Haunting Dogu, Puzzling Kappa, and a Turtle that Needed a Rescue
It began with a visit to Tokyo National Museum
(This is a transcript of my podcast episode of the same title, posted at Curious Cat Podcast)
Show Intro
Thanks for listening to Curious Cat, a podcast that examines the shadowy space where science and the supernatural collide. I'm your host, Jennifer Hotes. Join me every week as I explore what it means to be a soul in a meat soul. Welcome to Curious Cat.
Episode Intro
Last week I shared stories of my recent trip to Japan. There's one story, though, that's taken on a life of its own since being stateside once again. It all began with a visit to Tokyo National Museum in Uedo Park, seeing objects that have become icons in the UFO/UAP communities. If that wasn't enough, those odd clay figures led me to seek out some of the burial pyramids where they were found. And because I can't let sleeping dogs lie, I dug into the theories about the dogu figures, which I can't wait to share with you. Enough build up,though. Let's get into it!
High Strangeness at Tokyo National Museum
If you listen to Curious Cat in order, first, thank you so much. But, second, I'm sorry this part of the episode is a repeat. From my travel journal for the day when we visited Tokyo National Museum...
"We entered a building of archeological finds. Many artifacts came from the Kofun period, the 3rd to 6th century, and were buried beneath family dwellings or in burial tombs. The energy was reverent, whispers-required, and hallowed, as objects made for the dead sat exposed for the benefit of the living. Don't get me wrong, the museum light was soft, reverent, but light rays were never meant to touch these relics again. Feeling like a historical snoop, I took very few photos, even though taking pictures was allowed. It felt wrong.
This area held the dogu. They are unusual sculptures in a variety of forms. Many, most actually, were broken in half intentionally, and buried beneath the floors of family dwellings. And then I saw the figure I'd seen countless times as I watched Ancient Aliens. A goggle-eyed figure, one leg broken clean off, supported by a block of stone. It did look alien, like a person in a space suit. I looked at the backside, the side they never show in all those episodes. I took photos and the ghost app on my phone came on, words lit up my phone screen, "Dust, Within, Low." I closed the app.
These figures are strange, and I found two more examples of goggled-eyed ones I'd never seen before and shot photos. Many have speculated on dogu, saying they are fertility symbols, akin to the Venus of Willendorf, or ritualistic in nature.
These figures are OLD. And much of the information about them on the internet is stale, clearly repeated from other sources. There are very few fresh takes. It's frustrating.
Some of the information though is verified. Take this from Google, "Dogū, abstract clay figurines, generally of pregnant females, made in Japan during the Jōmon period (c.10,500 to c.300 bce). Dogū are reminiscent of the rigidly frontal fertility figures produced by other prehistoric cultures."
Yes, the figures are from the Jomon period. And wrap your brain around how old they are, dating back to 10,500 - 300 bce. Wow.
The figures come in a vast spectrum of shapes, with differences that are striking in some instances, and more subtle in others. I agree with one source I ran down this week –it's wrong to reduce this claywork down to one single solitary purpose or meaning. It's dismissive of the culture that created them. It's insulting to people like us now that look at images and see other meanings in the figurines.
This was a complex society that invented clay to create useable vessels, as well as the bow and arrow. They were effective hunters and cultivated food, which allowed their society to have leisure time; time to dig into other pursuits besides food, clothing and shelter. They had the luxury of exploring spirituality, nature's rhythms, and the supernatural to name a few. People of the Jomon era were connected to nature, they were thriving, and had a consistent life. Recalling Maslow's hierarchy of needs, this society had their base-level needs taken care of, and because of that, they were free to explore!
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with some Dogu 101
Dogu 101
Dogu figures are made of earthen clay.
They tend to be small, think seven inches or smaller, and they have been found most often broken in half and buried either beneath family dwellings or in burial places.
Some resemble animals, while others are humans, and most experts say they are female because they either lack genitalia or in some cases they have prominent bellies and small breasts. If you do a google search of dogu figure images, you will see quite the variety. I can imagine that many were inspired by facets of normal life, like relevant animals, while others feel born of imagination.
The Theories
Before I dive into the theories about the dogu, I want to highlight what a keen blogger said about dogu. He cautions all of us not to paint dogu with one wide brush. They can and probably do represent many things. I love that.
Onto the theories! Theory Number One?
1) The dogu are fertility figures. Named the Jomon Venus and discovered in Nagano Prefecture, this figure from the middle Jomon period is most often shown side by side with the Venus of Willendorf, found in Austria and dated to 25,000 bc. Both have curvy figures, prominent hips, distinguishable breasts, and very few face details. In fact, the Willendorf figure has a crosshatched pattern in lieu of any facial features.
