refills it, the kappa will serve that person for all eternity. A similar weakness of the kappa involves its arms, which can easily be pulled from its body. If an arm is detached, the kappa will perform favors or share knowledge in exchange for its return.


• Another method of defeat involves shogi or sumo wrestling: a kappa sometimes challenges a human being to wrestle or engage in other tests of skill. This tendency is easily used to encourage the kappa to spill the water from its sara. One notable example of this method is the folktale of a farmer who promises his daughter's hand in marriage to a kappa in return for the creature irrigating his land. The farmer's daughter challenges the kappa to submerge several gourds in water. When the kappa fails in its task, it retreats, saving the farmer's daughter from the marriage. Kappa have also been driven away by their aversion to iron, sesame, or ginger.