Kyuusenbou Nagasaki Prefecture

In the ancient past, near Unzenonsen on the island of Kyushu, there lived the boss of all kappa, a creature called Kyuusenbou. Kyuusenbou and his followers appeared at a town with a hot spring, where they proceeded to perform all sorts of mischievious and cruel acts. Kyuusenbou's superhuman strength was such that he could easily drag a horse into a river by its tail; no one was his equal. Having heard all of this, a buddhist priest by the name of Sekihou from the Manmyouji temple, decided to, with the aid of Buddha, put an end to Kyuusenbou's carreer. Sekihou challenged Kyuusenbou to a match and, in three days time, they met at the appointed place near a volcanic valley. At this place, the priest pretended to give up and ran away... Kyuusenbou, pressing the advantage, chased after him. But the wily priest ran into the volcanic valley, full of such hot air and gas that it resembled the landscape of Jigoku -- Hell -- itself. Because of the intense heat, the precious water in the bowl on Kyuusenbou's head quickly evaporated, along with his unnatural powers... and so the beast was beaten. Sekihou took one of the kappa boss' hands as proof of the victory; this hand has been passed down through the years and is now said to be in the keeping of the Unzen temple's buddhist hall. NOTES FROM THE TRANSLATOR There are some parts of this translation that I'm still not 100% sure of, but the overall story is correct. I place the story in the Nagasaki Prefecture because there is a town named Unzen-Dake there, possibly related to the temple within the story. I will be visiting there during my trip, so we will see. I don't know what relation there is between this story, and another kappa hand rumored to be in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Sources: YOU KAI DAI ZU KAN (The Big Picture Book of Ghosts) 1987 ?, ISBN4-09-259012-1, pg. 167

Email: oniko@sonic.net

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