I've joked for years that the Venus of Willendorf was mankind's first porn. It objectifies women, reducing them to a faceless, big-breasted object. I viscerally detest this figurine. A society that takes away the hands, feet and face of a gender is not one that is creating a ritual figurine in hopes of conceiving a child. Sorry. That's archeological and art history bs.
Okay, thanks for indulging my rant. Back to the Jomon Venus. The woman depicted in this figurine has a face with a somewhat flat expression, eyes, a hat or hair, and she has feet but lacks hands. She is not offensive to me. She doesn't look pregnant, either, but is clearly female. What's interesting is that as the years went by, the dogu became more sophisticated, leading many experts to call later dogus genderless.
Okay, I need to take a pause and indulge myself, I have another art history pet peeve. Women depicted in art and sculptures can NOT all be cast in the same light (i.e. they ALL were fertility symbols.) That's a historically misogynistic take. We need to widen the lens with which we view depictions of female in ALL art, and that begins here.
I found this from britannica dot com, "Not all female figures can, however, be understood merely as fertility symbols; rather, in many cases they are assumed to be house gods or representations of ancestors, and, especially when appearing in graves, as substitutes for the bodies of maids, wives, and concubines. An appearance of a large number of smaller figures suggests a votive or magical usage."
Even this is a narrow view, but it's an improvement. I found elsewhere that females in ancient art can symbolize asking for a blessing from Mother Earth. I like this, but again, do we cast all depictions of men in ancient art as one thing? We need to tread carefully when we see that exclusive language in art history and realize it simplifies, narrows some unknown truth. Let's at least begin there. I've linked to Brittanica's online article in the show notes. Give it a click and take time to read it, if it's your vibe. This author/researcher does a much better job than most of diving into this subject.
I found one other article with an encouraging passage, from artsy dot net; "The possibilities for interpretation seem endless, but as the archaeologist Olga Soffer has suggested, there should be limitations. Soffer warned against analyzing the figurines in terms of '18th-century Western European art.' While the misleading moniker 'Venus' seems to have stuck, legions of archeologists and historians continue to reinterpret the cache of these statuettes, pushing them beyond narrow labels."
Whew. Now I can breathe easier.
Theory Number 2
The dogu are ritualistic vessels created to ask for blessings or cast spells, to bring a person or family various things - like successful childbirth, abundant crops, plentiful and safe fishing, or healing from an illness to name a few. We need to remember that during the Jomon period, they were not writing or reading. Ideas, vessels for hopes and desires, wishes, spellcasting, all that had to be expressed verbally or in visual ways. And that wide variety of needs, wishes, desires, hopes, and more is reflected in the huge array of depictions in the dogu. Many are somewhat humanoid, while others are a mix of animal and human, what art historians refer to as, anthropomorphic. There are pigs, cats, lizard-types, hollow-eyed, birdlike and abstract figurines that defy description.
Often, these figurines were found in stone circles or known burial places. What if they were just simply company for a deceased loved one? Companions for a journey that has an unknown final destination?
Theory number three
Dogu are depictions of aliens, ones that their society encountered, maybe even credited with passing on advanced knowledge, like secrets of aquaculture, agricultural techniques, and how to make the bow and arrow, which the Jomon period is attributed with inventing. Take a moment to look at the images of dogu with the strange goggle eyes that I've posted on socials, front and back.
It's easy to see how some have postulated they are not extraterrestrial. The figures seem to wear insulated space suits. And the large goggle eyes do bring to my mind protective eyewear used for skiing, shop work, and even space travel.
Ancient Aliens has all but made the goggle-eyed dogu the mascot of their television series and I can see why. They are strange, different, unusual, and creative depictions that seemed to become more and more exaggerated as time went on.
But even that makes sense. Let's go there, get weird okay? The people of the Jomon period did not write or read. Their main way of passing down information was through stories. If earlier generations encountered beings from another time or place, then subsequently depicted that encounter in a dogu, the more out-there dogu might be the result of a generational game of telephone, with each generation adding just the slightest bit more detail to the figures, a tiny bit more exaggerated with each casting of the clay.
But, what if the dogu are depictions of what was a part of their normal, everyday life? And that brings us to...
Theory Number Four
This one is wholly mine, so send your dissatisfied emails to me! As I was researching dogu, I ventured into the realm of supernatural Japan. This country, as I mentioned in last week's episode, is deeply spiritual, and open to the supernatural. In fact, throughout hyper-modern Tokyo, even as I rode on the bullet train and waited for an elevator, I saw signage that featured aliens, off-worlders coming to visit Japan. Supernatural is part of their everyday life. It got me researching where I learned that Japan's spiritual beings, are called yokai. From Google, "Yokai is a catchall Japanese word for ghosts, demons, monsters, shapeshifters, tricksters, and other kinds of supernatural beings and mysterious phenomena."
From Wikipedia, "The word yōkai is composed of two kanji characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful" And goes on, "yōkai are not demons in the Western sense of the word, and they can be viewed as kami." (Kami are venerated spirits in the Shinto religion) "Their behavior can range from malevolent or mischievous to benevolent to humans."
Their account continues, "Yōkai often have animal like features (such as the kappa, depicted as appearing similar to a turtle, and the tengu, commonly depicted with wings), but may also appear humanoid in appearance, such as the kuchisake-onna. Some yōkai resemble inanimate objects (such as the tsukumogami), while others have no discernible shape. Yōkai are typically described as having spiritual or supernatural abilities, with shapeshifting being the most common trait associated with them. Yōkai that shapeshift are known as bakemono (化け物) or obake (お化け)."
From Google I found this, "What is the most iconic Japanese yōkai?
One of the most famous yokai is the kappa. Kappa are water creatures that live in rivers and lakes. They have a human-like body, but their head is that of a turtle."
WHAT? To me this sounded like an exact description of what I saw when I looked at the most notorius dogu, the goggle-eyed figure. I had to know more!
Next, on Google I found the history of the first known reference to the kappa - "One of the earliest recorded mentions of Kappa is in the Nihon Shoki (720 AD). This ancient chronicle contains stories about legendary creatures living in ponds and rivers such as the Kappa, who often caused mischief."
Then I found a description of the kappa, reading it and looking at the photos I took of the goggle-eyed dogu. Here's one description, "The kappa is often about the size of a child, with a shell like a turtle, and the face of a monkey. It's often shown with the beak and webbed hands and feet of a duck."
And another to add a bit of depth, "The depictions show reptiloid-like creatures that resemble a human child in size. Kappa are typically green or yellow-green in color, with an indentation on their head that holds a small amount of water. They usually have webbed hands and feet, and some have beak-like faces."
One final description, "The Kappa goes by over 100 names and their appearance varies depending on which region of Japan you are in. The stories have been around since the Edo period, 1603 to 1867. The Kappa creature is a water demon, but it does not have horns or look like a demon we would typically picture. Imagine a teenage mutant ninja turtle the size of a child with monkey-like traits, a metal plate on its head, webbed feet, long claws, and scaly skin like a lizard."
What do kappa smell like? I found this answer, "(k)appa are sometimes said to smell like fish, and they can swim like them. According to some accounts, a kappa's arms are connected to each other through the torso and can slide from one side to the other. While they are primarily water creatures, they do on occasion venture onto land."
What do kappa symbolize? Truth and loyalty.
Common myths, besides the most prevalent one–that kappa like to drag children into the water? The Kappa will try to steal horses by dragging them to the water and if they are caught in the act, they must apologize.
Kappa’s aren’t all bad, though. If they are captured they will teach the Japanese skills like bone setting and how to irrigate farmland. (which calls to mind those Ancient Alien episodes and the advanced knowledge those space travelers might've shared)
Today in Japan, there are signs with the Kappa face on them near sushi restaurants and bodies of water to warn others.
Kappa fun fact? Many modern phrases in Japan refer to kappas. "Kappa no Kawa Nagare" is Japanese for "even a kappa can drown," meaning that even an expert can make mistakes!
It is said that kappa can live up to a hundred years.
Do the kappa have any weaknesses? First, they hate the metal iron. Next, go after the bowl of water on their head, their sara, or the flat bowl filled with water they must carry on their head in order to venture from the river without drying out. When kappas are on land, this is their greatest weakness. This is because if the liquid is spilled, the kappa will become weak and, if enough is spilled, paralyzed.
You can also pull the Kappa’s arms off, their arms are very weak, and easy to pull off. Once you do this, they will have to do you a favor or share knowledge in order to get its arm back.
Oh, and manners. Even though they smell of fish and are wild, they have impeccable manners and if you bow deeply, they will bow deeper still, spilling the water in their saras.
Kappa LOVE cucumbers. Many believed that this was the way to receive a blessing, or avoid trouble with the kappa, to offer them cucumbers. Some went as far as to carve the names of their child on the cucumber skin and send it down the river in hopes the kappa wouldn't snap up their child by their butts, because YES they are obsessed with pulling people into the water by their butts. I've linked to a video in the show notes, it's a quick ten minute chuckle about this.
As if the kappa weren't strange enough, it's said that when villagers wished to capture kappa they would lure the kappa to them by dangling their bare behinds over the river or stream.
And that's when my brain clicked. Bizarre as the legend is, it makes sense. Bare with me here to the end...if you were a large turtle in a river or stream and a pale, round object hovered above the water's edge, you might come up and take a bite, mistaking that tush for fruit that fell from a tree, right? It's not too far a stretch to imagine this scenario, that and children playing in a stream of water, and this is a time before Speedos, folks, so the kids were most likely naked. Again a turtle might wander along and nip at a booty. And that might be how this yokai got its start, from shared stories about waterside nips.
Then I found this from Japanese Tales dot com titled...
"Possible Origins of The Kappa"
A grim legend of the origin of the Kappa is that families who did not want children or could not afford children would throw their newborn babies into the river. To stop children from going to the river to play and seeing the bodies, the parents would tell them about the evil yokai (Kappa) lurking in the water.
Another origin story goes back to when the Portuguese were the only foreigners trading in Japan. The Portuguese monks had only the top portion of their head shaved, and wore long hooded robes that resembled the turtle shell. The word ‘capa’ is Portuguese for a monks’ habit and this might have evolved into the Japanese language.
Of course, it could just be a tale to scare or warn children of the danger of going near water like we find in so many other countries.
However, to this day there are still sightings of strange creatures resembling the Kappa. So keep your eyes open when you are near rivers in Japan."
(JH) This was the smoking gun I was looking for, a reason people might ask the kappa for their blessing when it comes to fishing the waters, irrigating the crops, and even the healthy birth of their child. I am 90% convinced that the frog-like, goggle-eyed dogu are in fact kappa - made in an effort to flatter kappa, gain their favor, and petition for its help and blessing in many matters.
After diving into kappa, a turtle-like spirit creature from Japan, online for the better part of an afternoon, I decided I'd better get outside and walk, I'd put off exercising for too long that day.
It was hot outside, and normally I'd have gone deep into the mountains where I could walk on a shaded trail, but I didn't have time for that. I had to be home to dose my cat Opal with his medicine, so I found a park in the neighborhood. It's a flat, pleasant walk around a lake and each lap is a little over a mile long. I decided to try for two or three laps, then streamed music in my headphones.
The temperature outside was around ninety degrees, and in my rush to get out the door, I hadn't changed from my sweatshirt into something lighter, so by the midpoint of my first lap, I was ready to return home. But something kept me going, I wanted to honor the commitment I'd made to my health. I walked on and there in the middle of a scorching hot path was a turtle. It seemed dazed, lost, and he was a good twenty feet away from the lake!
This path is heavily used, and I knew in a matter of seconds a biker would thunder over this dear creature. I felt panicked for the turtle and resolved to stand vigil until I could coax him back into the lake. Sure enough, an eBike was heading straight towards us. I stood over the turtle and shooed the biker away.
Then a woman approached. "What've you got there?" she asked, answering her own question, "Oh! a turtle! He's gonna get killed by a biker! We have to save him!"
I agreed and told her I could grab the edges of his shell and carry him to the water's edge.
She shook her head no. "He'll bite you!"
"What we need are sticks!" we both said at once.
We took turns guarding the turtle so the other could find a stick. When I left to find mine, the other woman said, "He's looking for you! He just stretched out his neck and turned his head to find you!"
I giggled, feeling sure it wasn't turtle affection, he just wanted to keep track of me, a wild, weird lady.
Both armed with sticks, we gently tapped the back of the turtle's shell and he leaped forward, but in the wrong direction. Then he started turning in circles.
Another biker approached and we created a human wall. "Be careful! There's a turtle."
The biker stopped, dismounted and cool as a cucumber asked, "What do you want me to do with him?"
"Move him to the lake."
He did what I'd wanted to do at the get-go, grabbed the turtle's shell by the edges and carried him back to the water. The turtle looked up at us and then dove into the lake.
It wasn't until I was back home that it dawned on me, what were the odds of seeing a turtle lost on a foot path after researching a mythical creature that many described as turtle-like?
It was the magical dogu figures with the goggle-like eyes that had led me to this rare moment.
It was a synchronicity I won't ignore; confirmation of the puzzle I'd been putting together since seeing the dogu at the Tokyo National Museum. They aren't aliens being depicted, but turtles, maybe even a hybrid of real turtles and the seed of a spirit creature Japan would come to call a kappa some thousand years later.
Show Close:
Thank you for listening to Curious Cat! Have you heard the good news? Thanks to YOU our show is in the Top Twenty Supernatural podcasts. Hooray. Until next time, stay curious. I love you!
Sources and Materials
Dogu figures: https://www.wasshoimagazine.org/blog/discovering-japan/dogu
Another great article about the strange mystery of dogu figurines. https://artscape.jp/artscape/eng/ht/1212.html
https://artrkl.com/blogs/news/the-mystery-of-japans-dog-figures
Best images of dogu with lots of links for further reading:
Ancient Origins of Dogu article to check out!
Tokyo National Museum Information/Seminar on Dogu
https://jigsaw-japan.com/2019/02/16/shakado-museum-of-jomon-culture-really-digging-back-in-time/
Wikipedia account of the history of kappa
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/kappa-the-japanese-water-demon
Brittanica dot com's comprehensive article on fertility deities
Funny YouTube video about the kappa grabbing children by their BUTTS, so silly
Love this!